The Society of British Dental Nurses Podcast

From Dental Nurse to Super ‘Teeth Saving’ Woman. Meet Gemma Akinade Senior Oral Health Practitioner for Henry.

Gemma's role is to improve the oral health outcomes of children under 5 and reduce health and social inequalities by providing access to early intervention and prevention as part of the London borough of Waltham HENRY High Impact Team.

HENRY is a charity that supports families to provide the best possible start in life for young children

In 2016 HENRY was commissioned by the Waltham Forest Council’s Head of Public Health to work in partnership with public health and the NHS services to improve the health outcomes for children under five in four areas - infant feeding, healthy eating, oral health and speech and language development.

‘I’m an experienced dental health nurse and passionate about prevention, believing that parents overwhelmingly want the best for their children - and with the right kind of strengths-based, non-judgemental support, can develop and sustain healthy family oral health routines. I support families from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities and have developed oral health interventions to reach vulnerable families including Children’s Centre dentist and fluoride varnish programmes.

I am also responsible for training health and early year’s practitioners (school nurses, reception teachers, foster carers, childminders, health visitors) to support families to develop oral health routines and prevent decay.’ Gemma Akinade

Interview with NEBDN’s CEO Kate Kerslake

In this interview learn from Kate about how you can develop your career as a dental nurse, how Kate wants to improve the profile of dental nurses and learn about new updates at NEBDN.

Kate Kerslake joined the NEBDN in November 2018 from BUPA Dental Care where she was Head of Clinical Support and responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of clinical management processes across the UK and Republic of Ireland. Kate brings 10 years’ experience in the dental sector from a variety of management roles having progressed from Practice Management to Area Manager for the North West and finally to the National Clinical Projects team which she developed and latterly, headed.

The Digital Treatment Coordinator

Meet Tracie Barnett a passionate individual with over 20 years experience in Dentistry. 

 

Tracie likes to set herself goals to help her stay on track personally and professionally and with the help of my team achieve great things together. Tracie is often found attending training courses on her days off to help progress with her career, she says 'every day we are still learning, and I am still as interested in Dentistry today as I was all those years ago'.

 

Tracie is the main point of contact for all new and existing patients, her role as a TCO is to make patients feel welcome, comfortable and at ease. Tracie discusses treatment options and costs with patients and deals with financial arrangements to make treatment affordable for the patients. Tracie also supports the membership options with the patients.  

 

A huge part of Tracie’s role is supporting the Invisalign journey for patients. Tracie scans new and existing patients using 3D ITero scanner and provides simulations for them to see the what the treatment end result may look like. It is a very exciting aspect of her role and Tracie would never go back to holding these appointments with a scanner.

 

Key points about Tracie:

1. I made a transition in my career by accident, it must have been fate as this is the dream job for me.
2. I sacrificed regular dental nursing to take on the TCO role, dental nursing was my passion. I really did wonder how i’d feel once I stopped nursing daily. I do step in very rarely if needed but only with the hygienists usually.
3. I am so busy in my new role that I don’t have much time to think about missing dental nursing. The rewards I have now are amazing, patients are so thankful to me and seeing the many positive reviews we receive as a practice and for me personally really make it worth while. I would definitely make the same decision again. 
4. I love to decorate. I often help my family and friends out with wall papering or painting in my free time. My other pastimes tend to be attending fitness classes and spending time with my family.

Society of British Dental Nurses : http://sbdn.org.uk

 

This podcast is sponsored by Horton Consulting : https://www.horton-consulting.com

Meet a dental nurse who is starting out in practice management

In this podcast, we have the pleasure of introducing you to a hardworking achiever, Donna Vayle.

Donna began her career in Dentistry as a dental nurse in 1999, she has a wealth of experience as a dental nurse, gained herself a promotion to become a treatment coordinator in her practice and has now gained herself a further promotion to become a practice manager.

This podcast is full of top tips to help all dental nurses to move forward in their career. Donna has an amazing attitude; she sets goals and achieves them.

Donna has two young children and gets up very early, drives 15 miles to drop the children off before she finally gets to work at 7.30am. On top of this, she frequently exercises and enjoys up-cycling. She holds her hands up to always being busy and states that she can't sit still and will most likely be found with a paintbrush in her hands!

Donna trains apprentice dental nurses as an ROE witness, has a radiography qualification and impression taking certificate. Donna has worked in private practice for 13 years and is now in a two site mixed practice with an additional MOS contract. The current mixed practice started a conversion for one dentist to private and Donna supported this as a Treatment Coordinator working alongside the dentist by helping to convert 208 patients to membership in one year.

In addition to her dental skills and qualifications, Donna also has A-levels in Law and English, and a bookkeeping qualification.

The best advice Donna has been given - Set yourself goals, stay quiet about them and smash them!

Society of British Dental Nurses http://sbdn.org.uk

From dental nurse to practice owner

Meet Rachel Jackson who started working as a dental receptionist in 2004, progressed to a qualified dental nurse in 2007, and then developed into a lead dental nurse, practice manager, business manager and now practice owner.

Discover how Rachel has developed her own dental practice without burning any bridges, while having to make huge sacrifices and tough decisions.

Created by Rachel, Superior Smiles proudly opened its doors in August 2018. Rachel has always been passionate about taking private dentistry to an unrivalled level. Her dedication and knowledge enable Superior Smiles to offer high quality dental treatment, aligned with a patient centred journey, creating a brand that turns aspirations into affordable reality. 

Rachel’s last 15 years have been a journey of discovery, learning, upskilling and refining, with one anchor at the centre of every thought process - the patient. With a complex skill set in Treatment Coordination combined with Practice Management, Rachel is focused on training her team to focus on individual patient needs through ethical solutions.

Society of British Dental Nurses http://sbdn.org.uk 

Superior Smiles https://superiorsmiles.co.uk

 

Elaine Tilling an armed forces dental nurse, who now works for TEPE, shares her story and top tips for dental nurses who want to achieve.

Elaine Tilling an armed forces dental nurse, who now works for TEPE, shares her story and top tips for dental nurses who want to achieve.

Meet Emma Riley, our incoming chair!

Meet Emma Riley, our incoming chair! Emma has a huge passion for oral care and works in end of life and palliative care. Learn more about her interesting story and how you can become involved.

 

Fiona Ellwood, founder and patron of SBDN discusses her career and journey to date

Fiona Ellwood, founder and patron of SBDN, discusses her career and the journey she has been on from Dental Nurse to tutor, to designing a degree for dental nurses.

Learn about the Society of Britsh Dental Nurses

Find out more about the society and why it is so unique to dental nurses and its members in this interview with the patron and founder of the SBDN and Laura Horton.