Nick’s First Big Career Highlight – Dentistry In Wiaroa, New Zealand!

In our latest blog post, joint owner of Woodborough House Dental Practice Dr Nick Fahey talks about his first big career highlight – working as a dentist in Wiaroa, New Zealand!

My career highlights are numerous. I suppose my first big highlight was when I had finished my training in Otago, New Zealand; I moved to Wairoa in NZ.

Wairoa is a bit like the wild west of old. Gang shoot-ups in the streets, massive bar brawls, characters both good and bad and I was to be the new town dentist. I was lucky enough to live on Whakamahi Beach and would regularly catch my dinner out of the sea or hunt it from the surrounding hills.

I lived with my good mate Gerald, who was the local vet and after a night on the whiskey, we decided we were watching too much TV. This resulted in Gerald shooting a hole in the TV and a master plan was hatched to live almost entirely off the land. So apart from a few basic provisions, i.e., rice, flour, sugar, booze, etc., all other food sources had to be laid, grown, shot, fished, netted, dived for, hunted or bartered! A veritable kiwi good life.

To counterbalance this incredible time I was having extracurricularly, Wairoa was a great place to be a dentist! Within a year I was running the practice on my own, whilst my boss was working in his practice in Auckland and due to its geographical isolation, it was a great training ground. It was expected that you just had to do everything.

Due to the poor socio-economic nature of Wiaroa, there were always massive amounts of surgery to be done! This is where I developed my flair for taking out teeth and doing oral surgery. In fact, when I took my next job, which was in London, the principal dentist asked me if I had any experience taking out teeth. He was a bit staggered when I suggested to him that I would have taken out several hundred teeth in my last job, questioning me on whether I was a bad dentist or not. I just merely showed him a picture of your average Wairoa local.

Anyway, more on London in my next blog…