Remarkably, Queenstown’s longest-ever-serving dentist has been tending teeth in this town for 46 years. PHILIP CHANDLER talks to John Molloy about what he still enjoys about his job, and why he doesn’t feel too long in the tooth to carry on
Robert Muldoon had only been Prime Minister for two years when John Molloy set up his Queenstown dental practice.
Forty-six years on, he’s still practising, albeit only three days a week after selling his practice last September.
Molloy, who’ll only confirm he’s in his 70s, very nearly missed out on becoming a dentist.
Brought up in Auckland, he went to Otago University to study science as he had half an eye on then going to study medicine there.
One day in August during his third year, when registrations were to close for dental school, he casually inquired when applications closed, to be told he only had 10 minutes left.
Having met the deadline, he was back in Auckland, working at the freezing works during the holidays, when his dad, also a John Molloy, accidentally opened an envelope for Molloy junior saying he’d been accepted — the latter had forgotten he’d even applied.
After graduating and practising for a year in Dunedin, he and his then-wife Robyn went on an extended OE during when he did dentistry stints in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
Before leaving, he’d told his best dental school mate and hunting buddy he had a feeling Queenstown would be a good spot to practise in.
On returning, his mate, who’d set up practice in Mosgiel, mentioned he thought Queenstown was still a chance, even though its population in ’77 was only about 3500.
Molloy set up practice at the bottom of The Mall, on the first floor of the then-redeveloped Wilkinsons Pharmacy building.
‘‘There was really only one building you could get a decent lease on and was available for a dental practice.’’
He then practised there, up those steep steps, for 32 years.
He recalls how different Queenstown was then.
Most people, he says, lived between One Mile and the bottle house, where Pounamu Apartments now are.
Frankton had just a few holiday homes, Kelvin Heights hadn’t begun and 10-acre Dalefield blocks were selling for about $10,000.
From early on, Molloy was pretty active in sport.
In the early ’80s, he won the Central Otago squash title, he won a Southland yachting regatta for Lasers and won at least three senior Queenstown tennis doubles titles.
He and Robyn also raised three children, then he had two more with his current partner, Lucy Snelgrove.
Molloy says he had a busy practice from the get-go.
Among many changes to dental practice, he now hardly ever does amalgam fillings, and X-rays are developed digitally.
The increased availability of fluoride — in toothpaste, for example — has vastly improved dental health, he notes.
When he couldn’t get permanency of lease, he moved around the corner in 2009 to Skyline Enterprises’ then-new building on the corner of Beach and Rees Streets.
After going through a broker, Molloy sold his practice seven months ago to experienced dentist, Dr Romanah Ahmed, who formerly practised in Auckland.
While he could have quit then, he’s happy to continue working part-time, which is great for his patients, many of whom travel a long way to see him.
‘‘I believe you need to keep your brain active and be problem-solving and interacting with people, than just suddenly stop.’’
He describes dentistry as ‘‘a skilful thing and artistic, and I enjoy that part of it’’, but he particularly enjoys catching up with his clients.
‘‘I have a reputation for perhaps talking a bit more than I should, but the patients love it, too.’’
Molloy says he’s also enjoying not having the pressures of running a business, and not having to do any more after-hours emergency work.
And he doesn’t have any problems filling in his four-day ‘weekends’.
He still plays tennis and squash, goes to the gym, and keeps an amazing vegetable garden at his Frankton home.
‘‘Queenstown’s changed hugely, but I’ve enjoyed it.
“I think I’ll live my life out here — I don’t have any reasons to go.’’
