Throughout the whole of November, the Oral Health Foundation is running a campaign to raise awareness of oral cancer. The aim is to get as many people as possible involved so that the general public are aware of the early signs and symptoms of oral cancer – early diagnosis is vital for successful treatment. Raising awareness of how amending lifestyles choices can reduce the chance of developing the disease in the first place is also important. 

There are many qualifications that dental nurses can work towards after they have gained their initial dental nursing qualifications, and it is worth considering how we can put these to good use within the dental practice.

When a patient attends for sedation, it is normally because they are extremely nervous or anxious or they have a dental phobia. The different types of sedation used in practice are:

• Inhalation sedation – Nitrous oxide /oxygen.
  
• Oral sedation – Temazepam.
• Intravenous sedation – Midazolam.

I recently read an article that was published in The Telegraph in June 2017. The article noted new statistics revealing that 80% of children aged between one and two years old hadn’t visited the dentist in the last year, as their parents thought that they were too young. This has resulted in young toddlers needing to have their teeth extracted – something which is entirely preventable.

Prevention is better than cure.

This saying is so true in relation to dentistry. Giving a patient good oral health advice helps them to maintain a healthy mouth which is free from tooth decay and gum disease.