DENTIST Dr Farouk Shamash certainly knows the drill — as well he might as the 82-year-old has been working at what is now Bupa Dental Care in Ryde for 59 years.

Dr Shamash still fills, pulls teeth and advises patients on how to keep their pearly whites in tip top condition from the same room he first started working in in January 1960.

And he lays claim, with some justification, to the title of the oldest dentist working in Britain.

Dr Shamash moved to the Island in the early 1960s after spending a year working in London after he first qualified as a dentist.

He took over running what is now now Bupa Dental Care in Melville Street, Ryde, in the 1960s and sold it in 2006 when he moved to the mainland.

However, three days a week, he still makes the crossing to Ryde on the Hovercraft and has no intention of hanging-up his drill just yet.

He still counts among his patients, Island people he has treated since his very first years on the IW.

One patient who recently died lived to the grand old age of 107.

Dr Shamash said: "She had been coming to me since I moved to the IW. Even when she was extremely old, she would still book her next appointment."

When Dr Shamash first started out on his long career, dentists were just beginning to use new, high speed drills.

Other changes he has witnessed include improved filling material and much better standards of dental hygiene.

He said: "The amount of denture work we do on the Island has reduced significantly. When I came here we were doing around 100 denture repairs a month, now you do one or two so people are keeping their teeth for much longer."

He cited the other major improvement to dental hygiene was the introduction of fluoride into toothpaste.

He added: "It is still very pleasing to get a patient who is panicky and sort their teeth out and they come back, year in and year out with next to no work to do."

He joked: "It is a pleasurable occupation. Obviously, if I have some illness or if my skills go downhill I will stop. I tell my patients if they think I am going gaga, they must tell the company."