COVID-19 crisis: dental nurses on the frontline

The coronavirus has devastated the world and thrown a global curve ball to healthcare everywhere – and dentistry is no exception. As routine dental care ended throughout the UK, news spread of the need to redeploy members of the dental team to help in the fight against COVID-19.

Volunteers have boosted numbers to help cope with the devastating effects, whilst some dentists and teams have stepped forward to help with local urgent and emergency care.

We invited dental nurses to share their experiences on the frontline.

Amanda’s experience

Amanda Hunter works as a dental nurse on the paediatric department at London’s King’s College Hospital. But she is one of the many dental professionals now on the frontline battling coronavirus. On St Patrick’s Day, just six days before the Prime Minister imposed the UK lockdown, she had her call up. She says: ‘I was asked about the additional skills I had that could be used in the main hospital to help during this period of COVID-19. I left the form blank but mentioned that, when I was in my 20s, I worked as a health care assistant.’