A BUDE dentist has extended gratitude to patients as she retires after 30 years in the industry.

Kathy Lawrence has treated dental patients at Morwenna Dental Care in Bude for 30 years. Recently, her life as a professional dental surgeon came to an end, as she bid patients and staff at Morwenna farewell.

Kathy qualified 43 years ago and went on to work as an associate in Basildon for a year before buying her small, idyllic ‘fisherman’s cottage’ dental practice in Burham on Crouch, Essex.

After ten years, she made the move to Cornwall and after realising that dentistry was still her ‘calling’, she spent a brief period in Holsworthy, but then returned to practice in Bude for a further 30 years.

She joined Eric, Ken and Mark at Morwenna, bringing two young dental nurses with her from the Holsworthy practice, who remain at Morwenna today, along with several members of the original team.

However, Kathy had a yearning for ‘single-handed’ practice, so left Morwenna to make it on her own. Over the following 20 years, Kathy ran a surgery at Lloyds Chambers in Bude and latterly up at Hillhead, the Penrhyn Dental Surgery, before returning to Morwenna for a final five years.

Kathy said: “The Morwenna team have something very unique and rarely found in businesses and practices of similar size — the very strong and genuine friendships to all in the team, their total loyalty and commitment to one another to never let their friends down.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with these fabulous people for the last five years — even if I am frequently reminded that I am three times the age of the youngest nurses! Yes, I will seriously miss them all, and seeing their families growing up and more recently seeing the many new mums of the team, enjoying their first experiences of motherhood.”

Over 30 years, Kathy has treated thousands of patients in Bude, many of whom she would consider good friends.

Having worked single-handed for most of her practice life, this made the relationship with patients more personal.

She continued: “Living ‘on the job’ meant, before all the regulations were thrust on us, I could just pop in and see a patient if they had a problem at weekends or evenings. Also, I cannot remember the number of dentures I made in patients’ kitchens and homes, for those who were unable to get to surgery due to disability, etc.

“Things were so very different in those early days — for many of my first years in practice the wearing of gloves had never been thought of. Boiling of instruments was common practice before autoclaves came on the scene.

“The loyalty and friendships of my patients over the years has been something very, very special and meant so much to me, especially when they had to share and follow my journey over the last 18 years, when it was a far less understood condition.

“To all my patients — no, friends — I thank you for your support from the bottom of my heart. I will miss you all. I will miss those chats about teeth in the local pub or down one of the aisles in Morrisons.”

Kathy knows that the world is changing, with the days of single-handed dental practice now a thing of the past. With her retirement, Kathy has wished her friends at Morwenna a ‘very happy future in their new world of corporate dentistry’, and added: “To my patients, you can rest assured all the team at Morwenna will continue to offer their usual friendly, attentive care in the future.”