DR Allan Coveney has been straightening smiles in north-west Victoria for 36 years.

But at the end of this month, Sunraysia's first residential orthodontist will retire and hand over his practice.

While growing up in Melbourne, Dr Coveney said he was "very taken" by the profession after visiting the family dentist as a child.

In 1971, a locum position brought him to Mildura, where he fell in lo...