I usually get up at 6.45 am. I live with my boyfriend; we bought our first house in 2013. I have porridge and a cup of tea (with no sugar of course!) for breakfast while watching BBC News.

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I drive to work - it's a ten minute drive if the traffic is good. I work full time Monday to Saturday. On Mondays and Saturdays I carry out practice manager duties, mainly compliance. From Tuesday to Friday I am chairside with our foundation dentist, Dhathri. I still have an active role in decontaminating dental instruments too and making sure everything is running okay on reception.

What I enjoy most about my job is the ability to learn new things and improve my skills as a dental nurse. As we are a small practice I have a great rapport with most of the patients so I enjoy finding out what they've been up to since we saw them six months ago. I am also enjoying seeing the trainee nurses progress towards their qualification.

The more challenging element to my role is keeping up to date with compliance as there is a lot to do and it seems to be always changing.

There are two dentists in our team: Nigel, who has been qualified since 1980, and Dhathri who is currently doing her foundation training after passing her Overseas Registration Exam (ORE). Our two trainee dental nurses are Jenni, who will be sitting her exams in the next couple of months, and Hayley, who is just about to start her eRoE [record of achievement]. We also have two receptionists: Trudy and Patsy. We make a great team and we all get on really well. It's great that we all help each other out no matter what and I am proud of our small team.

We see a wide variety of patients: children, adolescents, adults, the elderly - both private and NHS. We also have a lot of patients on payment plans such as Denplan.

When I was at school I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, but I think I would have ended up in dentistry one way or another.

I completed by NEBDN National Diploma in Dental Nursing in 2013, a Certificate of Competence in Topical Fluoride Application in 2014, a Certificate of Competence in Impression Taking in 2015 and a Level 4 Professional Diploma in Dental Practice Management in 2016. I am currently studying towards my oral health education (OHE) training and plan to sit the NEBDN exam in March 2018. I witness the eRoE portfolios for the trainee dental nurses, usually on an evening or a weekend.

At lunchtime in the practice I sort out the instruments for cleaning after a busy morning if they haven't already been done and then eat my lunch in the staff room. When our receptionist Patsy is in, we sometimes go round to the little local shop to get a supply of goodies for the staff room!

Sometimes I do CPD during my lunch break, or I do it in my spare time. We do get days off to attend core CPD courses that the practice pays for. It's nice to have an excuse for an outing with all of the team! I already have my trainees thinking about what they want to study once they pass their Dental Nursing Diploma. There is so much that we can do as dental nurses, especially a lot of hands-on patient care.

I am currently studying part-time with the Open University for a degree in Classical Studies. I loved history in school and the subject still really interests me. This year I also need to complete my Record of Competence for my OHE course and possibly do a competence course for placement of rubber dam. That's in addition to helping my trainees get through their dental nursing exams... and cruising the Caribbean with my boyfriend, best friend and her boyfriend!

The time that I get home varies every day. The latest will be about 7 pm on a Tuesday. On a Monday and Saturday we only work half a day so I get home around 1.30 pm which is nice.

I watch what I eat and have recently lost 3½ stone. I make sure my sister is geared up with the correct oral health knowledge for keeping my niece and nephew's teeth nice and healthy - so far no cavities! I am the only one of my siblings that has no fillings which I think is quite an achievement.

My best friend is currently buying her first house so when I'm not working, studying or cruising (!) we seem to have made a habit of going to show homes for fun!

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