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Dental Nurse Royal Army Dental Corps

Medical

You're trained to assist dentists and perform administrative duties in military dental centres. You care for and manage patients, maintain dental surgery equipment, and prepare and sterilise instruments. Some reception work is involved. You also learn how to work under pressure as you join mobile medical units on operational deployments.

Are you right for this role?

You should be:

  • Sex: Male or Female
  • Regular Army Age: 17.6 - 32.11 years
  • Territorial Army Age: N/A - 42.11 years

You should have:

  • Qualifications: Territorials need the NEBDN Certificate, or a Level 3 in Oral Health Care. They must also be registered with the UK General Dental Council

You should like:

  • Working with and helping people
  • Working in an office / indoors
  • Responsibility and decision-making
  • Taking the lead and managing people
  • Computing and technology

You should be interested or have experience in:

  • Dentistry
  • Nursing
  • Clerical Administration

Private Navraj Rai transferred from the Gurkhas to become a Dental Nurse

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Dental Nurse

I was originally in the Gurkhas, but I always had an interest in dentistry, so I took my chance to transfer and made it through. It has been a steep learning curve since I finished my Basic Dental Nursing course, but worth it because I really love my job. You see new people every day and come across so many interesting cases. Seeing the result of complicated treatment gives you a great sense of achievement.

 

Regular Army

Training

Basic training (14 weeks) teaches you essential combat skills such as survival and weapons handling, and boosts your fitness. After this you study dental nursing, including anatomy, physiology, surgery and infection control. You also learn to prepare dental materials, give advice on disease prevention and process x-rays. Finally you sit your national dental nurse exam.

Skills you can learn

You learn to care for patients, maintain equipment and sterilise instruments, allowing you to provide support to Army dentists. You also learn to run a dental centre similar to those found in the civilian world. Areas of study include patient management, administration and reception work. There will be a chance to study other areas of dentistry later on.

Qualifications you can achieve

  • National Certificate in Dental Nursing
  • Oral Health Education
  • Smoking Cessation Advisor
  • Radiography
  • Diet and Nutrition Advisor
  • (All dental nurses get the opportunity to apply for dental hygiene training)

Territorial Army

Training

You're a qualified dental nurse before joining, and you then take basic training to teach you combat skills such as survival and weapons handling. Training also boosts your fitness. Most training takes place during evenings and weekends.

Skills you can learn

You learn to care for patients, maintain equipment and sterilise instruments, allowing you to provide support to Army dentists. You also learn to run a dental centre similar to those found in the civilian world. Areas of study include patient management, administration and reception work. There will be a chance to study other areas of dentistry later on.

Qualifications you can achieve

  • National Certificate in Dental Nursing

Move up the ranks

  • Private

    This is the rank where all RADC soldiers begin. You still get all the benefits of Army life, like good rates of basic pay, free healthcare, and subsidised food and accommodation. But you’re not in charge of anyone, so you can focus on using your skills. Every promotion after this gets you more pay.

  • Lance Corporal

    Now you’ve got some experience, you take on extra responsibility by leading a small team of soldiers. It’s your job to check that their work is up to standard, and that they’ve got all the skills and help they need. And if they’ve got a problem, they talk to you first.

  • Corporal

    You’ve got day-to-day leadership experience. The next step is to go on a special course to develop your leadership and management skills, which prepares you to lead an even larger team. You still use your own trade skills, but you also set tasks and help develop the other soldiers’ abilities.

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