From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.

Treating brawlers with broken jaws, seeing many children with bad teeth, and looking after a clinic packed with waiting patients, is all in a day’s work for William Tapealava (28).

The Junior Dental Officer at the Dental Clinic at Vaiola Hospital Dental Clinic is following in the footsteps of his father, the late Dr Moi Tapealava, who was a dentist for over 30 years in Tonga and Chief Dental Officer, before he died in 1999.

“From the start my dad was the main influence because he always told me that I could follow his line of work and become a dentist if I put my mind into it,” he said.

William first pursued a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Anatomy at the University of Otago, in New Zealand,  graduating in 1996. He continued on to study Dentistry at Otago, and earned a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 2001 before returning to Tonga, where he started working at Vaiola Dental Clinic in January this year.

He said his father always wanted him to come home to help the people of Tonga.

“I know now that I was meant to be a dentist, because I get more satisfaction in dentistry than if I had gone on to another profession, like medicine. Dentistry is not just about pulling out teeth, but becoming more of a vocal person, getting to know people and earning their trust,” said William.

He works monthly shifts with his other colleagues rotating in the three main sections at the clinic—the drilling section where teeth are restored by drilling and filling; the extraction section where they pull teeth out; and the general anaesthetic section where patients undergo surgery.

William said that the most common cases that he saw at the clinic were children with bad teeth. Second to that were the assault cases, mainly young men, who come in with broken jaws resulting from drunken fights.

“The main obstacle we are faced with at the clinic is that we are under-staffed, because every day the clinic is packed with people, and there are not enough resources. Dental equipment is very expensive so we are just doing what we can with what we have,” said William.

He joked that if he gets tired he can always quit and become a karaoke singer somewhere in Las Vegas, which is the second best thing that William enjoys doing other than his job.

So what are his plans for the future?

William said he would continue to work in Tonga for another three years, and, he added quietly, if he did not have any luck finding a wife here, then he would pursue further work experience or studies overseas.