City & Guilds Level 3 Dental Nursing 5234-01

Practice manager

If you've been working as a dental nurse for some time and have extensive experience, you could consider becoming a practice manager. They manage finances, direct staff, deal with patients and their concerns and ensure that hygiene standards are met. Whilst this role involves moving away from dental nursing and taking on all aspects of running the business it can be an extremely rewarding job progression. Seeing your staff happy and the dental practice growing reflects a good practice manager.

Clinical trainers

Clinical trainers are responsible for the training and development of trainee dental nurses. They provide them with the skills to work on their own, as well as mentoring their progression through the role:

• Courses develop their theory knowledge, clinical skills, and professional practice.

• Mentoring and coaching provide guidance on how to perform tasks and give alternatives and suggestions of improvement for trainees.

• You will need to be able to coach staff effectively, so they feel confident in carrying out their work safely and efficiently.

• You will need good communication skills so that you provide appropriate feedback to each trainee.

Specialisations for dental nurses

If you wish to be more involved in the patient journey you could further train to enable the undertaking of certain procedures on your own. Generally, acquiring the specialisation qualification will also mean an increase in pay.

Radiography

If you become a radiography specialised dental nurse you will be able to take and interpret various types of x-rays under the dentist’s prescription. Such a position is very useful in increasing efficiency in the practice especially in specialised ones like orthodontics.

Oral health educator

This is suited for dental nurses passionate about oral health education. Oral health educators help patients to improve and maintain oral hygiene to various types of patients by adapting communication and advice to the specific needs of the patient

Fluoride varnish application

With this qualification you will be able to apply fluoride varnish on patients teeth under the prescription of a dentist or as part of a dental health programme. This can be in the dental practice or within a community-based programme.

Dental implants

If you have a particular interest in surgery, implant dentistry might be an option for you. This area of dentistry specialises in surgical procedure together with expertise to restore dentition. The reason that patients may need an implant is caries, trauma or malignancy.

Dental sedation

Patients sometimes cannot have dental treatment in the dental practice because they are too anxious or have phobia. With dental sedation they have medication which helps relax and enable them to be treated. Most of the dental sedation is performed in the community which involves more members of the team to ensure patients are monitored closely during the procedure and afterwards.

Orthodontic dental nurse

This area of dentistry specialises in alignment of the teeth and jaws and any dental treatments will be performed by dentists. It is an area which requires a great deal of organisation and attention to detail as you will be handling lots of small objects like brackets that are stuck to the teeth. Here you will see predominantly children of various ages so it’s perfect for any that enjoy working with young patients.

Portfolio of evidence

Synoptic Knowledge test