Delivering bad news.....

I had quite a stressful day today. We had two new patients booked in this afternoon, both female, aged 34 and 55. Both had recently had examinations and already had long-term NHS Dentists.

The younger patient, let’s call her Patient A, was concerned about her gums and felt she had some tooth movement, particularly around her front teeth.

Following the news of a registered Nurse being struck off the dental register for multiple convictions, it is a good idea to re-evaluate the meaning of 'professionalism' and what it is and isn't we should be doing not only in our working life, but also our personal life. Committing ourselves to our profession involves a standard of behaviour and if we do not follow the standards and guidelines set by the General Dental Council, we will not only lose our job, we will also lose our place on the dental register making it impossible for us to work as Dental Nurses again.

I have had a very productive day today. I have been revising our Smile Portfolio and Testimonials Books and have had a lot of fun updating them with new “before and after” photos and written testimonials for our patients, particularly new patients to view. One thing I love doing is video testimonials and I am currently in the process of uploading a few onto my new TCO Ipad (thanks boss!) which is going to be absolutely amazing once I start using it with patients.

Smoking cessation is the process of discontinuing the practice of inhalation of a smoked substance. More and more smokers want to give up their habit and luckily, there is lots of help available. Smoking cessation does not necessarily have to involve the use of medication or professional help- it can be achieved alone. This is personal choice.

One thing that I always consider to be quite challenging is dealing with objections to treatment and turning things around so that the patient is happy to proceed. However, with a bit of time, patience and clever questioning, it is not a difficult task.