MP for Bedford visits Dental Care Centre
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 9th April 2024
Mohammad Yasin, MP for Bedford and Kempston has paid a visit to the Dental Care Centre (DCC), located in his constituency, and met with representatives from Community Dental Services CIC (CDS).
Mr Yasin was met at the DCC by CDS Chief Executive, Helen Paisley and Chief Operating Officer, Glen Taylor, for a tour of the clinics and the Training Centre which CDS is opening soon to provide training for the whole dental team. He also had the chance to talk to the clinical teams working at the DCC and to view one of the CDS mobile dental fleet. During the visit, he heard about the work CDS has done to bring preventative care to local under 5s who had not previously seen a dentist.
Mr Yasin said “Dental services are in crisis, so it was a pleasure to see the work of CDS providing high quality community dental services to the NHS for patients for those with specialist needs including children with extensive untreated tooth decay and adults with complex needs, including care home residents.
“The commitment to put patients first was plain to see and CDS provide a vital service to the oral health of the most vulnerable in our community.
“More widely, we need to reform the NHS dentistry contract so that everyone who needs an NHS dentist can get one.”
Helen Paisley said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to welcome Mohammad to our Dental Care Centre to share how we support our special care and paediatric patients and the measures we take to help them undergo successful treatments. In addition, the continued ethos of CDS is to upskill the whole dental team through education utilising the Learning Academy, which the new Training Centre is the central hub to delivering that education. This will be opening soon to support dentists and nurses throughout their careers.”
CDS’s patients typically have complex additional needs such as learning disabilities, severe autism, mental health issues, or are in situations that traditional dental care cannot reach for example due to homelessness. They may be very anxious children, with high levels of dental need, unable to tolerate treatment in a regular dental practice.
