
Dental Sky shares the inspiring story of Lyndsay Davidson’s career, who balanced family life with further training to get started with inclusive dentistry.
Dentistry is a field often defined by the passion of its professionals to advance their skills to benefit their patients. For many, it is more than just a career – it’s a calling.
Dental therapist Lyndsay Davidson’s remarkable journey epitomises those with a deep affinity to dentistry. Indeed, there is much to admire in her unparalleled determination to achieve her goal.
Her career began in the Lake District in 1995 as a dental nurse in a bustling NHS practice. Over the years, her professional journey evolved into private practice until she found her calling in community dentistry. A move from the market town of Cockermouth to Prescot, just a few miles east of Liverpool’s city centre, heralded a new chapter in her career, providing the all-important catalyst.
Lyndsay recalls: ‘I moved from the Lake District to Liverpool in 2002. In 2004, I joined the community dental service, part of Liverpool PCT. A year later, my daughter was born. I worked hard to progress. I became an oral health educator, delivering one-to-one instruction and dental health promotion, a senior dental nurse, and then a dental nurse manager, managing staff and clinics.’
Her son Sam was born in 2009, and her second daughter, Annie, in 2012, but a busy life as a mum did not deter her, and her quest for professional growth remained insatiable.
Balancing family and training
Despite the demands of raising three children and navigating a career, she looked into what she needed to do to secure a place on the dental hygiene and dental therapy course at the Manchester School for Dental Care Professionals (DCPs).
‘I missed the contact with patients, and expanding my skills to dental hygiene and therapy skills offered this opportunity. I discovered I had to gain GCSEs, and a colleague encouraged me to start with my GCSE maths.’
Achieving this, Lyndsay threw herself into studying for five further GCSEs, determined to pursue her dream.
‘It then took three years to get a place on the course – all while raising three kids. There were 500-600 applicants, and only a handful of places were available, so it was tough. On the first attempt, I was 11th out of the 10 that got on the course, so I just missed out. But I look back now and see that it just wasn’t the right time for me.’
And so it was third time lucky – and her resolve remained unwavering despite the challenges, which included a daily commute of two hours or more from Liverpool to Manchester. With family responsibilities, the logistics were never a problem for her, nor was the demand of juggling home life with academic studies.
Inclusivity
‘Once qualified, I returned to the community dental service as a dental nurse manager during COVID-19 in April 2020. Then, a post became available as a dental therapist, and I began my role when we started seeing patients again with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.’
She works as a locum in other clinics and practises at Bupa Dental Care Deysbrook in Liverpool, but her return to community dentistry underscores her commitment to serving others. She undertook further training to expand her scope of practice, and in October 2022, she became an advanced dental therapist.
Central to Lyndsay’s ethos is the principle of inclusivity. Her clinics serve as sanctuaries for patients with special educational needs, offering tailored interventions and a conducive environment for holistic care. Most clinics are autism-friendly environments with uncrowded waiting rooms not shared with other services, painted in calming colours with calming pictures on the wall. From children with autism to elderly patients with dementia, every individual is accorded the dignity and respect they deserve.
Inhalation sedation
‘We deliver inhalations sedation to patients – primarily children and adults with special educational needs. Generally, we get referrals for anxiety needle-phobic or medically compromised patients. We are inundated with requests and get hundreds of referrals. Each day, we have up to one hourly appointments for those requiring sedation and then treatment around this appointment, so we see on average eight patients a day, four of whom are hour-long sedations.
‘We also treat adults with special educational needs and offer periodontal treatment, oral hygiene instructions and dietary advice to ensure these patients have the support they need.
‘Patients access dentistry within our services when they have exhausted all options with their GDP. Ideally, everyone would be seen by the practice they attend where they are most comfortable. We deliver general anaesthetics for all of Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton, but we try to treat children to prevent them from having GA in hospitals. If they can have inhalation sedation with us, it is safer.’
The Wand
At the crux of Lyndsay’s delivery of care is The Wand, an alternative to the traditional syringe in dental anaesthesia. Unlike its conventional counterpart, The Wand has a patient-friendly design that resembles a pen. It delivers anaesthesia with unparalleled precision and minimal discomfort. Its utilisation alongside topical anaesthetics ensures a seamless, pain-free experience for patients, particularly those with needle phobia or anxiety disorders.
‘I cannot remember the last time I used a traditional syringe in community,’ she says. ‘I use The Wand with every patient unless I have to do an ID block, which is rare as I now use infiltration. Most clinicians within the community use it. We have 10 clinics, and at least one dental wand STA system is at each site.’
She adds: ‘For paediatric patients, I explain that we will “spray next to the tooth”; the needle is so fine that they often don’t realise they have had it, nor do the parents observing. It has a visual gauge and emits little beeps. We use this as a distracting technique and tell our patients it is going into “cruise control”.’
Practice economics
Beyond its immediate patient benefits, Lyndsay suggests The Wand may also herald a shift in dental practice economics.
‘We rarely get a patient who remains non-compliant or resistant to care with The Wand, so the success rate for patient acceptance is high. It is a great investment. For needle-phobic patients, it helps them manage their dental anxiety and avoids any referrals to specialist centres. This ensures continuity of care. If more general dental practices used it, more patients could overcome common barriers,’ she says.
Her children are now 12, 14, and 19. Lyndsay is delighted that her eldest daughter, Katie, is now a dental nurse with an eye on a career in orthodontic therapy. It seems the apple does not fall far from the tree.
‘I have worked in this service for 20 years, and I am proud to be able to treat patients who ordinarily cannot be seen in general dentistry. It is not an easy job, but I love my patients and am happy that Katie is following in my footsteps.’
If you’d like to try The Wand, please click here to arrange for a member of the team to visit your practice with a demo unit.
This article is sponsored by Dental Sky.