A day in the life of a dental nurse

A dental nurse is a crucial role for any practice and here at the Treatment Centre we value all our qualified and training dental nurses. Without them the dentists would not be able to complete their treatment and deliver excellent service.

We wanted to give you some insight as to what a typical day for our dental nurses looks like, so you know how vital they are to the practice and your care, they really are at the heart of your dental care.

We will be following Kristie, one of our experienced dental nurses, through her day.

8am- Arrive at the practice

The Treatment Centre opens at 8:30am and this is when the first appointments take place, however the dental nurses need to arrive early to get changed and ready for the day.

Kristie is an early riser and will usually arrive before 8am and enjoy her breakfast at the practice, fuelling herself for a busy day ahead. After she has eaten her healthy (most of the time) breakfast, she will then head to the changing rooms to get changed into her scrubs. It’s important that the dental nurses and dentists change into their fresh clean scrubs each day to make sure there is no cross contamination.

8:10am- Setup her surgery

Once Kristie has got herself prepped for the day, it’s time to get her surgery ready. This involves reading her day list (a list of each patient and treatment she has that day with the dentist she is nursing for) and prepping her trays with the right equipment for each treatment she has. Kristie will also need to flush the lines. This consists of running fresh water through the dental equipment that is hooked up to the chair. This needs to be done every morning to prevent bacteria festering in the equipment. Once this is all done and the dentist arrives, she is ready to go!

8:30am- 12:30pm- Morning Clinic

The front doors are open, the phone lines come alive, the sound of patients checking in for their appointments can only mean one thing, we have opened for the day! Kristie and the other dental nurses will now begin their day with their first patients and start treatment.

At the beginning of the morning clinic, the reception team will give the dental nurses the emergency triage forms that have come in that morning for them to pass onto the dentists. These forms are completed by the reception team when emergency appointments are called in. They will have questions for the patients that give the dentists and dental nurses a better understanding of what dental concern they have. Once these have all been gathered, the dentists will tell their dental nurse who they need to see and at what time. Kristie had a few of these today and informed the reception team of who her dentist would like to see and when.

Throughout the morning surgery you will see Kristie and the other dental nurses darting back and forth from the pods to the back corridor searching through cupboards for extra equipment etc. It’s a busy corridor that’s for sure so enter at your own risk!

12:30pm-1:30pm- Lunch

Now some may say this is the best time of the day, and as much as Kristie loves her job, she would have to agree -who doesn’t love lunch? This is the first break the dental nurses have since they began so you can imagine they need some food and a break. In this hour, Kristie will make her lunch and chat with colleagues and maybe go for a walk to get some fresh air.

1:30pm-4:30pm- Afternoon Clinic

After Kristie has had her well-deserved break, she is back into the surgery with her dentist ready for the afternoon.

The dentists will have a varied day of treatment and exams, so the dental nurse needs to always be on their toes and prepared for anything. It is not uncommon for a treatment to change its course and it’s Kristie and her fellow dental nurses’ role to easily adapt to these situations and help the best they can.

4:30pm- The practice closes for the day

All the patients have left the practice and the phone lines are now closed, so now Kristie will now have to clear down the pod and make sure its ready for the next day. This consists of sweeping and mopping the floor of the pod, flushing the lines again after the day of treatment they have had and sending the last parts of their equipment to the decontamination room. This room is monitored by a dedicated nurse for the day, who will decontaminate all the equipment used. Kristie will also need to complete her daily checklist for her surgery. She needs to do this every day for each pod she works in. This checklist is to make sure all the cleaning and decontamination has been completed and recorded. Sometimes Kristie will prepare her trays for the next day, especially if she has a busy, heavy treatment day ahead.

5pm- Everyone leaves for the day

After the long day, Kristie and the other dental nurses can now leave the practice. They will need to get changed back out of their scrubs for them to be washed the following day. Once everyone is changed, Kristie will then close the practice and lock up. What a day!

We don’t know about you, but we are tired after reading that diary entry, let alone doing it.

We really appreciate the hard work and effort that all the dental nurses put into their day and without them the practice wouldn’t be able to run so efficiently and effectively.

We hope this gives you more insight into what the dental nurses do here at The Treatment Centre, and we hope to feature further diary entries with more team members in the future.