Easing the dental fears of adults and children with complex needs

Senior dental officer, Kirsten Criggie, 30, developed it to help ease the fears of a child with complex needs who is set to have an operation, as well as the parents, by explaining the process in easy to understand terms.

Kirsten, who is part of the Buckinghamshire Priority Dental Service, said: "We identified the need for this resource when the patient's mother was concerned about her daughter going through the process. They used story boards at school so we thought we could develop one so the process wouldn't be such a big surprise."

Thought to be the first of its type in dentistry, though not in hospitals, the story board has interested some of her colleagues so she has now adapted it to make it more general to help paediatric patients going for a dental general anaesthetic . It is also currently under development for the special care adult dentistry general anaesthetic pathway. Colleagues in other specialities have also expressed interest.