Jocelyne Charest is a neuromuscular dentist, correcting misalignments of the jaw at the German Dental and Neuromuscular Clinic in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers. Originally from Montreal in Canada she has been in the UAE for eight years.
7am
The first thing I do in the morning is 30 minutes of meditation. I’ve been meditating for around 15 years now. I started at a seminar with Deepak Chopra. It makes my day easier because I am always calm inside so it makes my work less stressful. After meditating, I do 30 minutes of trampolining. I did a detox course in Turkey and we did trampolining because it’s really good for your lymphatic system – it helps you eliminate a lot of toxins from your body. And it’s fun - it’s a nice way of doing exercise. After that, I shower and get dressed. Breakfast is always the same: a whey protein shake that I drink while I’m driving to work. The main reason I came to the UAE was because of the weather. Coming from a country like Canada, where it’s very often cloudy and so cold in the winter, it was so attractive to me to be able to see the sun every single day.
8.15am
I leave home and see the first patient at 9am. When I arrive at the clinic, I take 10 to 15 minutes to review the daily patient schedule with my dental assistant. On average, I see one patient per hour. Although I deal with all aspects of general dentistry – check-ups, hygiene visits, fillings, implants, cosmetic dentistry – I specialise in neuromuscular dentistry, which corrects misalignments of the jaw at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and produces a balanced bite. I am a bit like a mouth doctor: patients coming to me suffering from pain related to the misalignment of their jaw. I do see a lot of people suffering from stress. When the teeth don’t fit well together, this causes problems and creates pain in the jaw bone. Very often the body can cope with it, adapt to it, and there is no pain. But if you become stressed, your muscles become tense and the pain arrives. So I won’t say stress causes the problems – but it triggers pain for sure.
1pm
I have lunch – it’s mainly veggies, meat and fruits. I never go out because even though we have restaurants around here I usually prepare something or order from Kcal, which is my favourite – it’s the only restaurant I know that does the Paleo Diet.
2pm
In the afternoon I see other patients. I believe that treatment of a patient is not limited to mechanical diagnosis and treatment; a patient must believe that the person providing care is not only knowledgeable - but also cares whether the patient gets better or not. Also, for TMJ patients, the exams I need to do are more involved and require more time than a regular dental check-up. I do my training in the US, so I go there at least twice a year to improve my technique. This week, I am flying to Las Vegas for a dental course.
5pm
I see my last patient and then leave for home at 6pm. I am a member of the Dubai Ladies Club [Wellness and Recreation Centre] so I go there three times a week – on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays – after finishing work. I do some cycling or go on the treadmill and some weightlifting. And after that I really like to take a sauna – or I go walking and relax on the beach.
9pm
If I’ve been training I’ll get home at 9pm and I’ll have a meal of green vegetable juice that I make at home with my juicer. The other days I have time to cook; again it’s mainly the Paleo Diet. After my juice, I watch TV shows such as Gotham, Scandal or Homeland – I buy the TV series so that I don’t have any commercials – and then I spend the night with my husband and we talk. Sometimes we go out together but we are big fans of TV shows and some nights we just listen to really good music on our sound system.
10.30pm
I head to bed - I like to have eight hours a night. I really like reading – mainly before I go to bed. I can read anything: sometimes it’s a biography, sometimes self-development, sometimes it’s a novel. My most recent book in English was the biography of Steve Jobs.
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