Main area: Community Dental Team
Grade Band: 6
Contract: Fixed term: 12 months (To cover Maternity Leave)
Hours:
* Full time
* Part time
37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 350-CC6556482-A
Site: Vauxhall Town, Knowsley
Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 Per annum pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 30/12/2024 23:59
Interview date: 08/01/2025
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore, we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
Job overview
Dental Therapist Band 6 £37,388 - £44,962 37.5 hours per week, 12 month Fixed Term Contract
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Community Dental Service is looking for a Full Time Dental Therapist to join our Community and Personal Dental Service Team.
You will be part of a team delivering high quality dental care to people of all ages and from a diverse range of cultural and social backgrounds. The successful candidate will deliver dental therapy services within our community and personal dental services including providing preventative oral health care and treatment to patients and liaising with Dentists over their treatment. A key element will be the provision of dental hygiene activity and restorative care.
This post would be appropriate for a recently qualified Dental Therapist looking for an exciting development opportunity to work in a varied and challenging environment.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Community Dental Service Team is committed to the provision of high quality dental care. Joining us means that you will be fully supported in your professional development, and will participate in audit and quality assurance as part of our clinical governance programme.
Main duties of the job
The post holder is to provide clinical, restorative and preventive care and treatment through a treatment plan prescribed by a Dentist. The Post holder would be expected to manage patients who may present with complex needs.
The Post Holder will plan, provide and adapt tailored oral healthcare advice and instructions to children and adult patients. Patients will have a full examination and assessment by a Dentist. The patient will then be referred to a Dental Therapist who will then plan and deliver treatment which falls within their scope of practice.
Dentists and therapists are required to work closely together to identify suitable patients with the dentist available to provide clinical leadership and support.
The post holder will be expected to work at any establishment at any time throughout the duration of the contract, normally within the boundaries of the Trust.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. Plan the delivery of care for patients.
2. Tailor and provide appropriate patient advice.
3. Provide preventative oral health care and treatment to patients and liaise with dentists over the treatment of caries, periodontal disease, tooth wear and other oral conditions referring the patient to a dentist for a more detailed Oral Health Assessment or review where necessary.
4. Be alert and manage any significant changes in the patients (either physical, medical or mental condition) either during treatment or over a course of treatment and inform the referring dentist of any such changes or causes for concern.
5. Plan and organise the delivery of care for individual patients to incorporate provision of restorative care preventative care and advice over the minimum number of visits.
6. To be aware and report concerns appropriately if there are any child or adult protection concerns.
7. Responsible for working autonomously in the provision of dental care and advising patients following referral from a dentist.
8. Responsible for liaising with the referring dentist regarding any necessary changes required.
9. Responsible for deciding and providing the most appropriate form of behaviour management appropriate to the patient’s needs.
10. Responsible for choosing the most appropriate method and materials for restoring a tooth.
11. Responsible for selecting most appropriate mode of delivery of local anaesthetic.
12. The therapist may operate in a clinic without the presence of a dentist working within the limits of practice set out for Dental Therapists in the current GDC Standards and Scope of Practice. In these circumstances, the therapist would be the lead clinician on site and as such may need to liaise with the Senior Dental Nurse Manager, Directorate Management Team, Administrative Team and other specialities as required.
13. Plays a key role in ensuring that daily, weekly and monthly checks have been completed by dental nurses and signed off appropriately.
14. Liaise with other health professionals and relevant organisations regarding patient care.
15. Prepare and provide preventive oral health care plans and treatment to patients within the limits of practice set out for Dental Therapists in the current GDC Standards and Scope of Practice.
16. Provide individual, specialised advice to other health professionals, carers and support workers.
17. Carry out clinical examination of patients, diagnosis and treatment planning within the Therapist’s competence.
18. Evaluate and update any changes in the patient’s medical history and assess the patient’s fitness to receive dental treatment on a visit by visit basis.
19. Use indices to screen and monitor periodontal disease.
20. Prescribe radiographs and take, process and interpret various film views used in dental practice.
21. Provide care under treatment plans provided by dentists for patients.
22. Prepare and provide specific appropriate oral health care advice and instruction to child and adult patients and also their carers.
23. Provide clinical, restorative and preventive care utilising appropriate methods to ensure that the patient’s dental pain and anxiety are managed appropriately. Select an appropriate form of behaviour management for the patient within the limits of the therapist’s individual training and competency (e.g. use of acclimatisation, desensitisation, tell/show/do, care with sedation or a combination of approaches).
24. Select the type of restorative procedure to be carried out, ensuring that treatment plans are amended by the referring dentist where appropriate.
25. Ensure that any issues arising are highlighted and reported to the dentist to enable referrals to be reviewed and reassessed.
26. Vary the detail but not the direction of a prescription if required. Can change the number of tooth surfaces required to restore and select appropriate material used dependent on the findings during treatment.
27. Recognise and liaise with dentists over the treatment of caries, periodontal disease, tooth wear and other oral conditions referring the patient to a dentist for a more detailed Oral Health Assessment or review where appropriate.
28. Ensure that oral health advice is tailored appropriately to the needs of individual patients and take into consideration any special requirements/medical issues/conflicts.
29. Be aware of any changes (especially deterioration) in the patient’s condition during treatment or over a course of treatment and ensure appropriate action is taken.
30. Be aware of any issues around changes in consent, mental capacity and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) at each appointment.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Qualification in dental hygiene and therapy to degree level or equivalent ie B.Sc or Diploma in Dental Hygiene or Therapy.
* Current registration with General Dental Council.
KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE
* Experience of working with child and adult patients with complex needs.
* Use of Clinical IT Systems.
* Knowledge of child and adult protection procedures and key signs to indicate a child or adult “at risk”.
* Knowledge of behavioural management techniques for children and adults with complex needs.
* Detailed knowledge of a broad range of complex medical conditions and an understanding of their impact on the provision of dental care.
* Knowledge of relevant medico-legal issues impacting on care provision such as consent and parental responsibility.
* Knowledge of relevant health education messages relevant to the specific needs of patients and the evidence base supporting this information.
* Knowledge of health and safety issues such as radiation protection and cross infection control relevant to operating safely in the dental clinic and in other settings (such as nursing homes and schools).
* Understanding the key principles of information governance and clinical record keeping.
* Experienced in clinical audit and peer review and able to lead on audit areas within the directorate clinical governance system.
Values
* Accountability
* Support
* High professional standards
* Responsive to service users
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
* Discreet
* Change oriented
Skills
* Communication skills – able to communicate with the very young, adults with learning disability.
* Aware of ways to overcome communication barriers for those with sensory impairment.
* Organisational and time management – able to prioritise and organise clinical and non-clinical time of self and other colleagues such as oral health educators.
* Able to perform BLS in line with current guidelines and to deal with common medical emergencies (e.g. faints).
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email recruitment@merseycare.nhs.uk to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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