Dental Officer Primary Care Centre

Go back County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 23 July 2026

Base clinic will be Dental Clinic Healthworks, Easington.

We are seeking an experienced Dental Officer to join our growing team within the Community Specialist Dental Service. We provide consultant‑led paediatric and special care dental service. This position is primarily a clinical appointment to deliver high‑quality oral health care for adults and children with complex medical, physical, cognitive, sensory or social impairments who fall within the remit of the County Durham & Darlington Community Specialist Dental Service.

In addition to routine primary dental care, the post will involve the provision of treatment under sedation as appropriate and support of day‑case general anaesthesia. The post holder will be expected to work from multiple sites within the wide CDDFT service area.

The successful candidate would be expected to contribute to a continuous learning environment and support other staff groups within the service.

• Provide full clinical dental care for patients with special needs.
• Provide dental care under general anaesthesia and sedation after appropriate training.
• Provide dental care in a domiciliary setting as appropriate.
• Provide dental care in a secondary care setting as appropriate.
• Carry out needs assessments and develop services for adult patients with special needs, and for children and young adults with special needs.
• Support and motivate community dental staff providing care for adult patients with special needs.
• Supervise dental care professional staff.
• Liaise closely with consultants in paediatric dentistry and special care dentistry in provision of care to special needs groups.
• Liaise closely with the Oral Health Promotion Team in developing programmes.
• Work as part of multidisciplinary networks to develop patient pathways.
• Undertake specific project work under the direction of the Services Manager when appropriate.
• Collect statistical activity data.
• Participate in the County Durham & Darlington Community Dental Services Job Planning and Appraisal process as directed by salaried dentist terms and conditions of service.

• Patients and families or carers
• Service clinical teams and peers
• Oral health promotion colleagues
• Improving health colleagues
• General Dental Council
• General medical practitioners
• All health care professionals as appropriate
• Local authorities
• Providers of dental education and training
• Range of user groups of carers and families

• Bachelor of Dental Surgery or equivalent
• Membership of RCS

• Full registration as a dental surgeon with the General Dental Council.
• Active performer number registration

• Enhanced communication e.g. Makaton
• Special interest in special care patients
• Experience or interest in BASCD epidemiological surveys

• Completion of Dental Foundation Training
• Experience of delivery of oral health care in a primary dental care setting
• Ability to work at the national competency level for salaried dentists (Band
  
  A)
• Ability to provide all aspects of routine clinical oral health care
• Understanding of the role of salaried and special care oral health care services
• Sensitivity to the needs of the patient groups within the Community Dental Service remit
• Excellent organisational skills
• Ability to work unsupervised and also as part of a team
• Computer literacy, knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Appropriate professional indemnity
• Ability to travel independently across the county to fulfil the requirements of the post
• Experience of work within a Community Dental Service
• Provision of treatment under inhalation sedation and/or IV sedation
• Provision/suppport of treatment under general anaesthetic
• Membership of relevant professional society e.g. BSG/SAAD

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under‑represented.

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

£54,502 to £81,753 a year LD01 Band A per annum pro rata