Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Mar 11/02) - Long-time Iqaluit dentist Dr. Charles Pastori takes a look inside my mouth. I have a filling on my front tooth that has become stained.

"It looks like something is stuck on your tooth to be quite frank," he says. "Does it bother you?"

Pastori isn't the type to pull his punches. But he did a great job fixing my tooth and he admits to having a mouth full of cavities himself.

"They've all been filled," he says. "Dentists are not immune to decay."

Shockingly, he doesn't even floss everyday. "I don't practice what I preach," he says.

Pastori moved to Iqaluit from England and opened the Iqaluit Dental Clinic on March 2, 1987.

Originally, he applied for a job in Hay River, NWT. But the man who owns the Hay River clinic suggested Iqaluit would be a better spot for Pastori (because it's easier to travel to Quebec where his wife's family lives).

Pastori took his advice. "I was living in England, I didn't know Iqaluit from a hole in the wall."

He says being a dentist has its ups and downs. Pulling children's teeth is no cakewalk, for example. "It's not a pleasant experience. They don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy it. The parents don't enjoy it."

Another nerve-wracking thing about being a dentist is the threat of contracting a disease, he says.

Pastori says he has accidentally jabbed himself with his dental tools.

"We have shots for hepatitis but there's no vaccine for other things. I've stuck instruments in my finger. It was sharp, it hurt and it was not clean."

But Pastori says the commonly-held belief that dentists have a high suicide rate is an urban myth.

"I read recently that it's not true. The figures don't support it," he says.

Another myth is that patients are terrified of the dentist.

"They're not as nervous as you might imagine," he says. "For the majority of patients, it's not a problem.

According to Pastori, most people don't take preventative measures to keep their teeth in good shape.

"The tendency is not to come in for regular checkups. Attendance is driven by some kind of problem."

The most satisfying thing about his job is seeing the results of his work.

"I see patients in their 20s that I treated when they had baby teeth," he says. "I look in their mouths and everything is pretty good. That gives you a sense of satisfaction."