Dentist to the stars retires after 33 years

A DENTIST is retiring after practising in Henley for almost 33 years.

Chris Hurst joined the Montreal Terrace Dental Practice in Reading Road in March 1986 as an associate before buying the business later that year.

Now he has sold the business and his final day will be on Thursday.

Mr Hurst, 59, is moving to Cornwall to care for his 87-year-old mother and indulge his hobbies of walking, photography, woodwork and 3D printing.

He also has a passion for motor-
sport and will continue to be a pit marshal at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival events in West Sussex.

Mr Hurst, who was born in Reading, trained to be a dentist at Barts Hospital, St Thomas’s Hospital and the Royal Dental Hospital in London and qualified after six years in 1985.

His first job was as an associate in Sandhurst but within a year he had moved to Henley.

Mr Hurst said one reason he became a dentist was because he used to enjoy the BBC sitcom Butterflies in which Geoffrey Palmer played a dentist. He said: “I was also good at science so I set my eyes on dentistry. Everything fell into place after my A-levels, getting that first job and then moving here.

“It just happened for me and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. These 33 years have been the best of my life. I have never wanted to move on.”

During his time at the practice he has performed 127,000 treatments.

He said: “I have been very lucky and fortunate to have met so many different people. I have about 150 famous people on the books and we have all had lots of fun. At one stage I thought I would get a scrapbook to put all my thank-you letters in but realised that a book of 30 pages needed to be eight times the size.

“It is a bit overwhelming when you realise that you have done something good. I’ve also been lucky to have had wonderful staff.”

Mr Hurst did much of the decorating at the practice himself and even made the front desk.

The tropical fish tank in the waiting room is a tribute to his father, who died in 1993, aged 64. Mr Hurst expalined: “When my father died, he hadn’t been to the dentist for 35 years. One day I was working here and my brother called to say he was dead. An autopsy found that he had a blood clot on his lungs with a possible cause being bad teeth and gums.”

He said that technology had improved over the years, which helped his work.

He taught himself 3D printing and teamed up with the Byte Dental Laboratory and the Phoenix Sental Laboratory in Watlington to produce high-quality crown and bridge work as an alternative to implants or dentures.

Mr Hurst, who is divorced with three grown-up children, says the public should feel comfortable about visiting the dentist these days.

He said: “It is not the Forties any more. We now have the technology to do wonderful things. For a missing tooth I can probably offer more than 25 different options.

“The most important change I have seen is with toothpaste, which is now amazing. Using it well, you can look after your teeth beautifully.”