Nibir Hossain currently operates as a General Dentist for NSW Health in the Hunter region. He graduated with a Physiotherapy degree in 2013 and a Dental degree in 2017 from the University of Sydney.

Nibir has been living in Newcastle for the past eighteen months, having moved from Sydney. He works as a locum for the Pacific Smiles Group.

Having never thought he’d end up as a dentist, due to his own personal fears growing up, he has since come to find the job as a perfect fit. He personally defines success as continuing to be happy, healthy and enjoying what he does for work.

• What career path led you to where you are now?  

To be honest I always found myself wanting to do something in health, and I did a bit of soul-searching, eventually dentistry came to the forefront. I did a degree in Physiotherapy first, halfway through I started questioning myself and where I wanted to end up.

From there I just found that dentistry fit the bill, provided me a good lifestyle, provided me a career where you have chance to grow. It just allows me to release my hands, which I really want to do in my health career. Overall it just fit the bill, and yeah, I never thought I’d be a dentist to be honest, but here I am ironically eight years later.

• What motivates and drives you?

Personally one thing that I really like about dentistry is the fact that it’s such an interactive thing.

A lot of people assume you walk in and you sit down and get work done. But what I tend to find, at least with my patients, when they walk in you have a discussion; “how is your day?”, “how are you going?”. And sometimes it’s an opportunity for people to just talk, allow some stress to come out.

From there I guess after we get to know each other, we make them comfortable, because a lot of people unfortunately are very stressed coming to the dentist. And yeah, just from there we get to the nitty-gritty, get the work done.

But just being able to help people, being able to do something useful with my skills that I’ve obviously developed. I always feel that being able to build a career is important, so overall combining all three .

• What has been your biggest learning curve in your career?

I think the fact that what you learn in a textbook, what you learn in the university isn’t how reality plays up. A lot of things happen which aren’t really under your control in reality, and being able to manage those conditions is important.

Sometimes the patients, they get stressed, they get anxious, sometimes they don’t have the support in the room, other times things which were supposed to be very simple go wrong.

I think one of the things that I found myself doing whenever something goes wrong is to stay calm, see what you can do next, whatever you do – don’t rush. And yeah, just take it from there, really.

• Where would you like to be in 10 years?

Ideally right now I’m working both public and privately, I would love to continue that trend, maybe develop my skills further, maybe do more professional development with regards to maybe implants or more complex procedures.

Perhaps I’ll still be in the Hunter hopefully, that’s the plan, but right now I just want to develop in my career, maybe even start my own practice, but again, very early stages, lots of ideas. We’ll see what really comes to fruition.

• Have you had any significant Hunter-based mentors during your career that inspire you?

Working both public and privately I’ve come across a lot of people who have some traits that I really admire.

I wouldn’t say there’s one specific person that I’m looking towards, but a lot of people that I have met have some great qualities, like my immediate boss. He’s a very compassionate individual. I have other members in staff who are very tenacious in how they handle things. Just being able to develop those skills, whether it be personable skills which are important or the technical skills.

There are a lot of great people in the Hunter, whether it be people who show leadership skills or run workshops, or just other people you meet through networking events. I’ve come across a lot of individuals who I definitely admire around here.