Dental graduate Tila Lawton has been named as one of the 50 most influential students at Bristol University for exceptional contributions to academic and pastoral life such as establishing an HIV and equality symposium.
The symposium will now become an annual event at Bristol Dental School. Tila also worked with staff to create dedicated spaces called lavender rooms which both students and staff can use to take wellbeing breaks.
Since her second year, Tila has been supporting Dentaid the Dental Charity. She said: ‘Obviously as an undergraduate I wasn’t able to do any treatment, but they had a day where they wanted the dental school to support them at an event for single parents in south Bristol.
‘We had a stall there where myself and another student gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste. We were also able to give advice and answer questions about dental hygiene, and it was clear that our presence there was making a real difference.
‘I realised then that I wanted to explore outreach in public health a bit more.’
Sexual health and dentistry
She then started working with Common Ambition Bristol (CAB), a sexual health charity working with African and Caribbean communities, to disseminate contraception and sexual health tests.
As working with HIV is part of the dental training curriculum, Tila established the HIV and equality symposium to allow students to benefit from the charity’s expertise. The symposium invites a person living with HIV to discuss their experience of the disease, how it presents itself within the dental environment and how dental professionals can manage specialised care.
Tila said: ‘HIV commonly can present within the oral cavity prior to representing anywhere else. So, it’s really important for us to be able to pick up the signs of HIV, maybe before somebody else has or before they would even know to. During the session some really insightful feedback was shared, and I know people learned a lot, so it’s had a really good impact and I’m so proud that it’s now a permanent thing.’
Supporting practitioner wellbeing
Though Tila described Bristol Dental School as a ‘fantastic environment to work and study’, she noted that treating members of the public sometimes left students and staff vulnerable to harassment or aggression. She wrote to the head of the dental school to discuss ideas for creating a safe space to receive support in these situations.
As a result, every floor of the school now has a ‘lavender room’, where practitioners can find snacks, water and wellbeing support.
Professor Barry Main, head of Bristol Dental School, said: ‘Not only has [Tila] completed a long and difficult course of study, she has fully embraced University life to make real differences to the lives of her fellow students and communities in Bristol. At the dental school, her suggestion to provide safe, private spaces for students to meet personal tutors has been welcomed and valued by students and staff, and these lavender rooms are key to enhancing student experience. We all wish Tila the very best of luck in her future career.’
What’s next?
Having recently graduated, Tila will move on to foundation training.
She added: ‘I came into university wanting to grow as a person and figure out what dentistry was to me and what I wanted to get out of it as a human being. It’s taught me so many things other than just how to be a dentist.
‘I’ve learned how to be an adult. I’ve learned how to communicate with people. I learned how to interact with people from all walks of life, and that was one thing within this, that opened my eyes to the fact that this career offers such a vast set of experiences and a really fruitful job, if you make the most of it.’
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
