After nearly 40 years teaching dental technology at the University of Otago School of Dentistry, professional practice fellow Paul Pearce has seen them all, but mostly the latter.
"There’s no fooling these people — they come here, they’re ready to learn and they challenge you.
"You’ve got to be on your toes, you’ve got to do your reading.
"They make you want to teach better."
The 69-year-old recently hung up his scrubs and retired.
Looking back on his career, he said much had changed.
His career started in Wales after he attended a careers evening at his school in Cardiff.
"An elderly gentleman talked to me about being a dental mechanic, and I thought ‘oh, I can do that’, because I was interested in machinery and metals — never for a moment thinking it was anything to do with making dentures, partial dentures, making metal frameworks for the general public."
He went to the dental school at the Welsh National School of Medicine where he learnt what the job really entailed.
It was also where his passion for the profession was ignited.
After graduating, he spent several years working in the profession around Europe and was making good money doing private laboratory work.
"I rather ridiculously thought I might retire at the age of 40."
But at age 29, he and his wife Rosa decided to move their family to New Zealand after he saw a job advertised at the University of Otago School of Dentistry.
"I’d always wanted to come to New Zealand. It was a childhood dream.
"I applied for the job at the first bite of the cherry. I didn’t get the job.
"So I kept writing to each of the dental school departments — the prosthetic department, the conservation department and the orthodontic department — until I got a telegram offering me a job in the prosthetic department."
The departments were later combined into the technical laboratory in 1985.
They were so impressed with his work that within months of starting, he was asked to teach his skills to the second-year dental students.
But he had reservations about his ability to teach, so the university allowed him to undertake further study at the College of Education.
"After that, I did the university tertiary teaching diploma, and the clinical dental technology diploma so I could work clinically with my patients."
He became a professional practice fellow in the department and had the best of both worlds — doing dental tech work in the labs as well as teaching.
"But there came a point where the teaching was taking up more of my time to work in the laboratory, so I went totally along that road into teaching."
And he never looked back because his students loved his teaching style, and he took great pleasure in helping to create new generations of dentists.
His students nominated him for the Otago University Students’ Association Teaching Awards in 2005 and 2017.
"It was quite an honour."
One of the things he loved most about his job was dental technology was always changing, Mr Pearce said.
"Dentistry is evolving and knowledge quickly gets outdated these days.
"You have to stay up-to-date with current techniques after you have graduated so you provide the best service you can, whether it be for a patient or teaching a student."
