Karen Walker
Dental hygienist
After qualifying as a hygienist in Edinburgh in 1994, Karen moved to Nottingham, where she worked in various NHS and Private Dental Practices.
Since 2009 Karen has worked in the Specialist Practice, The Campbell Clinic in Nottingham. She is a dedicated hygienist keen to equip her patients with the knowledge she has gained to improve their smiles and, ultimately, their general health and well-being.
Karen has a special interest in implant surgery and maintenance. As maintenance is pivotal to the success of dental implants, Karen has developed and implemented Maintenance and Treatment Protocols within the practice to ensure all implant patients are continually cared for to an exceptionally high standard. Karen's dedication to the Maintenance and Treatment of dental implants led her peers to elect her to the Committee for The Association of Dental Implantology (ADI), a UK-based organisation supporting dentists and patients, from 2014 to 2016. She organised a highly successful National Congress for the Dental Team, including dental nurses, receptionists, managers, and her Hygienist and Therapist peers. During her role on the ADI committee, Karen travelled the country to lecture to dentists on dental implant maintenance and treatment.
Karen has also lectured at the Congress for the International Team for Implantology to promote and emphasise the need for continuing maintenance of dental implants among her peers. She was pivotal in forming a Hygienist and Therapist section of the ITI UK and Ireland and lectures at ITI Study Clubs for the dental team. In 2014 to 2020 Karen was a Key Opinion Leader for Dentsply Sirona, and delivered courses and lectures to Dentists, Hygienists, and Therapists across the country. In 2018 Karen won a research prize and published a paper on the importance of maintaining good oral hygiene in patients to support and maintain dental implants. Karen also teaches in The Campbell Academy to dentists who are learning to place implants about the importance of risk assessing, maintaining and treating dental implants.
Karen supports the worldwide dental charity Dentaid. In 2008, Karen travelled to Uganda with Christian Relief Uganda in conjunction with Dentaid, where she worked in remote villages, providing emergency dental care with a team of dental professionals. Part of the programme was to promote Dental Health Education linked to primary Health Education in rural schools. She and the team also helped to formulate a now-published book on Infant Oral Mutilation (IOM), a subject at the heart of Dentaid's Educational Development Programme in many African communities.
Karen is a member of the professional bodies of the British Society of Dental Hygiene & Therapy, the British Society of Periodontology, the Association of Dental Implantology, and the International Team for Implantology.
