Helen Cooper

I enjoy a very varied role as a Tier 2 Dental Nurse with Smile Together and every day/week is different.  I mostly nurse alongside our dentists in delivering urgent/emergency and community/special care at Truro Health Park and Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust at Treliske.

The most fun aspect of my role is how diverse it is, but also all the different patients I get to see and help. This is also my biggest challenge – you have to be able to quickly read people and adapt to different patients and situations, according to their individual needs.

I have worked in Health Care/Community since age 19 with many years’ experience working with the elderly and young adults with learning disabilities, also gaining an NVQ level 3 in Health and Social Care. I qualified as a dental nurse in 2011 and before joining Smile Together, worked in a general dental practice which initially delivered NHS care but transitioned to private only, including Denplan Plans.  I feel my role in Smile Together combines my career experiences, especially when working in Special Care environments.

What inspires me most is educating patients about their oral health. Our mouths are the gateway to the rest of our body and it’s so important to look after our teeth and supporting structures. I’m passionate about being able to offer advice to our service users and educating them on caring for their teeth/gums and oral hygiene – demonstrating how, making a few changes, often leads to better oral hygiene with fewer or no dental caries.

Smile Together is a truly inspirational place to work and I love that we make such a difference to peoples’ lives. It is very different here to working in general practice, where people are usually dentally fit, well maintained and very used to visiting the dentist. I especially enjoy how varied our roles are and have gained a breadth of experience in the last three years working in urgent/emergency and special care, orthodontics and General Anaesthetic sessions. I’m proud to work for Smile Together – it has such a good ethos and makes a real difference to patients and the wider community. My colleagues are all fantastic and inspirational, and together we make a great team, and I’m thrilled to be representing them as an elected representative.

To anyone considering working for Smile Together I would say ‘GO FOR IT’ – you’ll be missing out on an outstanding career with fantastic opportunities if you don’t.  It’s genuinely a great place to work – it will not only enhance your clinical career, but you will also gain invaluable experience.  You’re encouraged to add to your qualifications which you will be able to use daily and, being employee owned, you have a say in how the business is run. You also get to work with the best, kind, caring and inspirational colleagues.

Outside of work I love walking (my favourite place currently is Trelissick Gardens), cold water swimming (which I have recently started in the warmer weather), going to the cinema and reading.