Dental Nursing talks to Emile Martin about her journey to date and how strong support can make all the difference to a career.

Emilie Martin recently qualified as a dental nurse after completing her training at Wish Dental, a practice located in the idyllic Cheshire village of Poynton.

The practice often showcases the skills and strengths of its team members on social media, and it was the fact that Emilie recently completed a vitamin B12 injection course that caught our eye.

“Congratulations to our nurse Emilie for completing her vitamin B12 injection course!” the Instagram post read. “Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin which helps with red blood cell production, enhancing energy, brain health, and DNA synthesis, plus other life changing benefits! Soon to be a treatment you can receive here at Wish Dental as part of our aesthetics treatment options.”

Another reads, “Emilie is one of our amazing dental nurses here at Wish Dental. Emilie has recently qualified as a dental nurse after completing her training at Wish. You can find Emilie assisting our dentists in the surgeries, as well as helping out patients on reception. Emilie always has a smile on her face and is willing to always go the extra mile for our patients.”

We asked Emilie to tell us more about her journey to date…

“I only recently qualified as a dental nurse. However, I have been working in dentistry for around two years now. After leaving college just before lockdown, I had absolutely no idea what career path I wanted to go down. One afternoon I was sat with my mum looking at apprenticeships and came across quite a few dental nursing opportunities. After reading the job description, I was interested. I’m not the type of person who could work in an office all day every day.

When I started out as a trainee dental nurse, I didn’t know anyone in dentistry. It’s always daunting starting a new job let alone starting a job you know next to nothing about but I had huge support from my family and colleagues.”

Find my feet

“I left my first practice nearing the end of my apprenticeship to come to work at Wish where I qualified. From my first day at Wish, I have had support from all the dental nurses – particularly when working in surgery and that helped me find my feet. The management team, all the clinicians, dentist and reception team have all supported me with daily tasks – and especially with my final exam.I am very friendly as a person with a hard work ethic. I’d like to think I’m seen as a good team player, and I am always more than happy to help out my colleagues.

Dental nurses definitely need to be friendly. This can help put patients at ease when they attend appointments. It’s important to be an empathetic, understanding person as patients come with many different problems.

The ability to multitask is also very important in dentistry. there can be lots of different things going on at one time, especially when carrying out reception jobs.

It’s important each patient feels they are cared for when in the practice.

Challenges include learning to cope in difficult situations such as medical emergencies. Although these are rare, they are always dreaded!

Daily challenges can include time management and keeping to patients’ exact appointment times without running late. We need to be able to think on our feet – plans can change quickly during treatment appointments. It can become difficult to manage your time, so organisation plays a big part in filling the dental nursing role as it may be frustrating for both patients and staff when running late.

It’s always difficult when you’re in a situation that you’re unsure of . I just take my time listen to the plan and then carry it out, asking questions is vital to make sure everything is done correctly.

Motivating patients can also be tricky. However, there are ways we can work around it. For example, giving patients an end goal can motivate them to start focusing on their oral hygiene just for a few more minutes a day. For children, we like to make it as fun as possible, with rewards for doing well.

There’s a lot more to dentistry other than having patients coming in and out one after the other.”

Rewards and highlights

“But, overall, dental nursing is a very rewarding role. It is fantastic to see the end results of a patient’s journey when you have been with them from the start, especially if a patient has overcome their fear of the dentist.

My most important professional achievement to date is recently fully qualifying as a dental nurse closely followed by my qualification in B12 injections. I attended a B12 injection course to give myself more responsibility. Luckily, I have an amazing opportunity, which now enables me to offer B12 Injections at Wish Dental.

I am offering single injections and courses of four. Hopefully in the future I will be able to attend more courses like this to develop my career further. I’d like to gain my own patients who come back to see me regularly for their B12 injections.

I couldn’t have achieved any of this without the support from my colleagues and all the clinicians at Wish Dental.”

5 key tips for a dental nurse starting out

1. DON’T put pressure on yourself.

2. DO take each day as it comes.

3. DON’T expect to know everything after your first week – there’s so much to learn.

5. DO be patient.

5. DO ask lots of questions.

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