Dental Nurse Pay.

[dentalnurse]

Just wondering what other dental nurses , working in general practice are earning per hour , especially since recent increase of minimum wage to £11.44.

I’ve not hand notice of my payrise as yet ( pay day 1st May- last year it was the day before payday 🤦🏼‍♀️) currently pay is £11.45 p/hr.
the practice cover gdc and provide cpd online.

my history is qualified 2006, radiography 2008 and oral health educator and infection control lead.

£11.45 P/H? That is shocking! You could literally get more money working in Aldi or Three the phone company. Sorry I have nothing to add other than I had no clue a dental nurses pay was that rate

I agree it's terrible, there's lots of jobs where the recent increases in the NMW has made skilled jobs into NMW jobs because the differential hasn't been maintained - I bet a few years ago, you were paid at least a couple of pounds an hour above NMW and now it's nothing.

You're probably even at risk of earning below NMW if you have compulsory professional fees to pay, so something to watch out for. Do other practices pay more, or is it across the board? Have you asked for a payrise? Have you talked about leaving for better pay? If not there's no incentive for your employer to pay you more.

Is there a shortage of dental nurses? Any pay campaigns by your union or professional associations or talks of strikes? Because that's what needs happen to do to improve things.

That’s awful. The young office junior in my office who had no admin experience prior to joining is the same as you !

You'd be paid 3k PA more FT as a new recruit bottom of band 4 in a CDS post OP. Based on a 37.5 working week.

Much better T& Cs working for an nhs trust eg sick pay /mat pay/ pension / better CPD / better career progression.

You've got good post quals already, you should consider it, you can always do the sedation course once you get a CDS course.