TORRINGTON – The world was a lot different when Cara Lawrence began her career at Family Dentistry in Torrington. 

It was 1977. Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States. The cars were much cooler, and the Billboard Top 100 was dominated by Rod Stewart, KC and the Sunshine Band and Stevie Wonder. Star Wars debuted, and it was the top-grossing movie of the year. 

While Americans were learning about events that happened a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Cara Lawrence was getting the hang of her first job as a dental hygienist. 

Last week, she retired from that same job. 

“I’m going to miss the patients,” Lawrence said. “I’ve been in a position to meet the great-grandparents, the grandparents, the parents and the kids-I’ve had a number of patients say that they’re 38 or 40 years old, and they’ve never had anyone else clean their teeth.

“When you get to know the patients that well, it is just like catching up with old friends. There’s a real bond there and that is what is going to be hard, not getting to visit with those folks. You almost have an internal clock that tells you six months is up, it’s about time to see so-and-so.”

It’s been a fairly straightforward path for Lawrence. She originally wanted to be a vocal music instructor, but when she graduated from high school in 1972, she said, there was an abundance of teachers. 

Her mother worked in a dental office, and she connected Lawrence with a dental hygienist to talk about the career. 

“I really liked what they had to say, and I really like the idea that I would pretty much be working on my own,” Lawrence said. “I would be responsible for what I did with, of course, the dentist overlooking everything.”

After that conversation, Lawrence attended the University of Wyoming for two years. She intended to leave the state to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in dental hygiene, but ultimately wound up enrolling at Sheridan College. She graduated from SC, and went to work for Dr. Timothy Pieper in Torrington – and that’s where she worked until last week. 

It’s the same title and same position, but like most occupations, technology has entered the world of dental hygiene. It’s changed the way some things are done, Lawrence said, but when it comes down to it, the job hasn’t really changed since she started. 

“it has changed, and yet some of it hasn’t changed,” she said. “It’s really fun if you go to Fort Robinson or someplace where they have old dental instruments on display, they don’t look a lot different than they do today. There’s a lot of technology and a lot of computer things that the profession takes advantage of, but as far as cleaning teeth is not that much different than It has been for the last hundred years.”

Lawrence said she spent her career in the field because dental hygiene offers a schedule that can be customized to fit the needs of the hygienist. 

“Dental hygiene offers a female a lot of opportunities that other fields don’t. For example, not every dentist employees a hygienist full-time. If you want to work part-time, if you want to work in the morning, if you want to work only in the afternoons, if you want to work one day a week, if you want to work six days a week, you can find an opportunity for you to do whatever it is that you desire. Not many other professions do.”

Many hygienists, Lawrence said, spend some time early in their career bouncing around to different dental offices, searching for the right fit and philosophy in treating patients. She found that right off the bat with Dr. Pieper. 

“I think one of the reasons that many hygienists change offices frequently is because they have a difference of opinion and how to treat patients, what is important, and a kind of care that is given to the patients by the dentist,” Lawrence said. “Unless you find that perfect match, you were going to be unsatisfied. I found the right match right off the bat.

“I would say that we’ve probably grown together in our professional opinions about how to care for patients over the years. That is the biggest reason. I have so much respect and admiration for the kind of care that our patients get, and that is what has kept me here.”

But now, she’s on her way out. 

Deciding to put down the probes and scalers wasn’t an easy decision for Lawrence, but she said cleaning teeth is very repetitive and the very nature of it required that she spent so much of her time hunched over. It has taken a toll on her shoulders and back, Lawrence said, and this was her chance to preserve her health. 

“Hygiene is a very repetitive profession,” she said. “After sitting for 42 years in that position, my  shoulders, my back, my legs and the rest have picked up a little wear and tear. I am 65, so I thought ‘by golly this is my big chance.’ I’m hoping that I will be able to do a lot of things I want to do without having my health deteriorate.”

Lawrence said she will stay in Torrington, and could even pick up a shift in Family Dentistry every now and then. But her focus is going to be on enjoying the better things in life, like spending time with her husband, Mike, and her grandchildren, which are spread out between Newcastle, Texas and Minnesota.

“Last year between, the first week of May and the end of October, Mike and I were gone every weekend but three,” she said. “When you’re working full-time, you don’t get a chance to get your domestic duties done. When we were camping and fishing and so on, I really didn’t enjoy myself because I was thinking how my going to get the laundry done and the bills paid and that other stuff. I’ll be able to get out of the yard and do the things that I need to do. Now when we do go on the weekends, I can enjoy it.”