By Tracy Wallis, President, Society of British Dental Nurses 2022-2024

In September the Society of British Dental Nurses launched their work on 'Speaking up and Listening up' in response to recent headlines highlighting sexual misconduct among surgeons1 and a later acknowledgement to nurses. Unfortunately, over the years, this has on occasion been related to complaints within dentistry and involved dental nurses. Broader discussions have led the Society to believe this may often go unchecked or ignored.

The Society is acutely aware that this is not specific to women, but data may paint this picture simply because the dental nursing profession is predominantly female (GDC Registration Reports, 2023).

At the time of writing, there are 938 male dental nurses and 58,929 female dental nurses recorded on the GDC register.

Dentistry, like healthcare, commonly has a hierarchical structure and many do not feel able to speak up for fear of retaliation or not being taken seriously. Sexual misconduct examples are:

  • Sexually suggestive comments, for example remarking on your body or appearance, or name calling

  • Sexual jokes that make you feel uncomfortable, offended or intimidated

  • 'Leering' or unwanted and inappropriate sexual propositions, whether in person, or online

  • If someone intentionally grabs or touches you in a sexual way that you don't like, or you're forced to kiss someone or do something else sexual against your will - this includes sexual touching of any part of someone's body, and it makes no difference whether you're wearing clothes or not

  • If someone forces you to have penetrative sex, or has sex with you without your consent or agreement, that's rape

  • If someone sexually assaults you by penetrating you with a part of their body or another object, this is classed as 'assault by penetration'.

The Society is interested in the broader picture here and has launched a survey on its website to gain awareness and insight of sexual misconduct experienced or witnessed by dental nurses in the UK. This can be found at: https://go.nature.com/48NfvTq.

The Society is calling on other professional dental groups to commit to looking deeper into this issue and to come together to provide answers and actions.