(through the eyes of Dr. Helené Basson)
‘You’re never fully dressed without a smile’ – Annie
Easier said than done. It is sometimes really difficult to show those pearly whites if your confidence is at a low because of dental problems. And we all know that dentistry is many a time the last thing your budget allows if you are on a state pension, unemployed or just struggling to financially keep head above water.
This is something that Dr. Nico Verloop has a lot of sympathy for. Dr. Verloop is the man in charge at Biodent and has been an OHH partner since the very beginning in 2016. Free of charge.
So let me tell you the back story of Nico and how he got involved in OHH…
I have the privilege of writing about a man I love and respect with all my heart – my brother-in-law. I met Nico in 1997 at the age of 20 over a cadaver in Tukkie’s Anatomy class. I had the good fortune of bonding with Nico for a whole year, despite the smell of formalin.
He met my sister four years after we became friends and then rapidly became my immediate family. Unknowingly he got two sisters for the price of one and was slowly but surely being dragged into every family affair, musical event, and charity project.
After living in Dokkum (which is somewhere in Friesland, which is somewhere up north in Holland) for almost 10 years where he had a private dental practice, he moved his family back to South Africa in 2013. (You can only eat so much cheese and the Dutch actually had a fire truck on standby when Nico had a spitbraai for my sister’s 30th birthday)
After moving back to SA he qualified as the first South African with a Masters degree in laser dentistry, which he obtained from the University of Genoa in 2016.
In 2018 the mountain bike bug bit him, and lots of exercise later he now looks really handsome in his OHH cycle shirt on Saturdays when the rest of us are still snoozing.
Currently, he has his own private practice specializing in laser dentistry and he gives lectures and serves as a peer reviewer for Lasers in Medical Science. (The rest of his time is taken up by his low-demand three beautiful daughters and wife, his bicycle and all the IT disasters he has to sort out for his sister-in-law.)
Long story short. He is one of the most dedicated doctors in OHH, and when looking back on this year I realised that out of all the doctors involved in OHH, Nico has seen and treated most patients of all over the past 4 years.
Nico and his Biodent team does all our dentistry and sees all the major surgery cases for pre-operative check-ups and treatment. I am proud to have him as an OHH partner and a family member and this year’s Chronic Dedication and Commitment-award goes to him.
Thank you Nico to you and your team!
