NHS Dumfries & Galloway

Dental Division

Message from our Director of Dentistry

NHS Dumfries and Galloway Public Dental Services and our community of General Dental Services, welcome you to our page dedicate to finding out more about working or training in Dentistry in our region.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway covers the region of South West Scotland and is one of 14 territorial Health Boards. The region offers beautiful countryside, from rugged cliffs and sandy beaches to forests, hills and rolling plains. There is a wide range of activities on offer, with water sports, fishing, golf, mountain biking or cycling. House prices are low, schools are good and you are within 2 hours of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lake District and Newcastle.

 As a board we run 3 Public Dental Service clinics and support 29 dental practices offering NHS Dental Care across the region that jointly service a population of approx. 150,000.

We also have an excellent reputation for teaching dental and dental therapy students in our state of the art dental centre and newly built district hospital and have developed a successful Outreach training programme that practitioners and students partake in.

 With a national shortage of Dentists and Dental Officers across the UK, you may ask yourself why choose Dumfries and Galloway to live, work and play. Our answer would be to contact us or come and visit us, talk to some of our amazing staff who have already joined us from out of the area and learn for yourself as to why D&G is the region for you.

As an added incentive, we offer Dentists and Dental Officers a Retention & Recruitment allowance of up to £25,000 for successful candidates depending on meeting criteria. You can find out more here. On top of this we can also offer as a remote and rural region, the Remote Areas Allowance which is up to £9,000 per individual should conditions be met. You can  find out more here.

Candidates relocating from out of the region into Public Dental Service posts may also be eligible for relocation expenses of up to £8000

We love to meet prospective candidates and learn more about how and what they would do to enhance NHS dental care to the local population so please do get in touch with our primary care team to discuss options across our services.

Thank you for taking the time to find out more and we hope to meet you soon

Alison Milne 

Please select from our services below for more information

Public Dental Services

The Public Dental Services, mainly located in Dumfries with two smaller clinics in Sanquhar and Galloway Community Hospital, comprise of the following services

  • Emergency Care
  • Special Care,
  • Outreach programme
  • Dental Therapy
  • Prison Dental Services
  • General Anaesthetic Services
  • Oral Health Improvement Programmes (separate Team scroll down to read more)

The team consists of a team of dental nurses, eight dental officers, one dental therapist and six dental tutors. Our dental officers have a mix of portfolio careers with some also working in general dental practices.

Our state of the art dental centre, which is surrounded by beautiful parks and landscape also houses our dental training centre for final year dental undergraduate students as well as therapy students who join us for their entire training course.

Dental nurses and dental officers rotate around the different public services which not only gives diversity to the roles but gives our team a holistic view of what is happening in our communities which can better drive the direction of the service based on need.

"I worked on reception at the dental centre whilst studying to become a dentist. Once qualified I worked in various locations around Scotland before returning to work for NHS D&G. The team are amazing and the job is varied and fun but most importantly I get to make a difference in our community"

Emergency and Special Care Services

Our Special Care Department provides dental care for those patients who are unable to receive treatment with the General Dental Service. The department offer sedation and has specialist equipment to allow this cohort of patients to be treated within the dental centre. 

We offer emergency dental treatment to registered Specialist Care patients and unregistered patients, these patients are triaged via our dental helpline staff and appointed to an appropriate clinic.

Key Features of the team

Outreach programme

The Outreach experience allows students who have already attained basic competence in a range of areas to gain additional expereince treating patients in a practice setting. The outreach programme sees a range of patients and the aim of the programme is to aid transition from the dental school to the practice environment by replicating the primary care experience as closely as possible.

Oral Health Improvement Team

The Oral Health Improvement Service  is based in Dumfries, Castle Douglas and Stranraer and consists of one Service Manager,  Admin Support, NDIP co-ordinator, a Child Smile Dental Nurse and six Dental Health Officers.  Our team attracts staff from a range of backgrounds with a keen interest in educating and inspiring adults and children on oral health issues. 

Our teams are encouraged to research the latest health concerns and we educate each other through national and local meetings, always striving to deliver the best service to our community. 

The Service delivers the following programmes:

  • National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP)
  • Child Smile
  • Local and national programmes to meet the needs of our community such as:
      • Open Wide – A programme aimed at individuals with Learning disabilities
      • Carling for Smiles – delivered in Care Homes
      • Smile4life – delivered to anyone suffering from homelessness.
      • Moth Matters – Prisons
  • Oral Health posters/leaflet production
  • Fluoride Varnish twice a year to targeted schools
  • The team also attends sports groups, baby groups, breastfeeding groups or any community group where oral is wanting or can be discussed.

National Dental Inspection Programme

Our team of dental health officers and dental nurse actively take part in this national programme, run annually, to check the overall oral health of primary one and primary seven students. The data collected helps national teams and Scottish Government look at trends to drive new educational programmes.

Child Smile Programme

 Child Smile is a Scottish Government funded programme that covers

  • Oral health instruction
  • Engaging with all age of children
  • Visiting schools and nurseries with tooth brushing techniques. Mainly aimed at nursery and primary ones. Teams provide equipment and support for schools to deliver. Observations and follow ups
  • Support for those who go for GA as part of teeth out including follow ups. This can include supporting in hospital.
  • Receive referrals from health visitors and other health professionals
  • Support
  • Acclimatisation clinic for children and adults for those who have a phobia of dentists
  • Can be delivered in home, school or clinic setting
Meet Rocky and Flossy who are used to educate children on brushing teeth or calm both adults and children in our acclimatisation chair

 

“I’ve always loved dentistry. The programmes we deliver gives a huge sense of satisfaction as we get to support a wide range of groups and see our young people learn to better help themselves in later life. It feels like every day is a learning day in this role.”


Oral Health Team Manager

Key Features of the teams

Oral and Maxillofacial Department

The OFMS and Orthodontics unit is based at Dumfries Royal Infirmary (DGRI) out main acute hospital in the D&G region.  The unit is quite a small unit consisting of two consultants, two associate specialists and team of dental nurse and support roles. The service takes referrals from the medical professionals, General Dental and Public Dental services. 

The service covers:

  • General outpatient clinics for orthodontics and OMFS
  • Combined weekly clinics in head and neck cancer
  • elective surgery

There is a strong presence of multidisciplinary working with other teams and services and our dental nurses across our OMFS and PDS services have been trained in radiography and GA which gives more flexibility in the service. 

Key Features of the teams

General Dental Services

NHS Dumfries and Galloway Health board work closely with over 25 General Dental practices and one Orthodontics practice across our region. Of the GDP’s 4 offer orthodontic services and all offer some NHS services.

Our practices range from small rural to larger corporate body services and feedback from our dental colleagues is that they all have real sense of community that matches that of our communities across the region. 

Recognising there are shortages of dental professionals across the globe, colleagues in D&G work collaboratively to look at solutions and new ways of working to support and grow our services.  We welcome new ideas and many of our practices have already started investing in the latest technologies that ensure our dental professionals can work without stress and meet local demand.

If you can’t decide on which is for you please feel free to contact us using the contact form.

Annandale & Eskdale Region

Practice runs from two locations in Lockerbie  DG11 2BX and DG11 2EU

Practice provides NHS and private treatment as well as Orthodontic Services

Lochmaben – DG11 1NH

Family ran Dental services offering NHS and private treatments

Practice runs from two locations in Annan – DG12 6DS and DG12 6AA

Practice provides NHS and private treatment.

Supports Dental Vocational Training (DVT) 

Lockerbie – DG11 2BX

Practice provides NHS Services and  Orthodontic Services

Supports Dental Vocational Training (DVT) 

Moffat – DG10 9DN

Beautifully located practice in the Heart of Moffat, offering NHS and private treatments

Supports Dental Vocational Training (DVT) 

Gretna – DG16 5AQ

Practice offers NHS, private treatments and provides oral Surgery, orthodontics and Prosthodontics services

Dumfries and Upper Nithsdale

Dumfries Town Centre – DG1 2BL

Provide treatment for private and NHS referrals.

Dumfries – DG2 9DE

Provides NHS and Private treatments.

Dumfries – DG1 1DE

An award winning practice providing NHS and private  treatment.

Dumfries – DG1 1DU

Practice provides private treatments only

Dumfries – DG1 1DL

Part of Scottish Dental Care with clinics across Scotland offering NHS and Private treatments

Dumfries Town Centre- DG1 2PA

Practice offers NHS, private treatments.

Supports Dental Vocational Training (DVT) 

This Practice holds a licence to sponsor skilled workers

Dumfries Town Centre – DG1 2PL

Provide treatment for private and NHS referrals.

Dumfries – DG3 5LJ

An award winning practice providing NHS and private  treatment.

This Practice holds a licence to sponsor skilled workers

Dumfries – DG1 2RS

Provide treatment for private and NHS referrals.

This Practice holds a licence to sponsor skilled workers

Dumfries – DG1 1BU

Small independent practice offering NHS and private treatment

Dumfries – DG1 1DR

Part of the Real Good Dental Company with clinics across Scotland offering NHS and Private treatments

This Practice holds a licence to sponsor skilled workers

Dumfries -DG1 1BA

Practice offers NHS and private treatments.

 

Stewartry

Castle Douglas – DG7 1DE

Practice offering NHS and private treatment

Dalbeattie -DG5 4DW

Practice offers NHS and Private treatments

Supports Dental Vocational Training (DVT) 

Kirkcudbright – DG6 4DZ

Practice offers NHS and private treatments.

 

Wigtownshire

Newton Stewart – DG8 6EX

Provide NHS and private treatments

Stranraer – DG9 7JF

Practice offers NHS and Private treatments

Stranraer – DG9 7EN

Practice provides NHS and private  treatment.

Lochview Practice

Stranraer – DG9 7AB

Practice offering NHS and private treatment

Dental Training

No matter what stage training you are at, our dental services across the region welcome you and hope that your positive expereince will be one you share with others so we can continue to grow our workforce and continue supporting future generations. In general our feedback across the different levels of training has consistently been good to excellent and we are seen as friendly and supportive with many of our dental teams really enjoying the opportunity to inspire, support and educate our future workforce.

KEY REASONS TO TRAIN IN D&G

  • Students receive free accommodation
  • Supportive teams
  • small enough departments that colleagues learn your name and you become one of the team
  • Enthusiastic, approachable and well respected tutors

Dental Students

NHS Dumfries and Galloway welcomes every year, dental students from the University of Glasgow, Dental School.  Students join us in their 5th year for their outreach placement on site in our purpose built training centre based in the Dental Centre, Dumfries. 

Feedback from students has been consistently good about their clinical placement with us being recognised as small but friendly, with a really relaxed and supportive learning environment and with great tutors and facilities.

Dental Therapy Students

 Our dental therapy students join us for 3 years and are enrolled with the University of Highlands and Islands. Our students are supported by 4 dental therapy tutors and like our outreach placements we receive excellent feedback. 

All our students we encourage to partake in school engagement events to help promote dentistry as a career in the region.

Students can find out more about accommodation in the area by visiting our page dedicated to accommodation.

Students have access to a dedicated training wing

Dental Vocational Trainees

Dental Vocational Training is organised nation wide by National Education for Scotland (NES).  As a west of Scotland region, Dumfries and Galloway hosts DVT’s in our general dental services and public dental services whilst they complete study days at the Glasgow Dental Education Centre next to the dental school and hospital.

“I loved my time in Dumfries. The tutors are great and made the learning environment really fun”

Core Dental Trainees

NHS Dumfries and Galloway welcomes Dental Core trainees from one to four in rotational and non rotational posts across our OMFS and Public Dental Services.

Trainees on placement in OMFS will receive good exposure to minor oral surgery and some orthodontics. The OMFS team are keen for trainees to be involved in the workings of the unit and put a lot of emphasis on practical expereince and learning.

Orthodontics is taught at a level of a “dentist with an interest”

DCT’s are not included in the out of hours on call rota in OMFS or PDS