DENTAL PROFILE Siobhan Kelleher RDH
Q&A
Siobhan owns Dentalhygienist.ie and is co-owner of www.dentalcpdexpert. She practises in Co Cork, Ireland and was awarded Best Dental Care Professional at the 2014 Irish Dentistry Awards.
Kim Behan Siobhan Kelleher talks to Kim Behan about changing career paths and her charity work helping homeless patients How long have you been a dental nurse? I started dental nursing 15 years ago. In 2001, I started working for Dr Michael McLouglin as a dental nurse. I also studied part time at Trinity College in Dublin and qualified in 2007. Dr Mcloughlin retired that same year and I began working for Dr Johnny Fearon as a senior dental nurse. Three years later I studied bookkeeping, practice management and digital marketing. I soon became a practice manager and then partner at Dr Fearon’s practice, Ashgrove Dental Clinic, in 2012. You have taken a different path recently, why the change? Dr Fearon and I ran a successful specialist practice for a number of years until Dr Fearon’s mother became ill and he needed to be with her, so we closed Ashgrove Dental Clinic.
TIGLIN WAS SET UP TO HELP THE HOMELESS AND PEOPLE SUFFERING WITH DRUG ADDICTION I then took some time out to decide what I was going to do next. I wanted to stay within dentistry but had come to a stage of my life where I wanted something with less stress. I had interviews with a few companies and soon landed a job as a clinical and technical product specialist with Ivoclar Vivadent. This role involves training and educating dentists and dental professionals
Kim Behan Kim graduated as a dental nurse at Trinity College Dublin in 2007 and recently became clinical and product specialist at Ivoclar Vivadent. Find out more about the charity Tiglin at www.tiglin.ie/home.
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on new and existing dental products, as well as running monthly courses and being involved with dental distributors. Tell us more about your involvement with the charity Tiglin – how did it come about? In 2013 I was involved with a charity that helped children in Belarus. I travelled alongside Dr Fearon, Dr Papathomas and Dr Tully to Belarus, where we carried out dental treatments on children of all ages in various orphanages. I was in this charity for a few years but decided to do something a little closer to home. Dr Fearon told me about a new project he was planning on getting involved with, a charity called Tiglin. Tiglin was set up in 2000 by Aubrey and Phil to help the homeless and people suffering with drug addiction. This year, Dr Fearon and Pat Bolger put together an amazing new dental surgery within the grounds of Tiglin. We (that’s you as well, Siobhan!) then gathered dental materials and instruments from various manufacturers for use within the charity. Together with my years of nursing and practice management, I have started to put together a plan of how the surgery should run and hopefully with the added help from other dental professionals, we will aim to have Dr Fearon doing what he does best and giving all at Tiglin the perfect smile. This will give us the space to treat people on a daily basis to improve their smiles and give them the confidence to get back into the workplace. What sort of help is still needed? At the moment we still need dentists, nurses and hygienists to give time to the facility, helping vulnerable groups of patients. We’ll also need constant support from manufacturers and distributors to keep the surgery stocked. How does it make a difference to patients?
TFACT
FILE
Job title: Clinical and product specialist at Ivoclar Vivadent Qualifications: Diploma in dental nursing Favourite topic in dentistry: Providing oral health to vulnerable patients.
IT WILL GIVE US THE SPACE TO TREAT PEOPLE ON A DAILY BASIS AND GIVE THEM THE CONFIDENCE TO GET BACK INTO THE WORKPLACE Drug addiction can really affect the appearance of people’s teeth in a bad away, so a smile is incredibly important for their confidence. By giving them smile ‘makeovers’ and reminding them that their past addiction is now gone, we hope to get them back out into the workforce. If you could change anything about dentistry, what would it be? I would want the government to provide more funding towards medical card dentistry. Comments to Irish Dentistry @IrishDentistry
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