Dental Nurse Responsibilities
Added on 2020-02-12
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Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery1Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgeryStudent’s Name:Instructor’s Name:Date:
Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery2Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgeryThe general dental council (GDC) sets out the duties of the dental profession in the legislationand it is the governing body for dentistry under the National Health Service (NHS) of UnitedKingdom [1]. The primary aim of the GDC is to encourage high standards of education andquality along with professional conduct in dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) [1]. Thefollowing assignment provides insight on unit 311 in dental nursing that deals with variousaspects of providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery [1].1.1. Why do you need to provide records, charts, and images to the operator for plannedtreatment?Dental records comprise all documents dealing with the patient history, history of current illnessor presentation, clinical examination details, clinical diagnosis, treatment carried out, diseasefollow-up and prognosis [1, 2]. For a dental care professional, it is of utmost importance tomaintain records of the patient. Its applications lie in the forensic area [2]. Additionally, thesereports hold legal importance in the aspects of consumerism and insurance [2]. A patient recordtypically consists of various elements including handwritten notes, study models, consultationreports, radiographs and images, referrals, clinical images and photographs, drug prescriptions,special investigation results, laboratory prescriptions, information for patient identification,complete medical history, and history of illness [2]. The information recorded in the report mustbe easy to access and must be recorded in a typical clinical nature [2]. The record keeping andmaintenance of information is an important prerogative of the dental nurse and dental careprofessional [2]. Whilst providing chairside support to the dentist, the dental nurse has the
Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery3responsibility of maintaining the records meticulously [2]. The clinical information recordedshould be legible, clear, and devoid of excessive abbreviations and ambiguity [2]. The GDC ofNHS provides ample guidelines for the record keeping for dental patients [2]. These guidelinesdetail the type of information that needs to be maintained in the record, the colour coding, andfiling in an open shelf method [2]. The dental record is alternatively referred to as a patient chart.The patient chart is an official document that records information of diagnostics, notes of clinicalnature, treatments provided, and communications related to the patients as progressed in theoffice of the dentist [2]. The patient-related communication must include the instructions givento the patient for home-based care and consent obtained for treatment [2]. I have realised the importance of patient record-keeping in most instances while providingchairside support to dentists and health care providers. In each instance, the patient details haveto be explicit and legible. I believe that recording the patient-related communication entailing theverbatim references is vital in record keeping. The protection of health information is of utmostimportance and the record keeping must be done in a diligent and comprehensive manner forseveral reasons such as:Patient care: The patient chart is a documentation of the course of treatment and mayadditionally provide data that aids evaluation and improvement of the quality of patientcare [2]. I practice the documentation of treatment course starting with the initialdiagnosis and all follow-up prescriptions. Patient communication: The patient record documents the patient-related communicationthat occurs in the dental office between the dentist and the patient [2]. Along with this,the communication between the dental professionals who care for the patient. The records
Providing chairside support for the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery4have to be precise and comprehensive to aid any other dental care provider without anyprelude to the patient [2]. The maintenance of patient records is an utterly challengingaspect of the nurse handling chairside support. I have found the aspect of rememberingand recording all related communication points challenging.Defence against malpractice allegations: The medicolegal implications of the dentalreport are of prime importance [2]. The court of law utilises the patient records forinformation on diagnostics and patient-related communication along with medical history[2]. In my perspective, the medicolegal aspect of patient record-keeping is of anextremely meticulous nature.Identification of the patient: Dental records aid in providing information to the legalauthorities that help in identification of missing or dead patients [2].Patient charts may be of paper-based, electronic, or radiographic nature. It is important toretain patient information [2]. For children, it is essential to retain the information till theyturn major in age. This information may even be scanned and stored electronically [2].Electronic storage is fast developing recently and this method saves storage space. Thediagnostic and treatment casts are sometimes photographed and stored [2]. Whilst convertingthe records to any of these forms, a consultation with the solicitor and liability insurancecompany is essential [2]; The regulations of NHS indicate that dental charts must bemaintained for a period of two years along with treatment photographs, study models etc.must be retained till the completion of the course of treatment [2]. The records have to followthe basic code of confidentiality [2]. Therefore, it is essential to provide the patient records tothe operator during planned treatment [2].
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