State of the art community dental clinic opens at Bryn Beryl Hospital
22 November, 2023
A new Community Dental Clinic has officially opened at Bryn Beryl Hospital.
The new building boasts spacious dental treatment rooms, a decontamination room and clinical room and new specialist equipment such as adaptable chairs to enable people who use wheelchairs to easily access care.
The clinic, which is a referral only service, is home to a dedicated dental team that includes nurses, therapist, dentist and healthcare assistant, who provide dental care to people who cannot be easily treated in general dental practice, such as patients who have certain health conditions, a learning disability or a mental health issue.
Senior Dental Nurse, Carolyn Prytherch-Roberts said: “Our new clinic provides excellent clinical facilities for patients and staff, all hosted in a fantastic location at Bryn Beryl Hospital.
“Our service had previously operated out of Ala Road Health Centre Dental Clinic in Pwllheli up until 2017. From there we were transferred to a mobile unit at Bryn Beryl. However, our patients who are wheelchair users had to travel to Bryn y Neuadd for their treatment as we were unable to accommodate them.
“We now have the facilities to accommodate these types of patients so they no longer need to travel a further distance for their treatment, which is fantastic news.”
The clinic is due to start treating patients in the next few weeks.
Specialist Dental Nurse, Shirley Williams says the opening of the clinic is a huge boost for the community.
She said: “We are delighted that we now have this new facility available to us and it is much more accessible for our patients.
“We have a bus stop nearby, parking and we are in a great central location. We feel we are an added service to the hospital as well as we can now visit patients on the ward who need our care and provide screening for those elderly patients.
“We have a great team here and there are so many opportunities to come in the future where we hope to see more dental nurses in training coming through – we are really keen to grow our own nurses and we have a great team here to support them.”
The Community Dental Practice will offer check-ups, dental x-rays, scale and polishing, fillings, stainless steel crowns for children, extractions and prosthetic work for patients who require additional support.
Peter Greensmith, Assistant Director for North Wales Dental Services at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: “Improving local access to dental care is a key priority for both Welsh Government and ourselves and is especially important for community dental services given the increased complexity of these types of patients.
“This new dental clinic at Bryn Beryl Hospital will provide a full range of community dental services to the population of Pwllheli and the wider Llŷn area.”