Robert Taylor, now age 76, has been a Dental Technician for 60 years. After a local apprenticeship, he joined the Royal Army Dental Corps in the 1960s and served in Germany, Singapore and Malaya. After leaving the army he set up in business, and for several years had premises in Newton Aycliffe. He moved the business to Chilton 30 years ago.
For most of his career the law prevented Dental Technicians from seeing patients and fitting dentures on their own account. Robert’s work had to be prescribed and fitted by a dentist. In 2006 a change in British law created a new class of dental professional. It meant that a Dental Technician would be able to take additional qualifications to become a Clinical Dental Technician (CDT for short). A CDT can make and fit dentures to patients, often without the patient needing to visit a dentist.
It had always been Robert’s dream to be able to work directly with patients. But it was a while before the first UK training course was set up, and by then he had already reached retirement age. Despite that, he was up for the challenge, and he signed up for the very first English course to train as a CDT.
Clearly, you can teach an old dog new tricks, because Robert was the oldest person to complete the three year course and qualify. At 68 years old he added the letters Dip CDT RCS (Eng) after his name and registered with the General Dental Council as a CDT. Robert has since established a successful CDT practice in Chilton. He sees patients three days a week, and the rest of the week is taken up with making the dentures he is going to fit. But now he has reached the grand old age of 76 he knows that he must slow down and perhaps even think about retirement.
For some time, he looked for another CDT to work in his practice and share some of his workload. There are only 375 registered CDTs in the whole of the UK, so it was never going to be easy to find the right person.
Happily, André Edmundson expressed an interest and he and Robert soon found that they had a similar approach to their profession. André is now working with Robert as an associate at the practice. André is a fully qualified CDT with over 30 years’ experience of denture design.
But no sooner had André started seeing patients, the latest Covid-19 lockdown was announced. Because a lot of denture wearers are in the older age groups, the lockdown has made some of them nervous about being fitted for new dentures. Many people even believe, wrongly, that during this lockdown the practice is not seeing patients.
During the first lockdown, the practice had to close. In part, this was because there had not been time to put the necessary precautions in place and partly because the level of risk was not well understood. Understanding of the necessary risks and precautions has improved and with suitable precautions the practice is able to remain open.
The practice has invested in screens, extra disinfection and protective equipment, and staff training. New social distancing measures are in place and the practice has implemented the precautions advised by the College of General Dentistry and Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) 2020. The practice is confident that every possible measure to prevent the spread of the virus is in place, not least because Robert himself, at 76, is in one of the vulnerable groups and needs to stay safe!
