I have been a dental nurse for many years now. I went for work experience at 15 years old whilst still at school and have been working ever since. I'm still just as passionate about my patients and still thoroughly love my job.

What I still find surprising is that patients are surprised that I am a male dental nurse.

A lot of patients will ask, ‘When are you going to be a dentist?’ I always think you would never ask a female dental nurse that, or ask a male medical nurse when they are going to be a doctor!

Thankfully I have met a few other male dental nurses (but only a few). Some are just in it for the short term, but all say how much they love/loved it – yes even the ones still doing the job (although we do like to grumble about the jobs irrespective of gender from time to time).

At the end of the day to become a good, or even a great, dental nurse comes down to how much you care about your patients, and how much you want to put into your job. The job is a constant learning experience, and you have to be driven, as part of the team, to follow any task to at least a satisfactory conclusion, irrespective of the problem.

I do hear that there are a large number of male dental nurses in the Armed Forces but what about in public/private sectors? I run a male dental nurse group on the website Facebook, but with only 15 male members – I have no idea how many of us are really out there!

Both I and the other members of the group would love to hear from other male dental nurses and find out their stories. So any other male dental nurses out there, get on a computer and add your voice to the group!