Maaike van Schaik

What is your role at Tandarts Jordaan?

I’m co-owner of Tandarts Jordaan and try to ensure that everything at the practice is well organised for both our employees and patients. In this position, as in previous jobs, I’m always busy with the question of how we can improve things, or do them differently. I’m convinced that both personally and as a business you can, and should, always be looking for ways to improve. I believe that it’s important to try and make a genuine difference in people’s lives: that’s an especially important touchstone for me.

Did you just wake up one day and think – I want to work at a dental practice?

Definitely not! I was actually always scared of the dentist and tried as much as possible to avoid going. I actually still do: if I have an appointment scheduled at the practice, I will always give the patients priority so I can put my own off a little longer. My colleagues don’t fall for that any more though.

Why did you opt to work in dentistry and what makes the work in a practice so enjoyable?

My husband is a dentist and that’s how I first came into contact with dentistry. The stupid thing is, though I might be scared of the dentist, the specialist aspect, and all the medical and technical details, I find really interesting. It is so fascinating to see all the possibilities now available to us and how far we’ve come in dental medicine. Nowadays I feel like I’m a bit of a dentistry geek, I can talk happily for hours about all the wonders we can now perform within dental practice. Sorry there I go again! But, it really is a great field to work in.

What else did you do before you came to work at the practice?

Before I began working at a dental practice I worked in marketing; also a great area of work where I could quite cheerfully have continued for decades. That was the plan in fact, until Tandarts Jordaan, my husband Maarten’s practice, started booming. At the time Maarten was working really long hours to make sure everything was running smoothly and I was abroad a lot for my own work. We had small kids too. In short: it was massively busy and we needed more peace and quiet in our lives and our family. So, at that point we decided I would help get the practice organised for maybe, 3 – 6 months, and then I’d go back to marketing. Working together at the practice didn’t really seem ideal to either of us initially but it turned out to be so much nicer than I ever could have imagined; I couldn’t think of doing anything else now.

Can you still remember the dentist you had when you were young? What kind of person were they?

My dentist was an Indonesian lady, who had a practice with her husband at the back of their house. I can still remember the typical smell of disinfectant when you came in.

The dentist was always friendly but also quite heavy-handed; I remember that she pulled really hard at your mouth. I had problems with tears at the corners of my mouth for days after a visit to the dentist; not the biggest problem in the world of course but really irritating.

Have you ever needed fillings?

Unfortunately, yes. Until I was 20 I didn’t have any cavities, though I did fall off my bmx when I was 8 and broke my front teeth. Such a pity.

Between my 20th and 26th birthdays I definitely had quite a few cavities. I was studying and didn’t take my dental hygiene (like lots of other things) very seriously. I lived in Brazil for a while and ate way too much sugar. It seems a shame now. I haven’t had any new cavities since but since fillings don’t last a lifetime, the original ones will always need attention periodically.

Do you care for your teeth differently since you started working at a dental practice? What’s changed?

Yes, definitely, I have a much better understanding now of how you can really avoid serious health problems through good dental hygiene, that really changed my perspective on it. I’m also a big fan of toothpicks these days. I always have a pack of toothpicks in the car, kitchen or on my desk.

What do you tell people at parties when they ask what kind of work you do?

Most people, of course, already know that we own this practice, as well as Tandartspraktijk Dronten and the dentist in Almere too. Occasionally people don’t know of course, if they’re curious about what I do then I really enjoy telling them more.

It really is nice, we now have a team of nearly 100 people! Who do amazing things every day. I’m really proud of that!

At the same time, people sometimes have a very typical idea of what happens at a dentist’s and then I get questions about whether I assist him directly, and whether it’s really irritating to work in the same room together all day long. I just leave it like that though, sometimes people like to maintain a more traditional idea of things.

Why do you think people should choose to register at Tandarts Jordaan?

I think I’ll leave it to my colleagues and patients to answer that one. Their judgement will provide the best reasoning on whether or not to go for Tandarts Jordaan.