We write in response to the letter on the autumn Vmail page of Vital, What are the benefits of registration? (page 5).

My dental nurse colleagues and I totally agree. We all work part time at a practice which has both NHS and private patients. We are all finding things extremely difficult. We pay all our own expenses: insurance, CPD, registration, etc. No additional time off is given for CPD. We are all on 'no work no pay' contracts, paid a set amount a month (minimum wage). Our hours are worked as required (eg hours banked when not needed, etc).

We do not earn enough to pay tax, so have been told we are not entitled to any help - even though we pay all costs and launder our own uniforms. Several of us have applied for financial help (benefits, housing, tax credits, etc) to pay personal bills like rent etc as most of our wages go back into paying work costs. This is only to be told that there is very little help for us as none of our additional work expenses are taken into consideration. Even though without these we cannot work.

It is crazy to think we all studied hard to qualify as dental nurses, as well as working hard trying to do the job to the best of our ability. We get very little to no thanks, support or respect. Most of the job satisfaction seems to have vanished. It is as if the powers that be want us to quit our jobs as dental nurses.

We still come across patients who think our jobs are easy; 'cleaners with glorified titles' was one of many comments. We may be registered, but we feel that there is very little public knowledge of what we really do; what we need to learn to qualify; and the fact that we have so much commitment - physically, mentally and financially.

It's very rare nowadays that a patient will say thank you to us nurses, but it is nice when they do.

We thought it was about that that we had our say; sorry to those who don't agree. These are just our views. We wonder how many other dental nurses are in the same position.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Jay and team