interview

28 winter 06 www.nature.com/vital

vital

Heralding ahygienic futureDo dental hygienists get the recognition they deserve within the dental industry? Arveen Bajaj spoke to new BDHA President Michael Wheeler.

The British Dental Hygienists’

Association, or BDHA, has a

long and illustrious history. It

was set up in 1949 by a group

of 12 dental hygienists with a

view to creating a professional organisation

to represent their needs and interests. The

Association has since fl ourished, now boast-

ing over 2,500 members, and has recently

appointed a new President.

Michael Wheeler took over as President

from Margaret Ross this November. He has

been a member of the Association since

qualifying and for the last 10 years has been

Honorary Treasurer and Company Secretary.

He is currently Dental Development Manager

for Somerset PCT and Programme Lead for

Outreach Dental Training for Birmingham

and Bristol Dental Schools.

Michael qualifi ed as a dental hygienist from

the RAF Institute of Dental Health and Train-

ing Halton in 1978. On leaving the RAF, he

was appointed Oral Health Promotion Co-

ordinator for Somerset Health Authority.

In this role he was responsible for a range of

oral health initiatives, including commission-

ing the fi rst Sure Start programme in England

that contained dental treatment provision.

He then become project manager for

the Somerset Dental Access initiative with

responsibilities for the transition of a com-

munity dental service (CDS) into a personal

dental service (PDS), that provided both the

traditional CDS function and dental access.

Michael has wide ranging plans for the

BDHA during his presidency. He will be

working with BDHA’s Executive and Council

to support hygienists and hygienist-therapists

and in particular wants to raise the profi le of

BDHA nationally.

‘Activities for the coming year will focus

on communicating with practitioners to

ensure a greater understanding of the value

of employing a dental hygienist or hygien-

ist-therapist and supporting members in all

aspects of their role as either a dental hygien-

ist or hygienist-therapist,’ he explains.

Michael wants to facilitate greater access

to verifi able and non-verifi able CPD, engage

with student dental hygienists and hygien-

ist-therapists by providing support during

their period of training, and work on provid-

ing support for BDHA’s network of regional

groups, as they have a greater role to play in

providing support for members.

‘We want to listen to our members and

ensure that their points of view are heard and

acted upon, and also break down barriers by

working with other national dental organi-

sations to ensure that the role of the dental

hygienist or hygienist-therapist is understood

and respected,’ he adds.

Responding to feedback from many of the

BDHA’s members, Michael wants to allay

concerns regarding dental contracts. He says,

‘A major concern is the nGDS and nPDS con-

tracts as there are many misunderstandings

surrounding the concept and how it works.

The BDHA has a role to alleviate these fears

and provide guidance about how hygienists

and hygienist-therapists can add value to a

practice in terms of the number of Units of

Dental Activity they can achieve, especially

utilising the NICE guidance with patients

who are undergoing oral health assessments

by dentists and oral health reviews by dental

hygienists. A further communication issue is

linked to the dually qualifi ed dental hygien-

ist-therapist and how these team members fi t

into the dental team.’

Michael believes that much larger dental

practices are the future, with much greater

use of all members of the dental team and

recognition by the team leader of the value

that each person in the team can bring to the

care of patients.

He explains, ‘PCTs should be encouraged

to ensure that large practices have a dental

hygienist (or hygienist-therapist) available to

provide NHS dental care. So, for example, if a

four dentist practice wanted to expand, they

should be encouraged to recruit a dental hygi-

enist or hygienist-therapist and not a dentist

to ensure that the skills of the dental team

are being utilised to the full, in a more cost

effective manner.

‘Training needs to be modular in style with

options to broaden the role of the dental

hygienist and hygienist-therapist. Modules

in, for example, advanced periodontology,

prescribing and therapy only are all areas to

be developed.’

Michael Wheeler

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interview

winter 06 29vital

He adds that hygienists and hygienist-

therapists could be more closely involved

in holistic care of the patient, for example,

smoking cessation advice, dietary counselling

and blood pressure monitoring. Michael also

says the BDHA will instigate and involve itself

in the process of change to enable members

to adopt additional roles thereby providing

patients with access to care.

‘I believe that greater autonomy of dental

care professionals will alleviate the pressure

on dental teams, with each person responsi-

ble for their own actions.’

Michael will be involved in formalising the

arrangements for the International Federa-

tion of Dental Hygienists Conference that will

be hosted by BDHA in Glasgow in 2010. On

his vision for the future for the dental team he

says, ‘These are changing times – all members

of the dental team have an enhanced part to

play and this is slowly being recognised as key

to the provision of oral care in the UK.’

For more information about the BDHA

visit its website at www.bdha.org.uk.

‘Michael believes that much larger

dental practices are the future,

with recognition by the team leader of the

value that each person in the

team can bring to the care of patients.’

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