Susie Verow, Oral Health Educator at the Maltings Dental Practice, illustrates why the practice won the inaugural DCby1 Practice of the Year award.

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During my career I have seen a lot of significant changes in the dental world and dental nursing has become more than a job. I am always enthusiastic and passionate to provide the best care to my patients.

At the practice my roles include general dental nursing, working with visiting oral surgeons within the practice, as well as running my own clinics which include x-ray taking, promoting better oral health and disease prevention. Disease prevention is a key part of the practice ethos and patients are routinely offered an appointment to provide them with oral hygiene education. Within these clinics I also provide the application of topical fluoride.

I am proud to be a member of The Maltings Dental Practice team, as we thrive on putting our patients' best interests first, with prevention being at the forefront. We regularly have team meetings to gather ideas on how to promote prevention and learn how we can improve our care. Our supportive large management team actively encourage us to go ahead with any ideas we have. For instance, during National Smile Month our main feature was a photo booth in our busy reception where children and parents (and even staff) joined in the fun of a selfie taken with various props. It was a great success.

I regularly visit the local primary schools and nurseries to deliver oral health education. We believe in reaching out to children who do not attend the dentist.

I have also taken part in a children's activity week, where I met families and completed educational tasks and activities, which was very popular.

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©Image credit / Lloyd Goodall

I regularly visit the local primary schools and nurseries to deliver oral health education. We believe in reaching out to children who do not attend the dentist. We are actively involved in a scheme called Lincolnshire Smiles where we adopt a school and the children are encouraged to brush their teeth daily there. I provide the school with education and support. Following a recent nursery visit we managed to trigger media attention and appeared in the local newspaper.

Some of the activities are practice led whilst others are part of partnership working between NHS England and the Local Authority. One of the partners at the practice, Jason Wong also chairs the Local Dental Network so the practice is heavily involved in initiatives that occur in the community. Dental Check by One was promoted in a prevention roadshow that I attended and where I was asked to facilitate one of the sessions. Minutes were taken throughout the event and our practice held a meeting where we discussed what initiatives we could put forward to benefit our patients. Dental Check by One was totally supported by the whole team. We formed a key group of members to help carry through the ideas and implement changes.

Our amazing reception team are also involved with the delivery of key information. They share a great prevention vibe, targeting expecting parents with vital information and encouraging them to bring in their children for their first appointment. Some parents were surprised that we would want to see their baby so early but because the whole team is on board they were soon reassured. We have seen more parents bringing their babies in before their first birthday.

Reaching out in our community to raise of prevention is at the heart of our efforts. The award has been highly affirmative and instilled us with more confidence to continue with our work, making every contact count.

The NASDAL practice of the year award is set to run again in 2019. Look out for more info on the NASDAL website: www.nasdal.org.uk