Meet the Colleague Who Relaxes - At His Dental Practice
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- Published: Wednesday, 11 October 2023 05:36
- Written by Peter Ingle
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GDPUK recently reported on the dentist who also happens to be the Jamaican, and formerly Icelandic national football team manager.
The Rugby World Cup has now provided sports writers with some new dental headlines, the Guardian managing “Molars to Mauls.” Tomás Appleton has a successful career as a dentist, running his own clinic in Lisbon. Recently turning 30, he travelled to France for the rugby tournament, not to spectate, but to captain the Portuguese team.
In common with about half his teammates he plays part-time in a domestic league that is 90% amateur. As he explained: “Rugby doesn’t pay the bills in Portugal.
In a prescient interview with the Guardian in September he said that, “We want to be more than a presence here,” The challenge was huge, with Portugal returning to the World Cup after a 16-year absence. Few observers expected them to be anything more than a footnote in the tournament’s toughest pool.
Considering previous outings by the national team, Appleton said, “We want to follow in their footsteps but we also want to compete, win games, be sure of ourselves. Our preparations are so different from everything we’ve had in the past. I’m not saying we’re going to win the tournament or anything like that, but we’re there to be competitive and if we do that we’ll make some surprises.”
A few weeks later, the rugby world agrees that he has delivered surprises, with one of the tournament’s biggest upsets. Having not yet won a match, and facing the formidable Fiji team, they secured a last minute, historic, 24-23 victory. Portugal may have now left the tournament but they have moved up to 13th in the world rankings, leapfrogging Tonga, Samoa and Georgia, with whom they drew earlier in the competition.
The embodiment of “if you want something done ask a busy man” Appleton has begun studying medicine, and has a young family, aside from running his own oral surgery based practice, not forgetting his training and sporting activities.
His thoughts on the relationship between high level sport and dental practice reflect those of Heimir Hallgrímsson the Icelandic and Jamaican coach. The concentrated intensity of a surgery, he has said served as a valuable refuge from the wild cut and thrust of competition.
Appleton is in agreement: “One really good thing is that when you get into the surgery everything around you just disappears, you’re just really completely focused. In rugby you have so many different factors, and as captain I feel this particularly. You have to deal with a lot of people, staff, coaches, players, egos, and sometimes it’s hard.
“You’re working with 50 people at once and have to try to be as smart as possible. Sometimes the pressure can creep up on you and you have to know how to deal with it. In general, working in the dental practice is way more relaxed for me.”
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