Mondays are major op days - our oncology patients. Ward round is at 8am and it’s buzzing. There are 4 DCTs in our department, each assigned to ensuring our patient is ready for their surgery - patient examination, drug chart, VTE, consent, bloods and vitals.

If you’re in theatre with the registrar and consultant, you ensure there is smooth communication between the theatre, anaesthetic team and the wards whilst ensuring you have enough sugar in you to last the 6-7 hour surgery without fainting.

Minor oral surgery clinics and biopsy patients - its a day full of extractions. Always so hands on and an opportunity to learn how to extract more complicated teeth that have been referred in from the GDP.

If you’re not on clinics, you’re on-call which is probably my favourite part of the job because you never know what’s going to come through A+E.

Thursdays are for jaw reconstruction surgeries - the osteotomies. There are up to 3 bimaxillary osteotomies carried out in a day therefore as a DCT you need to be organised and efficient and the key is for all the theatre prep to be done at least 3 days before (always ensure the wafer is present!) . Especially with the pandemic we need to ensure the patient has had their COVID test and been isolating for 72 hours prior.

Fridays are for orthodontic clinics - either pre-assessments for osteotomies or post-op reviews. We try to ensure all our surgical patients are discharged by Friday so they don’t have to stay for the weekend (which increases their risk of contracting COVID). Discharge summaries must be done accurately and ensure that the correct medications and follow-ups have been prescribed for the correct patient.

Unless I’m on-call (1/8 weekends), I like to invest in myself over the weekends as I am a firm believer of a work-life balance.

I play the Sitar, an Indian classical instrument, ensure I get a long-run in and a longer than normal yoga session, read lots and spend time with my loved ones.

Sunday evenings are for reflection and goal-setting and then from Monday, we repeat!

Follow me on @thebalancingdentist while I promote yoga and wellbeing for healthcare professionals (especially for those dentists with bad backs!)