If you ask anyone in the Goulburn Valley to think of a dentist, one dentist will be mentioned the most.
His name is Geoff Woodhouse, and for the last 44 years, he has served the community, doing everything from emergency work to pulling teeth.
But he wasn’t always the local staple he is now, growing up in Maffra, near Gippsland.
He decided he wanted to be a dentist after having dental work done when he was younger.
“I had braces on when I was a teenager, and I had a lovely dentist, so I thought to myself, ‘That wouldn’t be too bad a job’,” he said.
“I finished Year 12 when I was 16, and I look back, and I don’t know how I got into dentistry,” he said, laughing.
But he wasn’t ready to pick up the needles and brushes just yet.
“I thought to myself, ‘I’m 16 I’m probably too young to go to to Melbourne, so I had a gap year which was very unusual at the time,” he said.
“So for 12 months, I worked in various jobs, and interestingly, the one lesson I learned from that year of work was that I couldn’t stand a boss telling me what to do.
“Seriously, I couldn’t stand it and so I thought dentistry is not such a bad gig then because you’re your own boss.”
After deciding to scrub into the dentistry world, Geoff applied for university.
“I was picked 50 out of 50, so I was at the bottom of the pile after being one of the higher up the ladder at school,” he said.
“You thought you were pretty good until you reached Melbourne University, so I had to work really, really hard, and I barely scraped through most years.
“However, I had a wonderful time and grew up a lot and graduated at 22.”
When talking about his graduation, Geoff shared a story that sticks in his mind, even 45 years later.
“When you get your certificate, you go upstairs and all your lectures and your demonstrators are waiting for you to welcome you into the profession,” he said.
“The first person I came across was the assistant dean of the dental faculty and he said ‘Congratulations Dr Woodhouse, but we have heard everything you have said from the back of the theatre for the last five years, don’t come back’ and I said, ‘I never had any intention to’,” Geoff said, finishing his story with a hearty laugh.
Having lived in Gippsland his whole life, he began searching for a job in his hometown following his graduation.
“I wrote to every dentist in Gippsland about a job, and I got no reply, but three jobs were going in the Goulburn Valley,” he said.
In 40℃ heat, Geoff took a trip to interview at all three job listings, going first to Seymour, then to Mooroopna and lastly to Tatura.
Only one clinic caught his eye.
“Tatura shone out as the place to go, so that’s where I moved to, arriving in 1980,” he said.
His first clients were a pair of sisters who were aged 13 and 11 at the time, and they have been his clients ever since.
That’s where his career began, but after 44 years in the Goulburn Valley at three different clinics, Geoff is preparing to hang up his coat at the end of the year.
On December 6, 2024, Geoff will see that same pair of sisters, and they will be the last patients he ever sees before retiring.
“I said to one of the sisters, ‘Will you and your sister be patients of mine on my last day of work?’ and she’s gone. ‘My word we will’, so on December 6, I’ve got the two girls booked in,” he said.
Throughout his 44-year career, Geoff owned a dental clinic in Tatura and one in Kyabram before moving to the Goulburn Valley Dental Group in 2011.
Much like the two sisters, several of his patients followed him around the region, not quite ready to let go of him just yet.
However, he doesn’t just work on paying clientele; he volunteers all over the world doing dental work for free.
“It was 2013 when Mark Rumble first took me to volunteer in Kenya,” he said.
“My biggest day I took 100 teeth out in one day in Western Kenya.”
In more recent years, he has spent time in East Timor doing the same work.
For 10 years, Geoff has been travelling once or twice a year to help out communities without a dentist available, and he hopes to pass the baton.
“So I’m taking one of my co-workers with me this August, and I’m hoping that she might continue to do it,” he said.
“She’s got a very good heart.”
During his time in dentistry, what stuck out to Geoff as the most significant change within the industry was the paperwork and admin.
“The pressures to do admin stuff has changed drastically,” he said.
“It seems more important than anything now.”
His decision to retire was tweaked over many years, accelerating following a stroke in 2020.
“I had a stroke in 2020, but I’d always wanted to work till I was 70 — that was my goal — but when I had my stroke, I didn’t know how I was gonna go,” he said.
“I was 62, and 70 was too far away; I couldn’t see 70, so I said to myself, how about I retire at 67 because I could see 67.”
Looking towards his retirement, Geoff said he would mostly be relieved when the lack of responsibility sets in.
“Once I got involved in the community, people knew that they could call me whenever they needed me and you’d help because you were invested in the community,” he said.
“So one of the things that I would greatly appreciate is not to have to look after people because I’ve done it for so long.”