FAQ's
What is the difference between a Dental Therapist and a Dentist?
Dental Therapist's are trained at Dental School for up to 3 years, alongide the Dentists who train for up to 5 years. Both must be fully qualified, GDC registered, indemnified and complete compulsory training updates in order to practise in the U.K. There are over 7,000 GDC registered Dental Therapists in the U.K! Our Dental Therapist can see all patients directly, without them seeing a Dentist beforehand.
A Dental Therapist's skills mix (or, Scope of Practice) is limited to:
Dental examinations, giving oral health advice, setting recalls, taking and interpretting radiographs, diagnosing gum disease and tooth decay, identifying oral anomalies, oral cancer screening, referring to other clinicians, placing fillings, restoring teeth for improved aesthetics, hygienist and periodontal treatments, extracting baby teeth, placing crowns on baby teeth, administering local anaesthetics, taking impressions, carrying out tooth whitening (under prescription of a Dentist), and providing sports mouth guards.
What a Therapist can't do - but a Dentist can - is carry out root canal treatments, place crowns, bridges, dentures and implants, extract adult teeth, carry out oral surgery, diagnose more complex dental condition, prescribe medications such as antibiotics, provide orthodontics and supply medical devices for TMD and grinding.
You can find more information here: Guidance on Scope of Practice
Can I see a Dental Therapist instead of a Dentist?
Absolutely! The Therapist will be able to see you for essential routine dental care such as check-ups, hygienist treatments, fillings, etc. However, if they notice something more complicated that requires the skill of a Dentist, they will make you aware of this , and maybe offer a referral or recommendation, similar to how other healthcare services triage patient care.
Where, and how, do you provide mobile dental appointments?
We are based in Salisbury, Wiltshire and use a location-based Service Schedule, where we release appoitments on a 3-monthly schedule for each area. This enables us to reduce time spent travelling and subsequent transport cost, maximising our service capability. As our service grows, so will our location radius.
We can still provide appointments outside of the Service Schedule, however this will carry a 'Travel Charge'. If you would like to register for our Service Schedule email notifications, you can do so .
I need to book an appintment for someone who is bed-bound, can you help?
This is exactly what we're here for! As long we can safely see and reach into their mouth, while keeping ourselves unharmed, we will do our best to provide the dental care that's needed. Whether that's in their bed or favourite chair.
How do you do Mobile Dentistry?
We have a portable dental unit (scaler, drill, suction), a foldable dental chair, a small hand-held X-ray machine, cloud-based clinical record software and the DC2U van! We also have a sterilisation facility where we go to clean, package, store and maintain all of our equipment and instruments. This is set up just like the ones inside a dental practice and we follow all the same regulated procedures.
We load up the van for each session and travel to our patients, where we provide a professional, caring and safe service. Then we reload our kit, and head on to our next appointment. We return to the sterlisation facility as needed throughout the day, and again at then end of each session. .
