First therapist to open private practice in Queensland

Following legislative changes in Queensland on October 15, 2003 allowing dental therapists to work in private practice in that state, an enterprising dual qualified dental therapist/hygienist has gone one better and established a practice from scratch.

Mrs Stephanie Wilson has become the first dental therapist in Queensland to establish a private practice, employing one full-time dentist, two part-time dentists and a second dental therapist/hygienist to staff the facility.

"I only made the decision to establish a practice following the change in legislation," Stephanie said. "Practice ownership is an option for anyone in Queensland, but it was the idea of being able to set-up a practice to especially cater for children that was attractive."

As it currently stands, dental therapists in Queensland can treat children from four years old up to the completion of grade 10. There is no age restriction in relation to hygienists.

"We principally want to make the practice very attractive to children," Stephanie said. "I'm going to dress up as a tooth fairy by appointment and the other dental therapist/hygienist, Alisa Tulloch's fairy tale character is an elf. The first Saturday of every month we're having a free story telling session for an hour and we're looking at all kinds of extra things we can do to make going to the dentist fun for children."

The new practice, aptly named TFI Dentistry - short for Tooth Fairy Incorporated - is located within a medical centre in the Brisbane suburb of Thornlands. The practice's motto is "Smile - someone loves you."

The three treatment rooms feature KaVo dental units supplied by Ivoclar Vivadent. Graham O'Brien Cabinetry completed the fit-out and Software of Excellence installed the Exact practice management software system. Other fixtures include a quality sound system, intercom and plasma screen TV.

Two of the rooms are intended for adult patients and the other specifically for kids with a magical theme full of fairies, butterflies and other fantasy characters complete with twinkling lights and ivy snaking across the ceiling to create a fairy forest effect.

"The biggest problem was finding the dentists," Stephanie said. "It was difficult to find dentists who wanted to work for a therapist and who wanted to work in a surgery that caters for children. We were lucky to find Drs Sonya Tran, Alf Le and Andrzej Migdalski to work in the practice, who are all very well suited to working at TFI Dentistry.

"The new legislation allows therapists to work in private practice, but we must still work under the direction of a dentist. We intend to have a dentist present at all times.

"I'm the first dental therapist to do this and it's early days yet. I think there was an atmosphere of disbelief that we were actually intending to go ahead with the project but now my dream has become reality."

Stephanie graduated in dental therapy in 1991 and moved to Switzerland the following year, where her qualification allowed her to work as a hygienist. On returning to Australia, she completed the University of New England (UNE) oral health promotion course and then in 2001 commenced the 2-year academic upgrade programme to receive the Oral Health Therapy qualification in 2003.

TFI Dentistry had its first official open day for the community on Saturday, January 10 and children readily accepted the invitation to attend dressed as their favourite characters.

"It was a huge success with comments such as, 'What a great idea - a toothfairy dental therapist treating children - how comforting for the little ones."