Dental therapist
[5] School dental nurses were to provide diagnostic and restorative services to children '...in a rigidly structured set of methods and procedures which spare her the anxiety of making choices'.[6] In Great Britain, during the first world war, 'dental dressers' were used to carry out examinations and treatment for children in parts of England.[8][9] Oral health therapists are trained to perform:[8] Dental therapists use number of different tools and technology to complete their dental tasks such as X-ray equipment, hand powered tools such as drills and polishers along with the use of computers and printers to record and store data.They were initially trained as 'school dental nurses', providing preventive and simple restorative care to children aged up to 12 years old.[11] In 1991, the profession was renamed from 'school dental nurse' to 'dental therapist' to align with overseas designations, and training was taken over by the Department of Education.[11] In 1999 University of Otago took over the two-year Diploma in Dental Therapy, which was offered until the introduction of the BOH degree in 2007.Their duties include examination and routine dental treatment and prevention work, such as fillings, fissure sealants and extractions of first teeth."[23] The panel recommended several specific "minimum standards of quality" for use by educational programs for aspiring dental therapists.In Australia, dental therapists have been practicing under guidance of dentists providing diagnostic, preventive, restorative and health promotion services to children and adolescents.[27] Common procedures performed by dental therapists include examination, prescribing and exposing intra and extra oral dental xrays, administration of local anaesthesia, preparation and restoration of carious lesions, pulpal therapies, extraction of deciduous teeth and preventive therapies such as fissure sealants and fluoride application.