Cat Edney shares five essential topics for conversations every dental therapist and practice owner should have before joining forces.
Beginning a new working relationship can feel overwhelming, especially in a dental practice setting where both financial and time investments are high.
For practice owners, the cost and commitment of recruitment adds significant pressure. Equally, dental therapists stepping into new roles face their own challenges: relying on the practice to support their growth, wellbeing and professional goals.
Building a foundation of mutual trust from the start is an important way to ensure a successful and rewarding partnership for everyone involved.
In this article I will look at five key conversations that dental therapists and hiring managers or practice owners should consider covering in order to set expectations from the outset.
By considering more than just financial renumeration, dental practices can work on fostering long-term working relationships and dental therapists can focus on providing the kind of care they want to provide – with the support required to make it a success.
Defining the scope of practice and responsibilities
It is no secret that some dental therapists have not been undertaking their full scope of practice for some time. On the other hand, there are many newly graduated dental therapists who are very keen to cover their full scope from the start.
Some overseas dentists registered as dental therapists who have varying degrees of confidence and competence depending on how long they have been out of practice and how much hands on experience they gained prior to registering in the UK.
The scope of practice document is fantastic guidance for what a dental therapist can do, or roles dental therapists are permitted by the General Dental Council (GDC) to undertake.
However, every dental therapist will have slight differences in the type of treatments they feel confident covering.
In addition, dental practices often run differently, with varying patient journeys and demographics.
It is important to ask:
- Will the dental therapist work independently ie through a direct access arrangement or will this be referral based or a mix?
- How much autonomy will the dental therapist have in patient care – can they treatment plan as they see fit, will they be encouraged to make referrals and will the dental associate colleagues be happy to accept these referrals?
- Are there limitations on the scope of practice – ie can the dental therapist take on all the direct restorative care or will they only be referred dental hygiene work – or a half-way house approach where only some of the restorative work will be referred?
- Will the dental therapist take on emergency appointments and how will these be triaged?
- Is there scope for the dental therapist to grow in a specific field of interest ie with composite bonding, facial aesthetics, periodontal treatment or paediatrics?
Collaboration and team dynamics
A healthy team work on their communication and collaboration.
Some dental therapists rely on a referral from their dentist colleagues but also an increasing number of practices are adopting a therapist-led model.
If the relationship is to work, it is important to iron out a few key areas:
- How do the dentist(s) and dental therapist(s) work together in patient care?
- What is the structure of the dental team, and who will be working closely with the dental therapist?
- How is treatment planning and the referral process handled – are there digital tools and communication portals in use to make this a smooth and timely process? Is there training time available to learn these systems?
- What time can the dental therapist get in practice prior to starting in order to build rapport and develop protocols that support collaborative care?
Diary zoning, patient payments, white space and demand
- How is the diary structured for dental therapists? Can this be arranged in order to ensure an even spread of check-ups, restorative and periodontal care?
- Are patients expected to pay deposits, what happens to the deposits if patients FTA and who decides if patients are charged a fee
- How does the practice handle white space – are support staff proactive in filling space and is there scope for the dental therapist to see walk-in patients or emergencies in this time?
- Discuss and decide how much time should be allocated for specific treatments – consider setting a review date for this if longer times are required for newly qualified or newly registered dental therapists
- Consider how busy the diary has been in previous months and discuss setting expectations for how busy the dental therapist diary will be going forward – will this be reliant on the proactivity of other team members or is the dental therapist solely responsible for treatment planning and booking patients into their diary?
Development and support
An essential area for discussion is the support available for both the dental practice and the therapist to learn, adapt, and grow together. Dental therapy remains a relatively young profession compared to general dental practice, and as more practices begin to adopt a therapist-led model, there is significant room for development on both sides.
For this collaboration to thrive, it’s important that both dental therapists and practice owners commit to continuous learning and adaptation, ensuring they build a robust, modern practice that benefits everyone, especially the patients.
- Is there opportunity for the business to adapt and re-visit protocols in order to streamline the patient journey and support the dental therapy model?
- Can regular team meetings or huddles be scheduled in for growth and change to be discussed?
- Is there mentorship available for the dental therapist? Are clinicians available to provide guidance and support in a timely manner?
- Will the practice support the dental therapist in promoting a dental therapy led model (if applicable) or in ensuring their full scope is utilised?
Aligning on vision and values
It is often said that you just know when you have found your professional home. I am a keen believer that a practice’s philosophy toward patient care, ethics, and professional standards should reflect that of all the team members that work within the practice.
Teams that align on values tend to have a good working relationship, and a team culture that promotes improvement and growth.
In order to explore this, it can be helpful to discuss the practice approach to patient care: how do they want patients to come away feeling? How do they see the dental therapist role fitting into their vision for the practice and how do they see this developing in the future?
These five areas of discussion help to define: what is the dental therapist going to be doing, how that will work in the current practice set up, how this will be managed on an operations level, what growth and development potential there is and then crucially – are we aligned with our goals?
These conversations are just as important as traditional conversations around pay, hours and contracts. They set the foundation for a truly collaborative working relationship and hopefully go some way towards reducing the stress around recruitment and retention.
Catch up with Cat’s previous columns:
- Are dental therapists going to save the NHS?
- How to make dental therapy a success in practice
- What can dental therapists do now? – an update
- What I’ve learned about dental therapy since speaking about it
- What do dental therapists want?
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