The contribution of dental nurses performing tasks related to the extended duties roles varies widely from practice to practice as the profile of General Dental Practice’s across the UK is diverse. It ranges from practices providing wholly private dental care, to those which are wholly NHS, mostly in areas with relatively high level of deprivation. In such busy practices, with high demand for clinical interventions to treat preventable conditions, EDDNs can make a massive contribution to the delivery of safe, caring, responsive, effective and well-led care. Some practices are realising great benefits as a result of developing expanded duties for their nurses, whereas others cannot see a way to incorporate extended duties into their working routines.

As Editor in Chief of Dental Nursing Journal, I intend to open up the discussion on the extended duties, and will be interviewing practices on their views on extended dental nursing duties, and identify the benefits. In Dental Public Health, the role of extended dental nurse duties are more established than it is in the General Dental Practice. There are excellent programmes around the UK such as “Improving Oral Health of Older People Initiative”(IOHOPI), part of Public Health commitment to improving oral health, with greater accessibility to dental care, through the innovation of where and by whom dental care can be effectively delivered www.IOHOPI.co.uk  In Scotland, Child Smile a national programme to improve the oral health of children in Scotland and reduce inequalities in dental health and access to dental services www.child-smile.org.uk produced favourable data on the quality of care provided by extended duties dental nurses, highly professional in standard and achieved the clinical aims of the programme.

Dental nurses do not diagnose disease or set up treatment plans, these skills are reserved to other dental registrants, however the GDC has specified a list of extended duties open to dental nurses who are appropriately trained and competent, and may be carried out on prescription, or under the direction of another registrant. Such duties include:

• Take radiographs

• Place rubber dam

• Measure and record plaque indices

• Remove sutures after the wound has been checked by a dentist

• Construct occlusal registration rims and special trays

• Repair the acrylic component of removable appliances

• Apply topical anaesthetic to the prescription of a dentist

• Construct mouth guards and bleaching trays to the prescription of a dentist

• Construct vacuum formed retainers to the prescription of a dentist

• Take impressions to the prescription of a dentist or a CDT (where appropriate)

• Apply fluoride varnish either on prescription from a dentist or direct as part of a structured dental health programme

• Oral health education and oral health promotion

• Assist in the treatment of patients who are under conscious sedation

• Assist in the treatment of patients with special needs assisting in the treatment of orthodontic patients

• Intra and extra-oral photography

• Pour, cast and trim study models

• Shade taking

• Trace cephalographs

Before general practices can demonstrate the effectiveness of their extended dental nurse duties, they need to create structured programmes, where they can measure outcomes such as the quality of care, patient experience, effectiveness of treatment and profitability. If your practice is one of the many already making good use of extended dental nursing roles and would like to be interviewed for Dental Nursing Journal, it will assist practices considering introducing expanded roles, who can share and learn from your experince, and follow in your foot steps, please contact me  Glenys@glenys-bridges.co.uk