Community Dentistry

Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds in 2012 she is currently undertaking a DF2 post in Primary Dental Care. Sarah says "I want to encourage others to consider a community position as a great deal can be learned and experienced."

Throughout your foundation year, you begin to relax after the pressures of dental school. You can let yourself enjoy the rhythm of practice and being part of a team. The decision will arise however, of what to do next. Maybe the bright lights of hospital call you? or the pride of being a self-employed associate? Wherever you think you are heading, don't forget to consider a year in community dentistry, it will give you another level to your dental knowledge. Community posts are not as plentiful as hospital positions but they do exist, and are applied for when most DF2 posts are advertised.

A typical week will involve being in surgery treating patients with complex medical needs, or younger patients with co-operation or behavioural challenges. On other days you may be found on a mobile dental unit treating patients who attend substance misuse clinics, working women's support centres, or at a homeless shelter. You can also become involved in emergency dental clinics, domiciliary visits, or with dental public health fieldwork and school screening. You are likely to be treating patients under local anaesthetic, general anaesthetic, and inhalation sedation, depending on what the patient requires. In addition to this, most positions allow foundation dentists to attend a number of study days, which can be chosen to fit your particular interests.

You may be starting to get the picture that community positions allow an extremely varied year with the possibility to gain a great deal of experience and confidence in many fields. Positions vary from area to area so it is important to read in detail what your job will involve.

My Experience Even after foundation training I still felt the need to gain more experience. This post was the ideal step up from practice for me. Not only am I still able to practise my endodontic, prosthetic, and restorative skills, but my fear of difficult extractions and treating troublesome children had all but vanished. I have learnt new skills treating patients under sedation and there is support from numerous consultants if you are ever baffled by treatment planning or never ending medication lists. It is truly satisfying when you can take a patient referred for treatment under general anaesthesia and guide them through a potentially difficult treatment under local anaesthetic with careful patient management. It can go the other way however, and when the child is crying in the chair and treatment must be abandoned it is the community team that pulls together and learns from each situation. Even in the most desperate of situations the patient will always leave knowing more about oral hygiene and good diet than when they came in.

Community positions used to be believed to be the comfy job for dentists. In my experience it is one of the leading roles within dentistry. The dentists within the service are motivated and performing up-to-date dentistry in very challenging circumstances. It is inspiring to be surrounded by clinicians with such knowledge and drive. I have found it awakened my desire to learn and be the best dentist I can, by carrying out dentistry that is based on evidence and research.

Despite some challenging patients, I have never known such pleasant and grateful patients to treat, owing to a real sense of reward after treatment is complete. Community positions can open numerous doors. Previous dentists working in community have gone on to specialise in Orthodontics, Dental Public Health, or Paediatric Dentistry. It is also a useful step to gain more experience before returning to general practice or taking on Maxillo-facial positions. Best of luck to anyone wishing to gain experience, within community dentistry, as with all posts you get out what you put in, and I certainly have gained a lot so far.

Sarah Warren

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