In our previous dental careers article we looked at the roles and responsibilities of a dentist but what does the job of a dental nurse involve. Well in this blog post we aim to clear this up.

One of the main things we think a dental nurse does is provide chair side support for the dentist as this is what we mainly see them do when we visit the dentist, but their job involves a lot more behind the scenes aspects which we do not get to see. They are actually one of the most important members of a dental team and will provide support in all aspects of patient care.

A lot of this work will be admin based with maintaining practice records on the computer being a large responsibility. All data needs to be entered accurately to ensure records are kept correctly and the practice can provide the best care to its patients. Other admin work is revolved around ordering stock for the surgery making sure they keep track of the stock levels and the cost of items.

As well as the standard chair side duties, dental nurses are required to maintain and use the equipment in the surgery to given standards and guidelines. This will include using and maintaining the x-ray processing equipment making sure they follow radiographic procedures.

They are required to maintain the surgery to company policies and health and safety regulations, this will also include of disposing of waste from the surgery.

Just like a dentist the dental nurse will need to have constant training to keep up with the ever changing procedures and techniques they will be required to perform on a day to day basis in the surgery.

So as we can see the role of a dental nurse is a bit more than sitting next to a dentist passing him things. As with most businesses it is roles like these which actually hold the business together and without them the place would fall apart. So all surgeries should be looking at dental nurse recruitment to help get some great staff in to push their surgery forwards.