Dental

RESEARCH
IN BRIEFf
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Dental therapists are now permitted to work in all sectors of dentistry (from 1 July 2002). The NHS Plan encourages greater use of PCDs within dentistry. In general, dentists have little knowledge of the training and work practices of dental therapists. Therapists are a relatively small group of PCDs — only 453 in the GDC register (December 2001). Acceptance oftherapists by GDPs is crucial to their employment in general dental practice.

General dental practitioners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards the employment of dental therapists in general practice
J. L. Gallagher1 and D. A. Wright2
Objective To investigate general dental practitioners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards dental therapists, to ascertain the likelihood of their employment ingeneral dental practice, what client groups they would be likely to treat, and to identify the main perceived barriers to their employment in general dental practice. Method Postal questionnaire. Setting General dental practitioners in the county of West Sussex. Sampling All dentists holding a contract to provide general dental services in West Sussex were contacted. Final sample size was 200. Keyfindings Thirty eight per cent of dentists said they would employ a therapist if legislation allowed. Main perceived barriers were cost, lack of knowledge and dentists’ acceptance. Conclusions In general dentists had a favourable attitude towards dental therapists, although there was a real lack of knowledge about their permitted duties. Most dentists felt therapists should treat children andpeople with special needs. the restoration of the primary dentition to therapists, as it can be time consuming and demanding.7 However, for therapists to be effective and efficient members of the dental team, the dentist must delegate a range of appropriate tasks to them.8–10 Furthermore it has been shown that patients’ acceptance of therapists follows dentists’ acceptance.11 Several studies have shownthat the quality of work of dental therapists is at least of a similar standard to that of dentists.12–15 In general medicine, wide use is already made of professionals complementary to medicine.16 Historically therapists were permitted to work in the Community Dental Service (CDS), the Hospital Dental Service (HDS) and more recently in Personal Dental Services (PDS). In 1999 the General DentalCouncil recommended that therapists be allowed to work in all sectors of dentistry and this was approved from the 1st July 2002. Currently, a number of therapists are employed within PDS schemes as part of the government initiative to improve access to NHS dental care.16 However, they have simply transferred from the hospital and community sectors. The aim of this study was to ascertain dentists’knowledge of and attitudes towards dental therapists in general dental practice.

It has been predicted that the practice of dentistry could and should become more team based1,2 and a skill mix in the future provision of dental care has been recommended.3 Dentists are, in general, aware that teamwork is important and they value the support staff that they already have4 with the majority ofdentists who have qualified since the 1970s favouring a team approach.5 Previous research5,6 has found that most dentists say they are in favour of dental therapists working in general practice, with around 40% willing to employ them if legislation allowed. Barriers identified previously to the employment of therapists in practice included lack of numbers in training and levels of supervision required.6The client groups deemed most suitable for treatment by a therapist were children and people with special needs.6 It has been suggested that dentists may wish to delegate
1General Dental Practitioner, Burkhart School of Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy,

Eastman Dental Hospital, 256 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD; 2Locum Consultant in Dental Public Health, Division of Dental Public...