receptionist doubling up as a dental nurse?

Linda32

I would think that it is more likely that the Nurse has to cover reception. From reading posts on here I doubt a surgery could afford someone to work as a full time receptionist.

To give you an idea of what I mean, I pay about £67.00 for a check up, scale and polish. I'm sure I am in there for 30 minutes after all the 'keeping me calm' chatting. How they make anything on that is beyond me!

ophiuchus

brook2jack wrote: »

To work in the surgery room you have to be a qualified or in training dental nurse

You do not need to be a dental nurse to be on reception but most surgeries will use qualified nurses as booking and prioritising appointments needs dental knowledge and it provides a pool of staff to fill in for sickness holidays etc.

Dental charting is actually quite complex and a novice would never be able to do it , it's a skill that takes time particularly with the many different things that need to be charted in an average dental exam (over a dozen on a standard check up more if eg an in depth gum check done).

There are hundreds of different materials used which have to be handled in different ways and the knowledge and responsibility os decontaminating after every procedure and patient are not acquired overnight either.

Absolutely, and this is (or was) my concern. The details the receptionist recorded on the computer in the surgery room were very simple (as I said, 1-0-1 and 1-2-1)

Linda32 wrote: »

I would think that it is more likely that the Nurse has to cover reception. From reading posts on here I doubt a surgery could afford someone to work as a full time

There are in fact two receptionists. Possibly job-sharing, I don't know.

Red-Squirrel_2

ophiuchus wrote: »

Absolutely, and this is (or was) my concern. The details the receptionist recorded on the computer in the surgery room were very simple (as I said, 1-0-1 and 1-2-1)

Did you understand the numbers and what they meant in relation to your teeth?

ophiuchus

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Did you understand the numbers and what they meant in relation to your teeth?

Fairly sure they used to go through them tooth by tooth, but that wasn't the main point of my query here.

Red-Squirrel_2

ophiuchus wrote: »

Fairly sure they used to go through them tooth by tooth, but that wasn't the main point of my query here.

Just pointing out that you can’t say it’s simple to do when you don’t actually know what it is they’re doing!

ophiuchus

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Just pointing out that you can’t say it’s simple to do when you don’t actually know what it is they’re doing!

dental charting googleable within seconds..

nebdn.org/sites/default/files/NEBDN%20Dental%20Charting%20Book%20APRIL%202015.pdf



(to access the link, pls remove the gap between the pd and the f
Seems to be something programmed into the MSE website, possibly to stop spammers)

unforeseen

Simple answer. Go ask your dentist. FGS is it hard to work out that the best person or persons to answer your question are the people who work in the practice. You can come up with a myriad of scenarios to fit your thinking and ignore a dentists explanation but the only way to get to the bottom of it is to ask them.

Mr.Generous

ophiuchus wrote: »

Fairly sure they used to go through them tooth by tooth, but that wasn't the main point of my query here.

Is it a bit of a twisted mind I have that after reading that and thinking about the 1 - 0 - 1 thing (that I have never understood) I pictured one of those mouths with an occasional standing tombstone tooth then a gap ...:rotfl:

brook2jack

The six numbers between 0 and 4 and star relate to gum health where 0 is healthy gum and 4 is pretty serious gum disease. The six numbers relate to six sections of the mouth.

The letters a to e relate to baby teeth present and the numbers 1 to 8 relate to adult teeth present in the mouth.

The letter s denotes an extra tooth.

The numbers 1 to 3 and mobile denote how wobbly a tooth is.

The numbers 0 to 12 or more denote how deep a pocket is on each of the 6 surfaces of a tooth.

The words mesial, distal, buccal, lingual, labial, palatial relate to which surface of the tooth etc etc etc etc

Needless to say dental charting is complex as is filling in the many screens on the computer for a dental check up. A novice cannot do it and it takes a long time to learn to do it and learn the hundreds of technical terms.

micky2phones

ophiuchus wrote: »

Just wanted to run this past people, as I'm not sure I've encountered this before.


Had a dental appt this week, dentist mentioned to me how difficult it is to find and recruit staff, be it dental nurses or dentists. When the dentist went to clean my teeth the receptionist came in and put the suction tool in my mouth while the dentist was cleaning. Then the receptionist went to the computer, the dentist said to her "1 - 0 - 1 lower teeth, 1 - 2 - 1 upper teeth" (or possibly the other way round, I can't recall exactly), which she typed in hurriedly and then went back to the front desk to do her reception duties.


Has anyone else had this? Is this ok and above board? I'm not entirely sure what training and qualifications are requisite for dental nurses but I would have thought it should be someone other than a harried receptionist, or am I getting concerned unnecessarily?

Hi, i had my Doctor receptionist take my blood when having a blood test.