This summer, secondary school students in Gloucestershire and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (CIOS), had the fantastic opportunity of taking part in work experience in a dental practice.

As part of a pilot scheme in the South West to support the NHS Long Term Workforce plan, seven dental practices signed up to work with the NHS England South West dental team and local schools to offer students a unique opportunity to complete their work experience in a dental practice.

Students applied to work in a practice for up to a week and were given the opportunity to shadow a variety of different roles including a Practice Manager, Receptionist, Dental Nurse, Hygienist, Dental Lab Technician, Dental Therapist and Dentist. These roles are all essential to the delivery of good dental care but some are overlooked when a career in dentistry is being considered as not all routes of entry into dental practice are known to students.

Some of these less well-known careers present excellent opportunities for many young people in the South West, especially as entry routes into these careers are available outside of traditional university education. The dental work experience pilot aims to help students become aware of the different roles available in dentistry and how to enter these careers.

Dental practices who took part in the pilot have benefited from the extra support of the students during their work experience placement and from knowing that they are inspiring our future workforce.

Carriage Works Dental Practice in Lostwithiel, Cornwall is one of the practices participating in the pilot. The Practice Manager shared how much students have benefitted from taking part in work experience at the practice.

“We try to give students as much exposure to all the different roles available, starting from training nurse, qualified dental nurse, hygienist, therapist, and dentists who do oral surgery, implants, orthodontics, and endodontics. We are a big practice, but a friendly team and I think everyone is very enthused about dentistry, they really enjoy their job and that comes across. I think when students come out, they’re really motivated and excited about dentistry. We’ve had a few that have come back in their summer holidays, they’ve done their year 10 work experience for the week and really enjoyed it and have asked if they can I come back in the summer and do some more?.”

The Practice Manager also felt that having work experience students was a positive experience for the practice and recommended that other practices should consider getting involved.

“I think it’s a really positive thing. I think when staff are showing students their role and what they do, it makes them enthusiastic about their role as well. And it gives that satisfaction, that they can share their knowledge.”