I was so pleased to hear that on 28 March 2024 the government announced new powers for dental hygienists and therapists.1 The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT) and the British Association of Dental Therapists (BADT) in particular have fought for many years to be able to supply and administer anaesthesia and fluoride for their patients without dentist sign off.2,3

Dr Fiona Sandom, Chair of BADT, said: ‘BADT is delighted that dental therapists and dental hygienists will soon be able to supply and administer certain prescription only medicines to patients without a need for a patient specific direction (PSD) or a patient group direction (PGD).

‘This will allow dental therapists and dental hygienists to use their full scope of practice and deliver the care they have been trained and educated to deliver.'

Read more in the news section of this issue of BDJ Team. We also plan to publish a series of interviews with the Presidents of DCP associations in upcoming issues, reflecting on the last decade and looking forward to the next, in celebration of BDJ Team's ten-year anniversary.

This month in BDJ Team dental hygienist and therapist Robert Leigh maps his own career to date and how he has navigated ‘dentistry's diverse pathways'. This is Rob's first article as a reader panellist, hopefully the first of many!

Elsewhere in this issue we meet Margarita Marynich, an oral health educator turned volunteer and student dental hygienist; Rebecca Silver discusses unwelcome guests in dental nursing Facebook groups; we meet a dental nurse on a mobile dental unit; and begin a new season of DCP research summaries [themed issue planned for the autumn]. Read on!

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Kate Quinlan

Editor

k.quinlan@nature.com