FOR many people, even ten minutes is too long to spend at the dentists, but what about the people that work there? BECKY CARR tries her hand at being a dental nurse.

FOURTEEN thousand people regularly attend appointments at Bethcar Dental Practice in Ebbw Vale, with thousands more on the books who don’t visit quite as often as they should.

Despite the huge numbers, 31-year-old Rhys Morgan, who owns the practice with his wife Laura, said you get to know the patients and quickly become part of the community.

He said he even gets sent Christmas cards and postcards from patients as well as wedding photographs from people who get treatment before their big day, for which he is grateful as it shows how much trust people put in him.

But Rhys and Laura, along with four other dentists at the practice, could not do their jobs without the vitally important supporting role of a dental nurse.

Rhys and his dental nurse Kate have become quite the team over the last two years, with Kate knowing exactly what Rhys is going to ask for before he asks for it.

He said: “A dental nurse’s role is to support the dentist, support the patient by making sure they’re safe and comfortable and sterilise and clean the surgery.

“You work so closely, Kate’s brilliant. She’s got a great way of explaining things so that the patient might understand better. I can sometimes speak in jargon.”

The pair can see up to 25 patients a day, with some battling serious anxiety problems about visiting.

Rhys said: “Anxiety and dentistry go together. The majority of our patients have some sort of anxiety about coming here. People usually come and see us when they have an issue and it can be uncomfortable.

“If someone is anxious, I ask them why they’re nervous and then if it’s about one aspect, you can try and minimise that part.

“It it’s the injection, you can talk about it to try and lessen the impact; if it’s the drilling, we tell people to bring their own music and listen to their headphones; if it’s extraction, we’ll try and do it in such a way that the patient doesn’t realise we’ve done it.”

Rhys, who is originally from Bristol but studied at Cardiff University, said his mother’s anxiety was one of the main reasons he decided to become a dentist.

He said: “My mum is very nervous about dentistry, I used to go with her as a child and I could see how worried she’d be. I treat her now as well as other friends and family, it shows that they trust me.”

Part of a dental nurse’s role is to help put the patient at ease and get everything ready so procedures can be as comfortable as possible. During my visit to the practice, Rhys explained that one side of the dentist’s chair is his area and the other side is the nurse’s.

On the nurse’s side, there are cupboards filled with supplies and a sterilising machine for the many instruments that the surgery gets through in a day.

Rhys shows me how to mix the dental fillings and the bright green mouthwash that sits on the side of the basin ready for a patient.

Less glamorous jobs include suctioning out any excess saliva from a patient’s mouth while a procedure is being carried out and the hugely important job of cleaning. No patient would feel comfortable in a practice that wasn’t spotless.

Rhys said his favourite part of the job is helping people. He added: “People come in in pain or don’t like something about their mouth and we can change that.

“They come in here and look more relaxed when they go away. You see a difference in half an hour.”

The practice – which caters for both its allocated NHS patients and some private patients – is geared up for medical emergencies should they happen, with staff being CPR trained and medical drugs on hand in case something goes wrong in the chair.

Rhys said he had yet to have an emergency but that he does see people fainting quite often in the practice.

He added: “It can be a stressful time and we usually find the patient hasn’t eaten. It’s the only time the dentist will give you a sugary drink.”

As well as his working week, Rhys carries out home visits for people that are unable to get the practice.

He added: “We go and see them in their own homes and in hospitals where we can do some basic things like simple extractions and fillings.”

He is also called to carry out forensic dentistry, which includes confirming a person’s dental records if they cannot be identified in any other way.

Bite analysis is another area of expertise for Rhys, who can be called to court as an expert witness.

He pointed out that bite evidence is being used less and less in court in recent years as the evidence is being seen as less reliable. He said: “It’s based on the fact that everyone’s teeth are meant to be different, but they’re not. And skin isn’t a great medium for recording bites. Dental identification is a bit more cut and dry.”

Rhys said the practice is keen to get the message across early to young patients to look after their teeth as it makes his job easier later.

He added: “I like to think we’re educating people and trying to break habits these people may have had for a long, long time.”