Essex dentist Tony Clough is scouring the UK for dental nurses to join his elite team who will care for the oral health of the world’s athletes at London 2012 Olympics.
Tony is dentist and medical team consultant for London 2012 and the clinic will include eight chairs in the dental surgery.
Tony, who runs his own practice in Chelmsford, Essex, predicts at least 700 dental-related incidents that his team will have to tackle.
The population in the month-long Games is estimated at 40,000 in total – 15,000 athletes, 15,000 backroom people and 10,000 officials and families.
Tony explains: ‘Amongst the elite athletes, there are a lot of pretty underprivileged people, and we will undertake routine dental work in addition to emergency cases so we need a team that can carry out oral health screenings.
‘A major, or key, problem is dehydration and rehydration. Athletes use sugary, acidic drinks for rapid rehydration and this obviously impacts on their oral health so we are offering fluoride mouthwash advice, too.’
Criteria for Olympic team recruitment will include experience in key dental area:
• Prevention of injuries and, in particular, the fitting of mouthguards
• Monitoring of diet i.e. isotonic drinks, with regard to their impact on general oral health
• Trauma that happens in any sport and the immediate fixing of the injury in order to get the athlete back onto the field of play as quickly as possible.
Applicants must be registered with the GDC. Priority will be given to any dental nurse who can offer accommodation to fellow health professional volunteers.
For further information, contact Tony Clough at [email protected].
