Part 1: The Interview

1. What is your Job title? Dentist
2. What is your job description? To diagnose and treat dental issues as well as to help patients in pain.
3. What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job? To help patients maintain and develop oral health as well as to prevent dental disease.
4. What qualifications do you have for this job? In terms of training, a dentist usually needs an undergraduate degree plus several courses each year in order to keep your training up to date. In order to be a dentist, you would also need a doctor of dental surgery or a doctor of dental medicine degree. In terms of experience, I have 19 years which include dental hygiene experience. When being a dentist you need to have good communication skills as well as good hand skills.
5. What are some good things about the job? To be able to restore people’s dentition to allow them to be able to function and smile again.
6. What are some of the things you dislike about this job? This job is difficult sometimes when dealing with certain patients. Sometimes it gets very busy when trying to keep up with scheduled treatments, checkups, and emergencies.
7. How do you anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years? I anticipate it changing because (even now) most offices have started to change to more digital equipment and paperless files for patients. This will eventually become normal for all offices in the next 5 years.

Part 2: Student Reflection

1. I personally would like this job because in the end my goal is to help the lives of people in some way and this is a perfect opportunity to do that. I have always been interested in what my mom was doing at her workplace so during this day I was properly able to learn about this job. Lastly, I have learned that a dentist can make good earning that will support their family.
2. I would not like this job because when I was there I learned that it can be very stressful in ways that can be very hard for the dentist that works there. For example, working late/odd hours in order to accommodate patients’ needs. Secondly, it can be very difficult to deal with some patients will working on their teeth.
3. In my opinion, I think this job is for me because I was always interested in what my mom did as a dentist and once I learned about it I saw my future very clearly. Secondly, this job can be very stressful as stated before but I feel like I am a good problem solver and I know from my mom that that skill can come in handy when in this line of work. Lastly, as I said before, my end goal in my working career is to help lives in some way through being a doctor and since I am interested in this kind of work it can be the perfect fit for me.
4. The significance is very high for TOKTW since it gave me a look into what my future could be if I were to take the same path as my mom. TOKTW was able to show me things that I am interested in now and I think that this can be a possible career choice for me. The value of TOKTW in relation to my post-secondary is very big because this could very well be my career choice so, in my opinion, it was good for me to learn about this job so I can have a bit of information on it before post-secondary.