SUCCESSFUL DENTAL NURSES

 Saving lives and saving teeth. That just about sums up Yelizaveta! She took her NEBDN diploma with SmileWisdom as she is passionate about helping people recover and maintain good health.

Having been in the UK for 12 years, Yelizaveta started work as a security guard which involved her doing first aid training. She enjoyed the first aid side of things so much that she decided to become a paramedic through the First Response Emergency Care (FREC) course pathway and is currently a medical technician at Level 5. Doing FREC meant she had time to work while doing her courses so she looked into becoming a nurse, eventually settling on dental nursing after finding SmileWisdom through a Google search. She recalls, ‘I found SmileWisdom to be the most professional looking dental school website and it felt reassuring.’

Yelizaveta passed her dental exams first time, graduating in Jan 2022 and really enjoyed the experience. Yelizaveta fondly remembers the help she received from all the team at SmileWisdom to apply for her GDC registration, ‘The school helped me so much, Mike in particular was so helpful with filling out the forms and any technical questions. Magda helped me with my CV, and Becky was always available to answer my questions and give feedback. I felt really supported, I’m so grateful to them.’

While doing her dental diploma Yelizaveta worked in a number of dental practices in and around London in order to see and experience many different techniques. ‘My favourite was root canal treatment because it involves working in so much detail. It’s very precise work, I really like it. It was so beneficial to work with different practitioners as everyone has a different approach and I got to see a variety of techniques’, she comments. Once she had gained some good experience as a dental nurse, Yelizaveta started working with a gum specialist in Ruislip and found the specialism fascinating, ‘It’s amazing how with laser surgery they can save teeth even in a really bad situation.’

Working as both a medical technician and a dental nurse gives Yelizaveta the freedom she loves, ‘I love it because when you work in the ambulance you are constantly outside, constantly on the move and then in dental everything is very focused in one place – I like the balance of both.’ The flexibility of both professions (once fully qualified and registered) will allow her to work across the two, with her plan being to work 4 days as a paramedic and 3 days as an agency dental nurse. Yelizaveta admits she loves to work a 12 hour shift – something you don’t hear many people say!

Both professions involve seeing people when they’re not in the best of health and giving them the care they need. As Yelizaveta says, ‘It’s very important to be able to help people preserve what they already have, whether that’s teeth or general health, this is my passion.’

Ultimately, Yelizaveta would love to be a dental therapist so she is planning to further her education through SmileWisdom by taking some extra courses like radiography and sedation.