The roles of the DCT in hospital during COVID-19

For some years now the perceived ‘value’ of postgraduate dental training and experience within Oral and Maxillofacial (OMFS) units in hospital settings has been debated at deanery level.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged modern healthcare in unprecedented ways. This letter (A Ubhi, K Nandhra, S Kumar, A Malik, R Glaskie, B Lander – Dent Update47: 604–608) has highlighted the tremendous versatility of dental graduates who rose to the challenge of these extraordinary times and were not found wanting.

Dental graduates entering hospital as part of the OMFS team have, for many years, inevitably encountered challenges, even within areas of medicine and surgery for which they do possess some training. The extraordinary ‘value’ of such training and experience should never be underestimated, nor the capacity of dental graduates to perform these roles.

OMFS experience offers a huge benefit to individuals and imbues a much wider perspective on healthcare in whatever specialty of dentistry such trainees subsequently wish to pursue.