Empowering the profession

Lucie Flood has been a dental nurse for five years, all of which have been spent working at Tavern Steet Dental Practice, a mixed practice in Suffolk which has six surgeries and offers implants, oral surgery, endodontics and orthodontics. She began as an apprentice but has since worked her way up to become the head dental nurse, along with taking the lead on Total Health Screens – a new general health screening service that enables nurses to check patients’ blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist and height ratio, cholesterol and glucose, providing them with an overview of their health.

Lucie compares the screening to a routine check-up with a nurse at your local GP surgery. However, she adds, “I think the main benefit of it is that we obviously see the patients a lot more. For some people, you’re probably seeing the dental nurse up to four times a year, sometimes more, whereas you might only see your GP once every two years.”