General Practice Training Tasmania registrars sunk their teeth into some dentistry in Launceston on Tuesday, learning how to deal with oral health issues on the job.
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St Marys GP Dr Kaylee Davie said the training session was important for GP registrars, who would potentially move to rural or remote areas for work.
“I see people come in with abscesses and pain,” she said. “It’s important for GPs in more remote areas to recognise dental and oral problems and know how to manage pain.”
Registrars learnt how to apply temporary fillings and splint a tooth, along with a number of other skills at the workshop on Tuesday.
They practiced their newly developed dental skills on each other.
GPTT chief executive Allyson Warrington said the workshop, which was held at the Northern Dental Health Centre, was extremely important to enable GPTT registrars to learn about the development of child and adult teeth.
“The workshop focuses on improving preventative care, keeping patients teeth healthy as well as identifying problems early while they are still treatable,” she said.
“The GPTT registrars also learn about pain relief for dental problems, applying dental blocks on one another.”
Ms Warrington said GPTT registrars in rural and remote regions across Tasmania were particularly in need of those dental skills.
“Often patients have significant wait times before they can receive dental care from their dentist. After hours and on the weekends, GPTT registrars can provide pain relief to give the patient comfort.”
Ms Warrington said the workshop also focused on preventative care and advice.
“After this workshop, our GPTT registrars actively look for what’s normal and abnormal in their patients. They learn about the different types of tooth and gum disease.”
GPTT runs a number of workshops throughout the year, focusing on different aspects of preventative and emergency healthcare.
In May, an emergency training session was held in Launceston, where registrars acted out scenarios including heart attacks, febrile (feverish) infants, burns, falls, paediatric diabetes and psychosis.