Fancy a change of scenery? Smile Together is looking for team members to join its mission for ‘healthier, happier communities’. Here, we find out more about the available opportunities.
Close your eyes and think of Cornwall! Go on, just take 30 seconds to gather some thoughts…
Nice isn’t it? Some of the best beaches anywhere; pasties and cream tea ; celebrity chefs and fine dining; Poldark, Doc Martin, Fisherman’s Friends; and perhaps some childhood memories of caravan holidays. They are probably images that most people would conjure up.
Of course, culturally, Cornwall is famous for doing things its own way. No, we are not talking about having our own language here. What we are talking about is a real pioneering spirit – from the UK’s space station to a hotbed of creativity and passion. A place which is home to the most ground-breaking dental organisation in the UK.
You didn’t have that in your mind when you thought of Cornwall did you?
Innovative business model
But what if we said we are the first dental practice in the UK to achieve the prestigious B Corp certification, joining a global community that thinks business can and should be a force for good for people and the planet?
And we didn’t just make the grade – we achieved an impressively high overall B Impact Score of 122.9 (in context, 80 qualifies for B Corp certification) demonstrating our commitment to our patients, community, environment, suppliers, partners and one another.
You see, as a community interest company, we take our impact very seriously. When we became Smile Together Dental CIC in 2016, our vision was to create ‘healthier, happier communities’.
Since then we’ve grown our team to more than 100 people, most of whom are shareholders in our employee-owned company, and this innovative business model and ‘more margin, more mission’ approach has enabled us to reinvest over £6 million from our profits into oral health prevention, education and treatments across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Tackling oral health inequality
From tooth-brushing clubs and oral health pack donations in some of our most vulnerable communities to reaching out to local fishermen with our award-winning Smiles at Sea initiative and opening brand new private practices, we’re so proud of what we’ve done. But there’s much more to do and we need more dentists and dental professionals to help us with our mission of ‘tackling oral health inequality’.
We’re thrilled that our brand-new contemporary dental practice in the heart of Saltash opened its doors to patients on Monday 27th February 2023.
Our Saltash team of principle dentist Liz Winfield, location (practice) manager Hannah Rofe, dental therapist Jo Elmes, and dental nurses Wendy and Nikki provide high-quality, predictable dentistry that is minimally invasive, functional and beautiful.
Together they bring a wealth of experience alongside a passion for exceptional patient care and an informed approach to maintaining good oral health. They are incredibly excited about providing an even wider range of dental treatments for local people in this fabulous new patient-centric environment.
Those patients who kindly attended special appointments the week prior to opening, helping us test the new environment and state-of-the-art equipment alongside the contractors who remained on site to make any final adjustments, have been impressed with our new practice and Keast Mews’ principal dentist Liz.
Patient-centric and passionate
Liz, who moved down here from London, is an experienced general dental practitioner and brings a wealth of clinical experience to Saltash. She says: ‘I’m a compassionate, patient-centric and conscientious clinician, passionate about dentistry, patient care and my team.
‘As an employee-owned and B Corp certified CIC with a brand-new dental centre to establish and grow in Saltash, Smile Together is a perfect environment for me to further develop my clinical leadership skills.’
We are looking for a private dental practitioner to join Liz and the team in Saltash. If you are interested, you can get all the details you need here and you can find out more about Liz’s journey here.
Liz isn’t the only one to head west in recent years. There is no doubt that the pandemic made more people evaluate their careers in a way they had never imagined. As you know, many dentists simply couldn’t practice for a considerable period of time.
We were also one of the first practices in the country to reopen as a designated Urgent Dental Care Hub. We’re proudly commissioned by NHS England to provide urgent and emergency dental treatments for people who don’t have their own dentist, run out-of-hours surgeries and apply expert skills to treat children and adults with a range of special care needs.
This all runs alongside oral surgery, children’s orthodontics and treatments under general anaesthetic in a hospital setting.
Maximising clinical effectiveness
This enables us to offer secure salaried roles for dental professionals who wish to either start or develop their career, safe in the knowledge there is contracted work to do.
In fact, if you thrive in that kind of environment and want to bring relief to people who really need your help, we are currently looking for an urgent care dentist to complement our existing urgent care team.
Interested? Apply here.
Perhaps your focus is in maximising the clinical effectiveness of dental care services. If so, we are looking for a dentist who has aspirations to be a future leader to join our Clinical Leadership Pathway.
Or if your interest is in driving forward service improvement and development, we are seeking a quality improvement dentist to continuously improve our clinical services.
Right across Smile Together, we offer unique, rewarding and progressive dentist career opportunities where our focus on training and CPD means we’re a great place to work and develop your dental career.
Exciting opportunities
Our dentists utilise their full range of dental skills and experience in a safe, quality-assured and innovative environment. Here, everyone’s voice is heard and we make every contact count. You can find out more from our dental director Jonathan Bouwer-Davies about these progressive dentist opportunities here.
Alternatively, take a look at our exciting opportunities on the vacancy section of our careers portal – you never know where a discussion with us might take you!
Our competitive salaries alongside a benefits package including bonus and dividend payments, access to an NHS pension, £8,000 personal relocation support, paid indemnity, GDC registration, 27 days paid annual leave plus bank holidays and another paid day off for your birthday (conditions apply to all benefits) have enabled many dental professionals to turn nice thoughts into reality and join us in unique Cornwall.
For more information or to apply for a role, visit www.jobs.dentistry.co.uk/jobs/15042.
And if you aren’t ready just yet but think you might be in the future, you can register to stay in touch and get regular updates on how we’re making a big difference together. Or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin.
