I first started in dentistry as a dental nurse. I initially wanted to be a dental therapist but the year I could apply, in the 1980s, the dental therapy training at New Cross Hospital, London was closed to submissions, as the NHS decided they had enough therapists; consequently, there was no training course for me to join.

Not to be dissuaded from a career in dentistry, I instead looked to become a dental hygienist. At that time you had to qualify as a dental nurse first and work for one year in that capacity in a dental hospital setting. So, two years of training at Cardiff Dental School were followed by one year of dental nursing at the hospital.

After that, I moved to Birmingham to complete my dental hygiene training. After qualifying as a dental hygienist, I worked for two years in an NHS dental practice. I loved the interaction with patients, and the only downside was that, for me, the NHS schedule didn't allow enough time to communicate effectively with my patients and build that much-needed rapport.

Partly because of this, I felt it was time for a change but there was no way I was going to leave dentistry, as I still loved it and always will. Being a people person, I thought I could make a really good job of being a sales rep, which is how I found myself working for Oral-B for 14 years. I started off as a sales rep, became Sales Manager and, finally, was appointed Divisional Manager.

I did miss the clinical side of things, so it was no surprise when I went back to dental hygiene in a private dental practice in Sutton Coldfield. I was very happy doing that for seven years before I felt it was time for a new challenge.

I moved back into commercial work for Johnson & Johnson in 2007. I joined as their Scientific Liaison Manager and am now Head of Dental Professional.

I have been asked if I miss being a dental hygienist; the truth is that teeth are the basis of my daily life, so I don't feel like I have left 'coalface' dentistry. Indeed, I am still a registered dental hygienist and I talk to hygienists all the time, which adds to this sentiment.

Although Johnson & Johnson's Head Office is in Maidenhead, which is a 110-mile drive each way for me, I actually spend a lot of time on the road travelling to meetings so I tend to go there perhaps only twice a week. As a rule of thumb, I work about 55 hours a week, with 10 to 15 of those often spent in the car.

All of that said, I am able to access flexible working hours, so a couple of mornings a week I'll start work a little later and go to the gym first thing in the morning. My week is not set in stone so the time I get home in the evening varies, but generally I never stop work before 6.30 pm.

I would describe my current role as exhilarating, exciting and stimulating; everything I could possibly want from my career. Every day is a challenge, as the environment and the needs of the company change on a regular basis. I enjoy that and can honestly say that the only thing I would change if I could is to create more hours in the day.

One of my work-related goals this year is to build on Johnson's & Johnson's digital offering for the marketplace, presenting new, interesting and unique ways to make contact with dental professionals that support their changing environment.

It's also really important to me that we communicate the latest high-quality, evidence-based information about mouthrinse to the dental profession effectively; I feel evangelical about it. As one element of this programme, we have created A guide to the efficacy of essential oil-containing mouthrinse (included with this issue [vol. 220, issue 8]) which we hope all members of the dental team will find enlightening and useful. This focuses on Araujo et al.'s (2015) unique meta-analysis, which supports the efficacy of using an essential oil mouthwash as an adjunct to mechanical cleaning.1

I mention all members of the dental team because I think the concept of a skilled group of people working together is more important than ever before in practice. All of the requirements of a dental business would be impossible to manage without a team in place. Twenty years ago you could have a dentist and a nurse, and run a small successful business. You can't do that now.

Retirement is still a long way away for me and I intend to remain in the dental industry for as long as I possibly can. But looking to the future, since I love interior design, when I do retire I would like to get some formal interior design qualifications and set up a small business for fun.