Responsibilities when providing extended duties to GDC scope of practice

This assignment discusses the outline of responsibilities when providing extended duties to GDC scope of practice. It covers the recommended messages from the 'delivering better oral health' toolkit. The responsibilities include preparation and maintenance of clinic and equipment, infection control and prevention, record maintenance, handling dental biomaterials, and providing support during treatment procedures. The 'delivering better oral health' toolkit provides instructions for primary dental care teams, use of fluoride, prevention of gum disease, brushing teeth, and preventing tooth erosion.

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Assignment 3
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15 Feb 2019
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Contents
Outline of responsibilities when providing extended duties to GDC scope of practice 3
Outline of messages recommended by ‘delivering better oral health’ toolkit................5
References...............................................................................................................................7
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Outline of responsibilities when providing extended duties to GDC scope of practice
According to the General Dental Council (GDC) scope of practices it is clearly
recommended that dental professionals can only undertake dental or oral health
related task, treatment type, make decisions with respect to patient care, only if they
are competent with respect to requisite skills, have necessary education, are
indemnified, and trained properly. In order to accomplish the extended role for
patient care, nurses can avail the opportunity of enrolling into courses for developing
their skills and gaining experiences. The GDC scope of practice has allows dental
nurses to gain skills with respect to oral health education and promotion, assisting in
the patient treatment with special needs or orthodontic or conscious sedation
condition. In addition to this other skills that can be gained include radiograph,
cephalograph, X-ray, and application of topical anesthetics mouth guard and
bleaching tray (Barber et al. 2018). Extended duties also allows learning of fluoride
varnish application with reference to dentist prescription or as direct practice (in
cases where nurses are registered or licensed). However, dental nurses are not
responsible for making disease diagnosis as well as treatment plan. GDC also
recommended that in order to make extended duties as a core part of practice team,
the dental care institution must develop practice business plan. The scope of this
practice policies must have explicit mission statement that aims to develop dental
nursing competencies and promote oral health in the community.
The extended duty course for fluoride varnish assessment of practice models as first
step. Here the responsibilities include scope which ensures that the registered
nurses have underpinned knowledge and skills with reference to (Henderson, 2017):
 Utility of topical fluoride application for adults and children
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 Clinical photography and their use in prescription
 Ability to identify plaques and debris and score them for assessment
 Modeling of tooth using impressions and ability of removing sutures.
The knowledge of practical skills will be the second step, in which the nurses will
perform fluoride varnish application to children and elderly patient in variety of
conditions. The last step include structured assessment for clinical practices in which
nurses have the responsibilities to maintain records and follow protocol for safe and
accurate documentation. Note that dental nurses are registered professionals that
have the responsibility to support the dental registrants and as well as patient
(Metcalf, 2016).
Other important responsibilities for nurses according to GDC scope of practice
include (Barker, 2016):
 Preparation and maintenance of clinic and equipment.
 Following the protocol and procedures for infection control and prevention.
 Record maintenance that include charting, assessment, and patient history.
 Preparing, assembling, and handling dental biomaterials.
 Providing support to dentist OR technician during the treatment procedure.
 Involving in procedures such as operation of equipment, arrangement of
material for the procedure, processing prescription, radiograph, and
maintaining required documentation.
 Monitoring the procedures, supporting and giving information or advice to
patient.
 Making appropriate referrals according to the situational requirement.
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Assignment Name Student ID
Outline of messages recommended by ‘delivering better oral health’ toolkit
According to Public Health England, “Delivering better oral health” toolkit aims to
support the dental team towards the improvement in patient’s oral health. The toolkit
mainly includes: instructions for primary dental care teams, use of fluoride,
prevention of gum disease, brushing teeth, and preventing tooth erosion (James
2016).
In accordance with the toolkit, children should be provided with fluoridated milk or
fluoride rinse or fluoride tablets on a daily basis to increase the serum-availability of
fluoride, which in turn can prevent, control and reduce dental caries probability.
Additionally, toothpaste containing fluoride concentration more than 1000 ppm are
found to be effective for controlling caries (Pitts et al. 2017). However, for the
children within the range of 0-6 years of age should be provided with 1350-1500 ppm
contained fluoride toothpaste for the utmost prevention from tooth decay. The
variable level of fluoride concentration is based on the body-mass estimation and
aims to prevent overdosing related complications. Notably, for children below 6 years
age, it is advisable to brush teeth twice a day, so that fluoride can protect their teeth
from bacterial harm for the whole day. The responsibility scope also dictates that
children should be encouraged to spill out their toothpaste after brushing instead of
eating or rinsing with water (Sturrock et al. 2017). Immediate rinsing of the teeth after
brushing can lead to wash away of the concentrated fluoride remaining on the teeth
and can diminish its preventive effects. Nurses must give advice to the parents for
provide their children with a thin film of toothpaste which should be less than three-
quarter of the brush.
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Fluoride varnish can also be taken as a supplement to increase the level of topical
fluoride. Dentists should prescribe the application of fluoride varnish to teeth of
children aged 0-6 years for at least two times a year, however, the dose for adults
can be raised upto three times a year, depending upon the risk of dental caries. In
accordance to balanced topical fluoride, there is a difference between the fluoride
required for caries prevention and the risk of fluorosis development. Therefore, it is
appropriate to use high concentration fluoride toothpaste in small quantities for
children less than 6 years of age.
For patients dealing with problems such as active caries issue, dry mouth, or using
ortho appliances are advisable to use fluoride mouth rinse containing 0.05% sodium
fluoride on a daily basis, after a specific duration from brushing. According to the
toolkit, effective fluoride varnish products containing sodium fluoride 22600 ppm
should be used. Patients undergoing with fluoride varnish treatment are restricted
from eating ,drinking and rinsing for next 30 minutes, after application. Likewise,
consuming hard or chewable food is also not advices in similar condition. However,
patients are allowed to eat soft foods and consume liquid diet for the subsequent
four hours. Concurrent use of fluoride supplements should be avoided for few weeks
(according to dentist prescription and advice) and can be resumed normally
afterwards. In contrary, the dentist and nurses should be aware of the fact that most
of the fluoride varnish available in the market does not control caries, and thus
should prescribed accordingly (O Mullane et al. 2016).
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References
Barber, S., Shah, R., O'Neill, J., Murray, A., Sandler, J. and Hodge, T. (2018).
Training and scope of practice for orthodontic auxiliaries: where does the uk sit
within europe?. Orthodontic Update, 11(3), pp.93-99.
Barker, N. (2016). ‘Dental nurse practitioners’–what are they?. Dental
Nursing, 12(10), pp.560-561.
Henderson, K. (2017). Orthodontic nursing–past, present and future. Dental
Nursing, 13(1), pp.20-22.
James, M. (2016). Oral health: An evidence-based approach. British dental
journal, 221(3), p.100.
Metcalf, R. (2016). Making extended duties a reality. Dental Nursing, 12(6), pp.349-
349.
O Mullane, D.M., Baez, R.J., Jones, S., Lennon, M.A., Petersen, P.E., Rugg-Gunn,
A.J., Whelton, H. and Whitford, G.M. (2016). Fluoride and oral health. Community
dental health, 33(2), pp.69-99.
Pitts, N.B., Zero, D.T., Marsh, P.D., Ekstrand, K., Weintraub, J.A., Ramos-Gomez,
F., Tagami, J., Twetman, S., Tsakos, G. and Ismail, A. (2017). Dental caries. Nature
reviews Disease primers, 3, p.17030.
Sturrock, A., Cussons, H., Jones, C., Woodcock, C. and Bird, L. (2017). Oral health
promotion in the community pharmacy: an evaluation of a pilot oral health promotion
intervention. British dental journal, 223(7), p.521.
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