The British Association of Dental Therapists (BADT) is asking all dentists to make a New Year's resolution to view the delivery of dentistry as a team effort.

The call comes as a study predicts a sharp hike in demand for dental therapists in the next ten years. The study – from the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) – indicates a likely steep increase in demand for dental hygienists, dental therapists, orthodontic therapists and dental nurses in the run up to 2025.1

BADT president, Fiona Sandom, has warned that for this to work, the profession needs dentists to be ‘open minded and embrace the changes within dentistry’ by developing a multi-skilled dental team and delegating tasks to other members.

In a bid to support this step change, Fiona has already pledged to work towards changing the ‘unfair’ status quo on prescribing rights for dental therapists.

The BADT is meeting with the UK's chief dental officers early this year to discuss the ‘extremely limiting’ Patient Group Directions, something the BADT sees as a barrier to dental therapists carrying out their full scope of practice.