About
Helen is a Registered Dental Nurse with a range of specialist qualifications, skills and experience.
After qualifying as a dental nurse in 1981 Helen worked in NHS and private dental practices, chair side with general dentists and then working with specialists providing orthodontics, oral health education, dental radiography, dental sedation and supporting dental implantology.
After leaving practice in 2003 Helen joined the University Hospitals Birmingham NHSFT maxillofacial team working for the Haemophilia Dental Service and Head and Neck Oncology Service, Helen have experience of orthognathic surgery, complex surgical dental extractions, biopsies, simple extractions for patients with complex medical histories, craniofacial surgery. Helen co-developed and managed the Maxfac CBCT Imaging Service and co-developed the Expanded Practice Protocol for dental nurse to work on the wards providing mouth care for head and neck oncology patients with their after reconstructive surgery, this progressed to proving mouth care to any inpatients in the Trust after referral from any member of the nursing, therapy and medical team
In 2017 Helen joined the Infection Prevention Control Team at UHB; her role is to improve mouth care for inpatients across the Trust’s 4 hospitals sites. Improving mouth care significantly reduces Hospital Acquired Pneumonia HAPPEN study 2026, currently the largest Hospital Acquired infection alongside Urinary Infections.
Poor mouth care causes harm to patients – Poor mouth care is preventable
