Many a player has extracted some teeth from an opponent during the course of a Gaelic Football or Hurling match, but for Derry senior footballer Charlie Kielt it is normal practice during his working day.

The Kilrea clubman is a dentist at the Abercorn Dental Practice in Derry City - and has the benefit of home comforts after spending the bulk of 2012 in Glasgow and missing out on the major of the Oak Leafers campaign.

He passes by the Derry GAA Centre of Excellence at Owenbeg every day on his way to work, and most days on his return home stops off there for training.

"I'm working in Abercorn Dental Practice in Derry City. I'm fortunate it's a good practice and fairly busy. It's very handy for calling into Owenbeg on the way home. I usually leave the house just before 8 and in Derry for a quarter to nine or so. I get stuck into a few mouths for a long time during the day and normally wrap up around 5.30.

"I try to wrap up earlier on the nights that I don't train. Call into Owenbeg most evenings we'd be training, do the training, get a bite to eat and head home. I'm away at eight o'clock in the morning and don't get home until 10 or 10.30 at night."

Happier times now, than when midweek training at the Dungiven venue used to be a chore during his college days in Belfast.

"It's amazing how your attitude changes to things. Owenbeg wouldn't have been a favourite place of mine for training traditionally. I'm a Kilrea man in South Derry and I would have been in college for five years in Belfast so coming to Owenbeg was seen as a pain in the ass for anyone who was up in Belfast.

"Now I'm back up the road in Derry City, so Owenbeg is on my way home and I'm delighted that training is there these days. My attitude has changed completely towards Owenbeg, and obviously having the new facilities makes it easier as well.

"The new facilities are unbelievable really. You look at the GAA, an amateur organisation and you would be very proud of them as a Derry man."

There aren't too many dentists in the inter-county game, so what set Charlie off to 'getting stuck into a few mouths' on a daily basis?

"I wouldn't say I ever thought of being a dentist. It was just one of those things in life that you get yourself into. My father was a careers teacher in St. Pat's Maghera and he would have always known what careers would have been suited to us or not. He just pointed to dentistry one day and said 'what about that one'. I got the grades for it and decided to go for it and that's just how it happens. Thankfully I got through it and I'm working away happily at the minute."

Those secondary school days brought All-Ireland silverware in terms of a Hogan Cup title in 2003, and a decade on St. Pat's are once again at the top-table.

"Maghera is a Gaelic mad school and always has been. There's a great pedigree. It has helped. If you go down through any Derry panel there will be very few county panels where it isn't in double-figures of ex St. Pat's players. We had a great experience. It was great to see Maghera back winning the Hogan Cup this year.

"The last time we won it I was involved and those were great days. When you look back I haven't won a lot since and you don't realise until you look back what you have achieved. A Hogan Cup is one of those medals you will always cherish no matter what you do in the game. I have great memories from St. Pat's."

Then on to Queen's University where there were an unusually high number of Gaelic footballers in Charlie's class.

"Dentistry is like any other job - it was a demanding course time wise and that's probably where a lot of people fall back on, in terms of there were a few lads who played Gaelic in my dentistry class. Our dentistry class was quite unique in that we had four or five lads involved in the Sigerson team. In my Sigerson team there was Shane Barton, Gerard McAleese, myself, Karl Grimes and John Guy. Karl and John didn't make the team, but they were involved in the panel and also played 'B' football. That was quite unique. I think that the next player who played football in the Dental School, was my brother James two years down.

"We were fortunate in that regard as we helped each other as we went along. If you were going out of class, there were five of us jumping out of class as opposed to one, so it didn't look as bad. It's all about time management really, as it is with any job.

"University was great, and again I was fortunate because I had great housemates. I was the only dentist in the house. There were two Doctors and two accountants. Brian Og McAlary from my own club; Ciaran O'Neill from Cullyhanna in South Armagh; Charlie Vernon, Armagh player and Hugh Gallagher from Omagh. So I had a good mix, we had great times and all of those lads play football as well and they had tough courses. That helped. Brian Og and Hugh are both doctors."

And it had a good influence on his brother and county colleague James who followed Charlie on the dentistry road and is currently doing his final exams.

"That seems to be it. He's just a copy-cat who does whatever I do!

"Funny he was in the county panel before me though. A pretty similar lifestyle.

"Certainly he bounces off my revision notes I must say. I didn't get that helping hand. He certainly has all the past-papers sitting lovely and all the rest!

"It's handy even having just a club-mate never mind a brother involved. It's just somebody you can share lifts with. If you forget what time training is at, he's in the house - 'what time are we training at' things like that just make it an awful lot handier."

As a dentist, Kielt welcomes the introduction of compulsory gum-shields in the GAA.

"Gaelic Football as with all Gaelic sports is a contact game and ultimately the further we get down the line where the image of each individual is important, you go to job interviews you are more likely to get a job if you have your front tooth and opposed to not having it. Gumshields reduce injuries and I don't need to go into it for everyone.

"I'm happy to see it, particularly I would say from Under 16's upwards. Younger ones when they run into each other it's not as heavy a contact as it is with senior players. It's great that the GAA have enforced it."

Also by nature of his profession Kielt is especially careful when it comes to the consumption of Sports drinks, with some high in sugar content.

"They are just packed with sugar, so what I would tell young ones around the club or where ever is the sugary drinks are fine, if you can take a sip of water afterwards just to get the sugar out of your mouth. All of these things are great, but the last thing you want as a dentist is a young child coming in. You do see the cases of 14 or 15 year olds who maybe would do a lot of boxing and take a lot of fizzy drinks. Things like that. Dental decay is quite rampant in a lot of those patients. The advice you would give is try to reduce it as much as you can, drink water, milk and things like that."

The Diet of an inter-county player is often talked about, but Kielt confesses he doesn't always stick rigidly to diet plans - moderation is instead the key.

"Too be honest I always have the attitude that if you are doing plenty of training it doesn't really matter what you eat. You can't get chips and burgers every night of the week, but there's certainly no harm in having your 'cheat days' every now and again as they are called, take a day off and take that bag of sweets and watch your favourite movie or whatever. I certainly wouldn't be one of those people that watches what they eat meticulously.

"Simple things like if you were trying to lose weight, just cut down on bread. Basic things, I wouldn't get too heavy into it to be honest."

Charlie gets great support from his family, and the 26 year old became engaged to Rachael McBride on St. Stephen's Day. However, he still has the benefits of home comforts for now.

"I'm living back at home and feeding off the Mum and Dad still. I got engaged at Christmas so I'm getting married next year now.

"I'm the eldest and then I have a sister Kathleen doing her finals in Pharmacy at the minute. I've a wee brother Jack in first year in Coleraine and then my youngest brother Larry is in fourth year in St. Pat's in Maghera. He's the St. Pat's dynasty at the minute and hopefully they continue to do that.

"We are all big into sport. My sister plays camogie as well. If there's football on TV, that's what's on it. It's great, plenty of conversation and plenty of fall-out's as well, but sure that's part and parcel of it."

And what's the morning of a big game like for Charlie as the hours count-down to throw-in?

"Certainly on big Championship days you are nervous, but I just do what I normally do on the day of a match. I get up, boil a few eggs, get a bite to eat, watch a bit of TV and kick a ball about.

"I try not to get too bogged down in things, because ultimately it's a game of football you are playing - it's not life and death. I think that when you mention the course I was doing, the number of exams and you got used to high-pressure situations. When you are doing dentistry football is easy. I try not to worry about things too much."

Down stand between Derry and an Ulster semi-final place this weekend. Kielt and Co. will be welcoming a familiar face to Celtic Park, with his old Queen's University manager James McCartan in charge of the visitors.

"I was involved with the Sigerson Panel for three or four years. I was a sub on the panel when we won the Sigerson in 2007. University football was great craic.

"The only year I had experience with James was the year that we won it. He's a great manager, he has been managing Down for what is his fourth season now. He has taken them to an All-Ireland final and they weren't favoured that year. They got to an Ulster final last year also. We are under no illusions of what challenge Down will pose this year up in Celtic Park.

"James knows football. He was a great player and it has transpired now that he is a great manager to Down so far."

Sunday will tell a lot if Derry's Division 2 league triumph and Down's relegation from Division 1 count for anything in the heat of a Championship battle. Tweet

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