There are a wide range of community projects for Foundation Dentists to get involved in. These are an excellent opportunity to work with a range of demographics, inlcuding homlessness, refugees and communities that struggle to access dental care, to enhance your skills and support your completion of the DFT curriculum.
Benefits of participating in these projects includes:
- Increased understanding of these services
- Access to other volunteering projects
- Increased understanding of commissioning issues, patients with high needs, social issues, complex medical histories, equality and diversity, fairness in society, ethics
- Working within other teams, working in other spaces, dentistry outside ‘practice’
- Management and leadership opportunities.
- Interaction with local schools for works experience for up and coming dentists
Dates will be circulated for each of the volunteering opportunities throughout the training year by Dental Support.
Please notify Dental Support if you are available to attend and they will book your space. Once this has been confirmed, you must ensure that you fulfil this commitment as the charities/outreach programmes will schedule patients based on the number of dentists they have confirmed to attend.
If you are unable to make your agreed date, due to exceptional circumstances, you must arrange for another Foundation Dentist to take your place and notify Dental Support who this will be.
Bevan House is a flagship medical practice based in Bradford which provides a range of integrated medical and social care to refugees, asylum seekers and unregistered patients. It is a medical outreach centre where FDs support the practice by providing dental education, basic prevention and screening following a medical examination for those refugees and asylum seekers just entering the country.
You have the opportunity to see how this type of integrated medical and dental care works in the interest of patients.
This is a venture working in partnership with Dentaid to provide dental care to the homeless and those unable to access dental care for social reasons.