As dental hygienists and dental therapists many of us are made to work alone. This is not acceptable for the patients we treat or for ourselves anymore especially as not every practice works in this archaic manner. 

Especially at these difficult times-there are so many of us hygienists that are expected to treat our patients, write up our notes and carry out extensive and,  even more so now than ever,  correct cross infection control procedures between patients and extra PPE and we are expected to do this in 20-30 minutes booked back to back appointments with no help from a dental nurse.

As a hygienist for the last 14 years -I have found I am much happier working with a nurse as it’s safer for the patient and you can achieve so much more in the appointment length. 
It’s actually stated in the GDC guidance 6.2 that all clinicians should work with a appropriately trained other member of the dental team when treating patients. However this is often ignored and perceived to mean something different. Dental practice owners who don’t want to pay for a nurse for their hygienist claim it just means you can’t work without a fully trained first aider, so as long as the receptionist is fully trained in BLS -we still don’t need any help in the surgery. Unless you have more than two arms, holding a mirror, the scaler and now the HVA all at the same time is impossible. 

In my 14 years of being a dental hygienist/therapist and ESPECIALLY since the outbreak of Covid-19 there are STILL dental practices out there who don’t provide their dental hygienists with a nurse. There are STILL hygienists that don’t want to work with a nurse-although these seem to be very far and few between now and often it’s not through choice. Just lack of jobs available that offer a nurse. Or you are promised help but it never materialises. 

We are at the highest risk of infection from Covid -19, ranked higher than dentists. The reason why? As we are left to work alone. A dentist cannot work alone so why are we, as a profession still accepting this treatment?. We should be recognised by the dental profession as a whole and treated equally. We are more than just “tooth polishers” and we deserve to be treated as well as the rest of the team. I was a dental nurse before I was a dental hygienist and I felt more appreciated at a nurse than as I do as a hygienist. Please let’s stand together as a profession and fight for the basic right to have nurse support when treating patients as a basic requirement now within the profession and any dentist who doesn’t provide a nurse for their hygienist should have to change to this SOP by law enforced by the GDC.