Working as a Senior House Officer and as a Dental Officer in a community setting

My appointment was split in to two posts: one as an Oral Surgery Senior House Officer at Cardiff University School of Dentistry and one as a Dental Officer at Barry Community Clinic.

The first six months of my post included working as an Oral Surgery Senior House Officer at the School of Dentistry, Cardiff University - the same place I had qualified from 12 months prior to starting the job! This post included working and triaging patients on the Emergency Clinic, completing and producing 3D images from cone beam commuted tomography scans, working on the Oral Surgery Clinic to complete surgical extractions under both local and general anaesthesia and teaching and supervising the dental students. Quite a daunting task considering at this point I was one of the dental students a mere twelve months ago.

Working in the University Hospital Wales School of Dentistry gave me a fantastic opportunity to work in a secondary care environment with various members of the dental team and gain increased knowledge from various dental specialities. During this time I able to increase experience to complete all the parts of my Member of Joint Dental Faculties (MJDF) Diploma examinations, i.e. the written paper examination, objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and an oral viva.

For the second part of my post I worked as a Dental Officer in the Community Dental Service. I was based at the Barry Community Clinic (a town I was familiar with, as I had completed my first Dental Foundation Training year there). The job included seeing lots of children for their routine dental visits, dental treatment (fillings, extractions) and acclimatising the nervous children so they would be compliant to any necessary dental treatment. I also had the opportunity to see and treat special care patients - some in the dental clinic and some whilst out on my weekly domiciliary visits. These domiciliary visits included visiting patient's homes as well as nursing homes. I was able to carry out some basic routine dentistry; this included dental examinations, simple scaling, simple fillings (with my portable dental drill), extractions and denture work.

I was also allocated to work on the mobile dental unit, dubbed the "tooth bus" (see attached picture). The "tooth bus" would park up at a location in South Wales and provide dental examinations and treatments to the local community. After parking and securing the bus, it would expand to provide enough space for one dental surgery and a waiting room. X-ray radiographs could be produced in the "tooth bus" but were developed and examined at a Community Clinic. The dental instruments were also taken back to the Community Clinic for sterilisation.

I also worked in HM Prison Cardiff where I provided routine dental treatment to the inmates - a job not for anyone who is claustrophobic. This included lots of security checks and working behind various locked doors and cells. The dental team was based in the medical wing of HM Prison and we were escorted around the prison at all times by the prison staff.

Dental Foundation Training is a great opportunity to work in different settings and as part of the community. 

The author has asked to remain anonymous.