Bit long in the tooth! Dentist, 85 quits after 60 years
BRITAIN’S oldest dentist has finally called it a day after 60 years and almost 150,000 check- ups.
Dr Farouk Shamash, 85, loved his job so much that even his psychiatrist daughter Kim did not inspire him to leave when she retired seven years ago at the age of 62.
But after working in the same room for six decades he was forced to call it a day when the pandemic hit.
Dr Shamash said: “I enjoyed my work. I was not planning to stop but it was because of the virus. I’m quite vulnerable as I’m diabetic, as well as 85, and I have rheumatoid arthritis.
“I had no plans to retire, as long as my patients were thinking I wasn’t too old. It’s such a sad thing that I could not say goodbye to them.”
Dr Shamash was 14 when his family moved from Tehran, Iran, and sent him to a boarding school in
Brighton. He originally planned to study medicine but a family friend persuaded him to switch to dentistry.
After going to King’s College London, at 18 he worked as a surgeon at what was then the Royal Dental Hospital, Tooting, in 1959.
Dr Shamash started working at the dental practice in Ryde after moving to the Isle of Wight in 1960.
He relocated to Emsworth, Hants, 14 years ago and made the 22- mile trip to work by hovercraft.
Dr Shamash said of his practice: “The office had a beautiful view of The Solent and I thought, ‘ It’s a nice place, I’ll work here for a couple of years’. I was there for 60.”
The grandfather- of- four said he and wife Billie, 69, now look forward to catching up on shows on Netflix.