This week Chris and Andy chat to Cat Edney, multi award winning Dental Therapist, about her career journey becoming a dental therapist.

Cat explains more about the training she undertook to qualify, how a therapist role differs to a hygienist, and the current challenges and barriers faced in the profession.

She talks about access to dental training opportunities, the creation of her course, 'The Modern Therapist’, a hands-on course designed to inspire, support and drive dental therapy in practice, and how the UK compares with other countries in Europe and further afield.

Finally, she chats about the challenges dental therapists face in practice, including barriers to ownership and access to funding, and whether it is popular career choice and given the recognition to the extent it should.

Topics:

-  What’s your family tree? Where did your childhood take place?

- When did you know that dentistry was a career path for you?

- Did you consider other options?

- How do you qualify as a dental therapist?

- How is a therapist different from a hygienist?

- Do you earn more money than a hygienist?

-  Can you own a practice as a therapist?

- What treatments can you deliver that routinely dentists do?

- Has it been easy for you to get recognition in dentistry and do practices (generally) value therapists and maximise their skills in practice?

- What does work in a direct access dental therapy led role look like in practice and how does it benefit the business and patients?

- Tell us about your course, The Modern Therapist.

-  How do we compare with our European friends or countries further afield?

-  Is it becoming a more popular career choice or it is still not being recognised to the extent that it should be?

- If you could go back in time, where would you go, and would you change anything?