Special Care Dentistry provide specialist dental care to both children and adults who are unable to receive care from a General Dental Practitioner, but do not necessarily need to be seen in a hospital.

Joanna is always kind and supportive whilst maintaining professionalism. She is compassionate towards all patients, understanding their concerns, and always listening to ensure she supports them. Dental work can be daunting for many and give patients anxiety, Joanna always offers reassurance and comfort to make it as easy as possible for them.

Joanna has become an education supervisor of an STR for the first time and transformed the STR training in the region. She has done an exceptional job – organising placements in tertiary hospitals such as Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals, and supervising sedation across the various community dental sites.

Joanna regularly travels 90 minutes across Oxfordshire from her base to supervise trainees and support members of the team. She networks with colleagues across the South of England and the Thames Valley to provide an excellent training placement, introducing placements with medical specialities including cardiology and learning disabilities. This has created cross speciality networks and provided an excellent training environment.

Fantastic feedback has been received from patients and staff for the management of complex patients with additional needs. Her educational supervision has been outstanding, having taken on this role for this first time she has worked tirelessly to support trainees and has been commended for this by the Thames Valley committee and received excellent feedback from trainees, with successful examination and competency reviews.

As a Lead Clinician in the team, Joanna has created an excellent team ethos, leading a friendly and open culture.

Trust Chair David Walker said:

“Joanna is a brilliant role model for her colleagues, showing a great amount of care and kindness to all those around her. Visiting the dentist can be daunting, it is people like Joanna who make this experience a little easier for our patients. I am delighted to recognise Joanna for being so attentive and experienced”.

Joanna said:

“Obviously I am super flattered to even be nominated for an award, yet alone win one, though feel quite underserving! I am very privileged to work alongside some fantastic clinicians, nurses, and admin staff, who work hard to improve the oral health of vulnerable adults and children, delivering treatment with care and compassion …. They are an exceptional team”.

The nomination

Joanna was nominated by Special Care Dentist Daniel Gillway, for her empathetic and devoted approach to patient care.

Daniel commented:

“Joanna’s caring attitude is unrivalled, she is a specialist in special care dentistry, as a lead clinician she routinely manages patient with complex social and medical backgrounds. She does this with empathy and kindness. Anxious patients are very grateful for her care.

“Safety is a priority in the service and as a lead clinician she has introduced new pathways for our general anaesthetic service and worked across the Oxford Health and OUH services with ward and nursing staff.

“She has supervised audit projects to improve patient safety and leads on incident reports and associated learning. In particular, her kindness to staff and patients is excellent, this creates an excellent team and patient environment.”