Shari Edwards

Prep time

I start preparing the day before, we don’t have a lot of space in our surgery so a lot of things are kept in the stock room. I make sure to get all the gowns and surgical equipment ready as usually our implant patient appointments start first thing in the morning. I like to pre-prepare everything so that when I get in the next morning I don’t need to spend a lot of time setting up. It makes the whole procedure a lot easier and allows me a bit more time at home in the morning! I’m very lucky as I work only 10mins away from my house so I usually wake up at 6am, leave home at 7.30am and my first patient is in at around 8.15am.

Welcoming the patient

When the patient comes in at 8.15am we give them some antibiotics, check they’re feeling ok and prepared for the procedure then send them away for about 45mins to an hour to have some breakfast; we like them to have breakfast after they’ve had their antibiotics. This also means I might be able to make myself a cup of tea in that time! While the patient is away, we put everything in to the autoclave and sterilise the instruments on the day. To maintain a sterile environment we don’t take out the instruments until the patient is actually sitting in the chair which is usually around 9.15am.

During surgery

My role during the implant procedure involves providing visibility and moisture control along with opening up the instruments and passing them to the dentist as needed. If it’s immediate treatment required we generally have an extraction then an implant straight after. Treatment usually lasts about an hour. When it’s all done I will call the patient’s designated contact to collect them and make sure they’re feeling well enough to go home. Cleaning down of the surgery usually takes about half an hour after each patient.

Lunchtime

My dentist likes to work in a calm unstressed environment so we typically have one patient in the morning and one in the afternoon. That means we get to have lunch in the practice typically between 1pm-2pm and I get the chance to have a bit of chat with my colleagues! The next patient comes in just before we have lunch and we give them their antibiotics so that by the time they come back at 2pm we’re ready to go with another treatment.

Clean down

Surgery ends around 3.30pm/4pm and I get all the instruments ready by pouching them for sterilisation. Once I’ve done all my pre-prep for the next day I can leave the practice around 5.15pm/5.30pm and head home. 5.30pm is official leaving time but if I’ve been super-efficient and get all my work done by 5.15pm then I’m free to go!

Asmita Limbu

Early Start

I travel an hour and a half to my practice so my alarm goes off at 5.45am and it’s a quick turnaround to get out the door! My first patient is usually at 9am and sometimes we do 3 or 4 implants within the one surgery sitting so my day can get very busy; I often don’t leave until around 7/8pm.

I work within a specialist dental house and our patients tend to differ from the general implant cases. When we’re working with more complex cases of say 3 implants in the upper jaw, surgery can be anywhere between 3 to 4 hours from start to finish. We do our pre-prep on the same day because often there will be so many instruments needed that if we were to prepare in advance we would be late for treatment!

Welcoming the patient

Prior to the appointment time (around 45mins to 1 hour) we give the patient some antibiotics and send them off for breakfast. Sometimes we are working under sedation so during this time the patient can also have a chat with myself and the anaesthetist to make sure they understand and are comfortable with what is going to happen.