Radiography for the dental nurse

Aim

To understand the dental nurses' scope of practice with the post-registration qualification certificate in dental radiography, and to show how this can enhance your professional life and career.

Objectives

To describe some of the tasks that must be completed in order to complete the certificate in dental radiography.

To describe the scope of practice and some of the guidelines relevant to dental radiography for an appropriately trained dental nurse

To give examples of some of the scenarios encountered as a dental nurse with the certificate in dental radiography. This article meets GDC development outcome A, B, C and D

A radiography course will cover the science behind dental radiography and instruct dental nurses in how to take ‘common’ radiographs safely. Bear in mind you are still only working to the prescription of a dentist – and only after their clinical examination – but you are now able to take the all-important diagnostic images. Once qualified and deemed competent by your supervising dentist, you can take them unsupervised.