Caribbean Times 8th Issue

6 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Wednesday 1st March 2017
Training for Public Health Dental
Assistants gets underway
Dentistry in the Public Health
Sector is about to get a major boost
as courses for Public Health Dental
Assistants have started at the Government
Training Division on Church
Street.
The classes, which will run for
twelve weeks, are being facilitated
by well known Dental Physician, Dr.
Gregson Williams, who operates Williams
and Associates Dental Ltd on
Dickerson Bay Street.
Dr. Williams, who is also the Senior
Dental Consultant for the Ministry
of Health and the Environment,
said that the ultimate goal of the sessions
is to improve the overall output
of Public Health Dental Services.
“We actually wanted to improve
the Public Health System in dentistry
for many years because we found
that we lacked trained dental assistants
and this is extremely important
because as dentistry has progressed,
the assistants play a central role in
delivering patient care,” Dr. Williams
explained.
He also noted that the new classes
are a step in the right direction and
are a complete change from what
used to be the old way of training and
schooling Dental Assistants.
“We were short staffed and it was
difficult to find personnel. What used
to happen before in the system is that
people used to be trained on the job
and this is not adequate for today’s
purposes because we have to be very
careful when it comes to infection
control and contamination and the
many little things that we handle,” he
explained.
Williams, who has been in the
dental profession for well over two
decades, described the three-month
long courses as the tip of the iceberg.
“Dental Assistants also have training
in many other backgrounds, so
what we have done is to organize a
program through the training department
where we set about to train dencont’d
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