Supporting dental therapists in practice

How much do you know about the role of a dental therapist? Do you know what procedures they can undertake? Perhaps your practice has a qualified dental therapist? If so, are all their skills utilised or are they used exclusively as dental hygienists?

Dental therapists qualify with a great deal of knowledge and many skills. Following treatment planning by a dentist, therapists are able to place restorations in both the primary and permanent dentitions, extract primary teeth, place preformed stainless steel crowns and administer local anaesthetic.

The new General Dental Service contract is expected to place more emphasis on using the skill-mix of all members of the dental team. Inevitably this will create opportunities for dental care professionals resulting in more dental nurses being trained in additional skills and an increased requirement for dental therapists to provide ‘simple’ treatments. Distribution of work between the team will allow the dentist to focus his or her time on more complex procedures and treatment planning.