A Welcome to Alice and a Career in Dentistry

25 Nov A Welcome to Alice and a Career in Dentistry

We are delighted to welcome our newest and youngest team member to the practice.

Alice has joined us on an apprenticeship for her City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Dental Nursing which is a workplace based qualification taught in conjunction with Boston College where from January she will spend one day a week with her fellow students and the rest of her time here in Long Sutton. Until then she is shadowing the reception team and observing how we deliver our customer service.

If you are reading this and you think that a career in dentistry might be for you then Dental Nursing is the first step on the ladder with entry requirements of GCSE maths and English at a C.

https://www.boston.ac.uk/courses/find-a-course/area/business/dental-nursing-apprenticeship-level-3-3/

I am really please that that the dental nursing course is now being offered at Further Education campuses again, as we struggled with the delivery and assessment for our previous 2 trainee dental nurses – Beth and Kelly. It is really helpful when doing a workplace based qualification to be able to meet your peers and compare note, experiences and horrible bosses. 🤣

Once you have your NVQ or Diploma in dental nursing you can add additional qualifications:

Oral Health Education

Orthodontic Assisting

Dental Radiography

Sedation

Special Care

You can even go on and become a Dental Therapist which is what Beth did. Beth didn’t need to finish her dental nursing qualification because she had sufficient A Level grades, but if you don’t have any A levels a dental nurse qualification in conjunction with 5 GCSE’s at grade A to C can get you onto a Therapy degree course such as the one Beth did in Leeds (which isn’t always obvious by looking at university prospectus’).

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/dental-team/roles-dental-team/dental-therapist

https://courses.leeds.ac.uk/i125/dental-hygiene-and-dental-therapy-bsc

A qualification in Dental Therapy will allow you to study Dentistry if you fancy another 5 years at university, and if you then decided to become a Maxillofacial surgeon you get to have another 5 years (this time as a doctor) to gain a dual qualification in Medicine and Dentistry.

Phew 😅 that’s 15 years, but then it’s another 8 years to become a consultant.

Alternatively you can stick at a level that suits you anywhere along the route, but as a dental professional you are encouraged to engage in lifelong learning, which is what I did and collected a few letters after my name…

Dr Kenny Doig
BDS(Dund) FFGDP(UK) MFGDP(UK) Dip Rest Dent RCS Eng