Staff Development

‘You never stop learning, and you can learn something new everyday’

Never were words more succinct than in Dentistry.

The whole team at Atkinson Brignall Caring Dentistry, our dental practice in Sevenoaks, Kent are constantly striving to learn more – about the wishes and needs of our patients, and how best to provide treatments and fulfil those wishes.

The provision of Dental services and treatment – in all it’s forms, from our reception and administrative teams to our clinical teams require regular, structured development.  This can take a variety of forms; there may be courses where specific aspects of patient dental care are addressed, or it may be a means to try and make the patient service experience even better.

Dentistry is one of the most highly regulated professions in the world. We have a number of regulatory bodies that are present to ensure our patients are treated with a level of care and integrity that is second to none. Regulatory bodies such as the General Dental Council, the Care Quality Commission and Public Health England take all aspects of the provision of patient care very seriously.

Our patient safety and satisfaction is paramount to the team at Atkinson Brignall Caring Dentistry. This can only be achieved and improved with a concerted team effort on all fronts. We want to go the extra yard to make your visit as easy and pleasant as possible.

To this end, all our dentists in Sevenoaks along with our fantastic nursing staff all have personal development plans that track our goals and ambitions each year; and we don’t just pick the easy things! The development plans are designed to help us build our skill sets and confidence, and manage any weaknesses that we may have – we don’t want to leave our patients short changed just because something is difficult.

We have some of the most experienced and qualified dentist in Sevenoaks working with us. Whilst all have their dental degrees, Ian Brignall has his MSc in Aesthetic Dentistry, Ennata Adeleye has her MSc in Periodontology, Annabelle Carter  is a university lecturer and accredited specialist in paediatric dentistry, while Nicky Crawford is a hospital consultant and accredited specialist orthodontist and Robert Crawford is a hospital consultant and accredited specialist in Endodontics.

We all have Continuing Professional Development requirements to fulfil and maintain our professional registration. We have to achieve these targets each year or risk being removed from the General Dental Council register. We ensure that we all meet these requirements every year.

We meet regularly to gather as a team to help and support each other and share experiences. We find ways to constantly improve our services to our patients and ensure that our high standards never slip.

We have had to adapt our educational methods with the era of Covid 19 but we have all become quite accustomed to the world of webinars and Zoom meetings!

We have the amazing benefit of working day by day with colleagues that are very experienced, including hospital department consultants. These team members are always happy to help and support each other and make sure that our patients have access to a huge wealth of experience.

The culmination of colleague support and many hours of continuing professional development courses mean that the team of dentists and nurses at Atkinson Brignall Caring Dentistry will be best placed to give our patients the best advice and help them to make the right choice when it counts.