Dental Nurses

Dental nursing, in the NHS in particular, is very hard work with long hours and a lot of walking. I covered many miles a day in my last position. The practice was in a run-down area with many patients who lacked education in even the most basic dental care so we had lots of fillings and extractions to carry out on very young children because their parents had no understanding of how diet can affect the teeth, especially in growing chldren. My job had as much to do with teaching the prevention of dental problems as helping the dentist to put them right. The pay is usually quite poor for the effort demanded and I often worked overtime without being asked simply ...  Read the complete review

Dental nursing is hard work, tiring, repetative and extremely boring. Your health is likely to suffer due to dentists working incorrectly and not adopting the correct seating arrangements. Dentists more often than not have huge egos and many are known to treat their Dental Nurses with little and no respect. Pay is poor and you may be expected to work overtime without pay. You are unlikely to have a pension scheme in place. You have to breathe in patients germs day in day out as well as amalgam.
Unless you plan to become a hygeinist or a dentist in the long term then I would steer clear. It really is a horrible job.

I was reading the reviews about Dental Nursing and had to add my experiences. The Dental Nurse Profession has at last been recognised with Statutory Registration with the General Dental Council compulsory in 2008 it will raise the importance of the prorfession. I qualified back in 1971 and since then have worked in General Dental Practice, Hospital and the Community Dental Service. I have worked my way up through starting as a trainee to qualifying, become Senior, Principal and now a manager. Dentistry has changed so much over the years, now with so much legislation and regulations to not only safeguard the patients but also the staff. The role of the ...  Read the complete review

Hi, I trained as a dental nurse at Guys Hospital 1995-1997, so my experience maybe slightly out of date. I decided to train in hospital because i didn't want to have to work all day and then do evening classes. This is the one beauty of training in a hospital, all of you lessons are during the day. You genearly do 70% clinical traing and 30% lectures. The other great thing about hospital training is that you get to experience all aspects of dentistry, from prosthetics(dentures) to childrens to sedation to full on oral surgery and on. When you train at a dental surgery, you generally will not get to see much specialised work, especailly as general ...  Read the complete review

I wrote a review on being a dental nurse a while ago and after reading it myself, it seemed lame and did not really give much insight into dental nursing or how you'd go about gaining employment as a d/n, so i have decided to try my hand at writing another one, and fingers crossed this one will hopefully be better and help anybody who is thinking of a career in dentistry. The dental team The team consists of the dentist, he/she really is the lynch pin in the surgery, without him you would not have me, the dental nurse, i basically provide the dentist an extra pair of hands,eyes and ears, i will be on hand to mix materials for fillings and impression ...  Read the complete review