Lancashire Teaching Hospitals has appointed the North West’s first ever clinical fellow in special care dentistry to improve the quality of dental care for adults with severe disability, medical or mental health conditions.
Stephanie King is the trust’s new academic clinical fellow in special care dentistry and will be leading new research that will provide new evidence to improve patient care and will also shape how dentists of the future are trained at universities across the country.
Vanita Brookes, consultant in special care dentistry at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: ”Special Care Dentistry is a relatively new dental speciality.
“We need to develop new evidence about how to provide the best possible treatment and services for special care dentistry patients and that was the thinking behind creating this new post.
“Stephanie will provide a link between the university dental school in Manchester and a range of NHS organisations to ensure that Stephanie’s work can benefit dental students, dental practitioners and a range of other primary care and hospital-based NHS staff.”
Stephanie King said: ”I am very excited about my new role and about the potential to make a real difference to the future of special care dentistry through new research.”
Gela Griffiths’ son Shaun has experience as a patient of the special care dentistry services. Gela said: ”Shaun was first referred to the Special Care Dentistry Service when he needed a number of fillings. In the past, he would get very anxious and stressed a few days before visiting the dentist and this could lead to challenging behaviour at home.
“Since he became a special care dentistry patient, Shaun has had a variety of treatment and has learned to trust the staff and that means everything to him.”
Comments