Taking a holistic approach

I have worked in many areas of dentistry, including general dentistry, community dentistry, orthodontics, maxillofacial, oral surgery – and now I work within special care dentistry. This was due to a NHS provider change that specialises with special care patients.

Every patient has different needs and issues to overcome, and communication and cooperation can be very challenging. The role requires a lot of empathy and understanding in order to help each patient and provide everyone with their own personal dental experience best suited to them and their needs.

Working in special care requires you to have a lot of empathy. You need to be calm and understanding, reassuring, positive, encouraging, as well as flexible and adaptable. It’s demanding but there are rewards, particularly when you get messages across and achieve cooperation. This has impact, especially when you think at times that it will be impossible. It’s always a good feeling when patients give their own personal feedback of the experience and it’s full of praise and completely positive.