Who or what inspired you to become a dentist and why?

In all honesty, I can't even remember his name. 

I wish I could, truly I do. I can remember his impressive height, his infectious smile, and I can remember thinking that he looked almost exactly how one generally imagines a dentist to look. More importantly though, I remember his words. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself; allow me to set the scene. It was mid-April 2012, and I was sitting in the front row of my forensic radiography lecture at Cranfield Defence Academy in Shrivenham. My MSc in Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology had both core and elective modules, and Forensic Radiography was one in which I - somewhat bafflingly - found myself. 

It wasn't my first choice; physics and I have never seen eye to eye. We have an unspoken accord in which we agree to disagree on matters like giant metal vessels launching into the air (where, in my and Mr T's opinion, they have absolutely no business being). Despite this, I had allowed myself to be coerced onto the module due to my thesis involving MSCT imaging (irony upon ironies). 

So there I sat, trying to pretend I understood what was going on, when the aforementioned nameless gentleman walked in. His lecture was on the identification of remains using dental records and radiographs, and it was by far the highlight of my day. He talked about his journey from GDP to forensic odontologist and had all of us hanging on his every word. However, it was only when he distributed a handful of teeth and asked us to identify them, including the side from which they came, that I felt as though I'd missed my calling (absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I got them all correct...honest). 

I remember the moment he grinned down at me and casually said the words that will stay with me for the rest of my life: 'Well I suppose I might as will give you a dental degree here and now.' That was the moment the epiphany hit me. Once the lecture had ended, I picked his brain for more information, the seed of a plan forming. He told me which sites to visit, what prerequisites I would need and to whom to speak regarding dentistry. By the end of that year I had secured my place at Leeds, choosing dentistry over a PhD in forensic anthropology. 

To this day I don't regret it, and I will never cease to be astounded by how near a miss it was; had I not allowed myself last minute to be swayed from my initial thesis project to one involving CT, had I not asked of my (ridiculously elusive) supervisor, 'Hey, this radiography module...should I be taking that?' and had he not replied (grunted), 'Uh, sure…', then I would not be about to enter my third year of dental school. 

I will never forget that kind dentist who inspired me to radically change my career path. I just wish I could remember his name.