Oral Health Practitioner Level 4 Apprenticeship
Overview
Become an Oral Health Practitioner with Exalt-Training
This Level 4 apprenticeship will give you the skills and knowledge you need to promote oral health and well-being in individuals, groups, and communities.
Are you passionate about oral health? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of others? If so, then the Oral Health Practitioner Apprenticeship Level 4 at Exalt-Training is the perfect opportunity for you.
This apprenticeship will give you the skills and knowledge you need to promote oral health and well-being in individuals, groups, and communities. You will learn how to:
- Provide oral health assessments and advice
- Deliver preventive treatments
- Work with patients with special needs
- Communicate effectively with patients and their families
- Manage a dental practice
In addition to the skills and knowledge, you will also gain valuable work experience. You will work alongside experienced oral health practitioners, learning from them and contributing to the care of their patients.
The Oral Health Practitioner Apprenticeship Level 4 is a fantastic way to start your career in oral health. It is a well-respected qualification that will open up many opportunities for you.
Awarding Body
- Put patient’s interests first, maintaining a caring approach towards them.
- Treat people with dignity, respecting their choices, gaining valid consent for all treatments and respecting confidentiality.
- Work autonomously in people’s mouths to take dental bacterial plaque indices and food debris scores.
- Use a range of personal oral care tools.
- Autonomously plan practice sessions in the community.
- Prepare the clinical equipment and records for each session.
- Prepare and maintain a clinical environment, adhering to infection control and prevention.
- Prepare, mix and handle bio-materials.
- Take dental bacterial plaque indices and food debris scores in the mouth of individuals.
- Select preventative strategies that are appropriate to the individual and adapt appropriately for individuals with special requirements.
- Undertake general health screening including checking for diabetes, taking blood pressure readings and taking finger-prick blood for blood tests.
- Refer individuals to other services if necessary.
- Carry out intra and extra oral photography.
- Recognise and manage medical emergencies.
- Plan clinical preventative session.
- Deliver brief clinical preventative advice interventions to targeted groups.
- Encourage self-care and motivation.
- Provide oral and general systemic advice e.g. tobacco cessation or diet advice.
- Prepare, deliver and evaluate oral health messages to groups or individuals.
- Support individuals and groups to change their behaviour.
- Provide motivational interviews.
- Determine and implement strategies for improving oral health in the community.
- Communicate effectively with and about patients, their representatives and the dental team, and with carers, other healthcare workers or schoolteachers.
- Escalate any issues when they are outside your scope of practice.
- Handle complaints effectively and within GDC guidelines.
- Manage your own time, resources and personal behaviour.
- Be proactive in your own development, willing to commit to lifelong learning by use of a Personal Development Plan (PDP), personal reflection and continuous improvement.
- Access to free CPD programmes and additional coaching sessions
- Online delivery with live teaching and catch-ups if you can’t make a session
- Dedicated Skills Coach for the duration of your apprenticeship journey
- Experienced Tutors, Coaches & Support Team
- Easy onboarding and induction process
Thank you so much for helping me get through it, I honestly wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help and guidance! So, thank you so much for being there so quickly when I needed help!
Dental Nurse Apprentice
Details
- Duration: 14 Months
- Eligibility requirements: To be eligible for the apprenticeship, you must be at least 16 years old and not in full-time education. You will also need to have basic literacy and numeracy skills and be able to pass a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
- Assessment: Throughout the apprenticeship, you will be assessed on your practical skills and knowledge. The final assessment will take the form of a synoptic assessment.
- Career prospects: As an Oral Health Practitioner, you may progress later in your career to a Dental Therapist or Dental Hygienist
- Support available:
- Experienced Tutors, Coaches & Support Team,
- Dedicated Skills Coach for the duration of your apprenticeship journey,
- Easy onboarding, and induction process,
- Access to free CPD programmes and additional coaching sessions
Why study with Exalt?
Focused: Precision in Every Endeavor
We are architects of precision. We sculpt programs with meticulous attention, tailoring each facet to meet precise aims and unique requirements. When we commit, we do so resolutely, sparing no effort to ensure your journey is not just remarkable, but remarkable for you.
Collaborative: A Symphony of Success
Alone, we can accomplish much. Together, we can redefine the boundaries of achievement. Collaboration is not just a buzzword; it’s the harmony that resonates within us. We stand shoulder to shoulder with stakeholders, nurturing mutual aspirations and embracing the extra mile as a testament to our unwavering unity.
Adaptable: Crafting Futures, One Need at a Time
In a world of constant change, we are the chameleons of education. Adapting is not just a choice; it’s in our DNA. From programs to platforms, timetables to personal aspirations, we bend and mold ourselves to accommodate the symphony of your needs, ensuring your growth knows no bounds.
Units Covered in the Apprenticeship
A Oral Health Practitioner must know and understand:
- how to apply the legislation, policies and local ways of working related to your role What person centred care, valid consent, duty of care, safeguarding, diversity, equality and inclusion mean and why they are important
- Relevant dental oral and craniofacial anatomy and physiology and their application to patient management
- The range of normal human structures and functions, with particular reference to dental caries, oral medicine, periodontal disease and dental treatment and how this relates to working in the mouth
- A range of preventative oral and general health procedures used in your role. How to select techniques according to the individual’s need.
- How to adapt your techniques and solve problems to suit individuals with special requirements, within your area of competence
- How to maintain a clinical environment. How to control and prevent infection. The x-rays, photos and records you are required to take and keep
- A range of general health screening activities related to your role and the population you work with eg recognising an abnormality and referring appropriately
- Normal parameters associated with blood pressure and blood sugar levels. How to carry out physiological measurements and what steps to take if results are outside the norm
- How, why and when to take and process finger-prick blood samples.
- Which other services are available in your area, what they provide and how people can access them
- Legislation on prescription-only medicines
- The types of medical emergency that may arise and ways to address them.
- General health systems and be able to review their relationship to oral health using high quality evidence such as research documents
- how to outline the basic principles of population health, including demographic, social, UK and international oral health trends; a range of common risk factors
- Determinants of health inequalities and how they are measured
- Guidelines for best practice including national and local health initiatives
- The needs of different patient groups you work with across the age range including those who are nervous, have learning disabilities, have mental health conditions or phobias, require palliative care or have cognitive impairment such as dementia
- How diet, nutrition and hydration link with systemic and oral health including obesity
- Ways to encourage self-care and motivation
- Behaviour change and the theories that underpin models of learning in individuals and groups to change behaviour
- Theories and concepts of motivational interviewing; different ways to support behaviour change according to whether you are working with an individual (e.g. in dental surgery) or with carers (in schools, homes or care homes) or on a group basis
- A range of methods of communicating with individuals across the age range.
- How to check you have been understood.
- Barriers to communication and a range of ways to overcome them.
- When to refer or escalate if something is outside of your scope of practice
- GDC Guidelines for handling complaints
- The principles relating to evidence-based approaches to learning, clinical and professional practice and decision making; including using a range of sources of evidence.
- The consequences of your actions, attitude and behaviour
- How to assess and reflect upon your own capabilities and limitations
A Oral Health Practitioner must be able to:
- Put patient’s interests first, maintaining a caring approach towards them
- Treat people with dignity, respecting their choices, gaining valid consent for all treatments and respecting confidentiality
- Work autonomously in people’s mouths to take dental bacterial plaque indices and food debris scores
- Use a range of personal oral care tools
- Autonomously plan practice sessions in the community
- Prepare the clinical equipment and records for each session
- Prepare and maintain a clinical environment, adhering to infection control and prevention
- Prepare, mix and handle bio-materials
- take dental bacterial plaque indices and food debris scores in the mouth of individuals
- Select preventative strategies that are appropriate to the individual and adapt appropriately for individuals with special requirements
- Undertake general health screening including checking for diabetes, taking blood pressure readings and taking finger-prick blood for blood tests
- Refer individuals to other services if necessary
- Apply topical fluoride under prescription in the
- carry out intra and extra oral photography
- Recognise and manage medical emergencies
- Plan clinical preventative session
- Deliver brief clinical preventative advice interventions to targeted groups
- Encourage self-care and motivation
- Provide oral and general systemic advice e.g. tobacco cessation or diet advice
- Prepare, deliver and evaluate oral health messages to groups or individuals
- Support individuals and groups to change their behaviour
- Provide motivational interviews
- Determine and implement strategies for improving oral health in the community.
- Communicate effectively with and about patients, their representatives, and the dental team, and with carers, other healthcare workers or schoolteachers
- Escalate any issues when they are outside your scope of practice.
- Handle complaints effectively and within GDC guidelines.
- Manage your own time, resources and personal behaviour.
- Be proactive in your own development, willing to commit to lifelong learning by use of a Personal Development Plan (PDP), personal reflection and continuous improvement.
End Point Assessment (EPA)
Situational Judgement Test
Answered through a multiple-choice exercise (but not necessarily
undertaken as an online or computer-based test).
Professional Discussion
To achieve final certification, the apprentices must have completed and achieved these end-point assessments
Are You Interested in the Oral Helth Practitioner Apprenticeship?
Please call us on 01202 612365 or use the form below to discuss your options.