Welcome from the editor

From theEditor

Matt Everatt F.O.T.A

lWelcome to your July edition of The Dental Technician Magazine.

I was very surprised to learn that this month I have been the Editor for 2 years! What a very crazy 2 years it has been for us all. I don’t want to dwell on some have the stuff that has gone, however I would like to say some thank you’s. Firstly, to you, the readers. From time to time I get to hear feedback from you and I’ve only heard good things so far! I have tried to introduce some new features and keep the content fresh and original. My favourite little feature has to be ‘5 Things I Cannot Work Without’. I have also loved the leadership articles produced by several authors including our regular writer, Nicki Rowland.

I would like to thank the Editorial Board, Ashley Byrne and Andrea Johnson have been particularly legendary in providing us with some fantastic pieces each and every month. A special thank you to Bazzie Larder who manages to pull all of our content together, inevitably at the last minute every month and to Chris Trowbridge for the daily chasing of writers, editorial pieces and for encouraging our advertisers to support the magazine. Without the incredible support of the advertisers the magazine would not be where it is. I can’t help but feel a sense of calm for the first time in a while. There has been a lot of talk about increasing prices and many labs no longer offering NHS type priced work. In my capacity of a lab owner, in one of our labs we have significantly increased prices in some areas. The net result being we have almost done as much turnover in a month with 15-20% less cases.

I recently responded to a Facebook post in a group, a Practice Manager asking for NHS lab Recommendations. There had been a few comments about it being difficult to find labs accepting NHS work and someone had mentioned sending cases overseas. It spurred me to post a comment in a Dentists Group on Facebook. It quickly attracted over 100 likes and some very supportive comments from dentists saying they choose to support local labs and don’t send cases overseas. I hope the message I was aiming to send in the post has struck a chord with some of those dentists that quibble over a few £’s for their work. Those that are trying to save A £ here or there are looking in the wrong places to try and increase their profit margin. I do hope this is a turning point for us as labs in regards to stopping this price ‘race to the bottom’.

Recruitment still seems to be an issue, something I don’t think we will resolve immediately and perhaps things will get worse before they get better. Wearing my hat in my teaching role, I have seen around 30 students this year who will progress on to their next year. Most of them do not want to seek out a career as a Dental Technician, many using the course as a stop gap or filler before they progress onto further studies. I am a huge advocate of Dental Technology and I want it to be a fantastic career and professional choice for the younger generations. We have to do our bit to help make it an attractive choice for students leaving school. I noticed Andrea Johnson was at an NHS Careers event in Doncaster this week. She had a table full of interesting work in the hope to get people interested and excited about becoming a Dental Technician. This is something we all need to do a bit of. Well done and thank you Andrea!

I am still on the look out for more people to join our Editorial Board, there are some areas we need people who can bring in some good technical pieces and news from their area in the profession. If you think you could bring something to the magazine, please do get in touch with me via email; editor@dentaltechnician.org.uk

For now, I hope you enjoy this months edition and that you have a fantastic July. To those of you who have children doing GCSE’s and A-Levels, I wish you and them all the best and hope they are able to progress onto their next stage in life.

All the best for now, see you in August. Matt