Coming into dental school prospective applicants are required to have had multiple weeks of work experience in understanding what the job 'dentist' entails. Most observe a general dental practitioner as an associate with all its glory in helping those in dire oral needs. A few may experience more complex procedures in the form of specialist work, and a smaller cohort gain experience and understanding of dentistry in a tertiary care setting. However only when students begin their first job - most commonly in the form of foundation training under NHS England - do they get an idea of what working as an associate entails. Dental foundation trainee Shayan Dadkhah talks to Training Programme Director Jason Stokes about how they see the current landscape of associates.
SD
Coming into this year I understand there to be three different types of associates: those who do private work, those who do NHS work and those who do a mixture of the two. Having observed my associate colleagues, I can clearly see a difference in workstyle, average time per appointment and limitations between the different types. For me and most of my colleagues, going into an associate job, I know it will be hard to differentiate between the NHS/private and hit the required NHS targets. What is your opinion on this?
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