Do you know the difference between a Dental Therapist and a Hygienist?

Do you know the difference between a Dental Therapist and a Hygienist? Typically, most patients have heard of and seen a Dental Hygienist, but most are unaware of Dental Therapists.

To train as a Dental Therapist you need to undertake a 3 year Degree where most of the course is integrated with Dental students. We are fortunate to have Jess Seton at the practice who qualified as a Dental Therapist with a first class honours at Cardiff University in 2014.

Dental Therapists are allowed to carry out a range of treatments including all fillings, examinations of children teeth, placing crowns or extracting baby teeth. They are also able to take x-rays and can carry out assessments to check the condition of your mouth and for any abnormalities such a mouth cancer. Jess has also carried out further training, so she is able to carry out tooth whitening under the prescription of a dentist and she also offers facial Facial Aesthetics treatments at the practice.

Like a Hygienist, Dental Therapists will also carry out Hygiene Care, scaling to remove calculus build up and staining, give oral hygiene advice and place fissure sealants on teeth to help protect them from decay and management and prevention of gum disease.

The main difference between a Dental Therapist and Dental Hygienist is that a Therapist can carry out a more diverse range of treatments just not to the same extent as a Dentist.