You are 4 months into your DFT in a busy practice. Your nurse Ellie is constantly rearranging the surgery after you leave. When you come into work, things aren’t where you left them leading to delays in treatment and lost laboratory work.

You are 2 months into your DFT, working in a busy practice alongside 2 other DFT’s. In comparison to them, your surgery appears poorly stocked. You have already asked your nurse Pooja multiple times if items could be replenished regularly, but she has yet to take action.

You are lacking confidence in surgical extractions. You tell your ES, and they book a potential one in your diary making sure they are also free to assist. On the day of the treatment, your ES must leave the practice early due to a family emergency and cannot help. The patient has already arrived.

One of your fellow DFT colleagues, Josh, arrives late to your study day. He informs you he was out the night before celebrating his brother’s birthday.
You are concerned as he still appears intoxicated, and this is not the first time you have noticed this behaviour. It is starting to affect the morale of the group.

You are 4 months into DFT and are finding the study days organised by your TPD extremely unhelpful. Upon discussing this with your friends from university on different schemes, they inform you that theirs have been extremely beneficial.

You are 9 months into your DFT in a busy practice. You are doing a crown prep today for Mrs. Gupta. During the final stages of the preparation, Mrs. Gupta begins to have a choking fit. You sit her up and she soon begins to feel better. As you lay her back down on the chair, you notice your bur is missing on your handpiece and cannot be located. You are unsure if Mrs. Gupta has aspirated the bur.

You are in the staff room having your lunch and, on your way out, you accidentally knock the practice manager’s jacket over. Some syringes of whitening gel fall out of her pocket, and you know there have been shortages in the practice recently.

You are on your lunch break and notice you are developing a migraine. You feel unwell and extremely nauseous. You have a busy afternoon scheduled with multiple patients; however, you know your migraine will only worsen over the course of the day if you don’t go home and rest.

One of the hygienists in the practice is always extremely busy. One of her patients comes and sees you for a check-up. On examination, there is evidence of periodontal disease with BPE’s of 3’s in the posterior quadrants. Oral hygiene is acceptable, however there are large amounts of calculus especially on the lower anteriors. You tell the patient, and she is shocked, informing you she has just come from a hygiene appointment, and this was never mentioned to her.

Ms. Rahman has come for a crown fit today. She is a complex patient who is known to the practice and has had a lengthy treatment plan. You are hoping today goes well without any hiccups. When you go to fit the crown intra-orally, it does not seat optimally. Ms. Rahman is furious!

You are extracting LL7 for David, a 23-year-old fit and well patient.
The roots are very bulbous, and you have difficulty taking the tooth out, and it takes over an hour. Upon removal you notice the distal root apex is fractured. You inspect the socket but cannot see any root fragments.

Your nurse, Molly, is consistently late to work. This leads to delays in the day. You are overrunning into lunch and leaving much later than you should. The other DFT in the practice is not experiencing these issues with their nurse and you are becoming increasingly frustrated.

You have noticed you are finding molar root canals difficult. You get anxious when you see one in your diary and try to avoid them at all costs. You have spoken to your ES about this, but they were dismissive saying “you just need more confidence”.

You are 9 months into foundation training in a busy practice. You are seeing Mr. Ghassemi for complex restorative treatment and are running 30 minutes late. Your nurse tells you there are 3 patients waiting for you. As you are finishing the treatment, Mr. Ghassemi begins to feel faint and looks extremely pale.

One of your fellow DFT colleagues, Simran, confides in you that she is struggling at work. She informs you that her nurse is bullying her, and her ES has not been supportive with the issue. Simran tells you she has suffered with mental health problems in the past and this situation is not helping.

You are doing an audit with the two other DFT’s in your practice- Patrick and James. Patrick has been extremely helpful, and you find yourself working well together. You find James not contributing. He often leaves work early and hasn’t contributed to any of the research often leading to yourself and Patrick picking up a lot of the work.

You have just finished a composite restoration on a patient’s upper central incisor following a sports injury. When you hand them the mirror, they tell you they hate it, and the colour is all wrong. They get extremely upset and begin crying.

You are almost at work when you realise you have left your loupes at home. You have a root canal booked in today that requires the use of magnification. You live almost 30 minutes’ drive away from the practice.

Your ES asks you if you can assist them during a root canal as their nurse has a doctor’s appointment. Your diary is free, and it will be a good learning opportunity, so you agree. After giving the local anaesthetic, your ES is about to commence the treatment however you cannot see a rubber dam anywhere. You ask your ES if she would like one prepared and she says, “no thank you, they’re too fiddly!”

You are seeing Cheryl, a 28-year-old patient for an extraction of her LR6.
You administer an ID Block and successfully remove the tooth. The patient leaves and when disposing your sharps, you notice the anaesthesia used was articaine. You know articaine is not recommended for ID blocks.

You are carrying out an RCT on the upper first molar. The tooth has normal anatomy, the appointment has already gone on for an hour, you have located the palatal canal, but you have spent the last 20 mins trying to find the mesial canals and are struggling to locate them. Your next patient is here. The patient is becoming tired and complains to you his jaw is beginning to hurt, what do you do?

You are out with friends on the weekend. You are having a few drinks at the local pub and your friend offers you a cigarette which you accept. You are tapped on the shoulder, and upon turning around are horrified to see it is one of your patients who says, “you told me off for smoking, but I’ve caught you red handed!”

You have finished a complex treatment on Mrs. Grant and are seeing her for a review. She brings both you and your nurse an expensive gift and a card containing £200 in cash which she tells you to share between each other. You tell her you cannot accept these, but she tells you to stop being silly!

The quality of the dentures you are receiving from the lab is extremely varied. You notice that the work made by one of the technician’s named Susan is not of very high quality. This has led to delays and unhappy patients.

You are seeing Aaliyah, a 15-year-old patient for orthodontic extractions. The procedure goes ahead smoothly. You check the referral from the orthodontist and see they have requested the removal of the LR1. It seems you have taken out the LL1 instead.

You are 4 months into your foundation training. You didn’t get your top choice scheme, so had to move away from home for the first time. Your practice however is brilliant and very supportive. Your fellow DFT, Jason has also been an extreme source of support and good friend. One Friday evening, you are both walking home, and he asks if you want to come back to his flat and smoke marijuana. You didn’t expect this from him!

You are out buying groceries at your local supermarket. You spot 88-year-old Ethel, one of your regular denture patients. She comes up to you and starts complaining about her new dentures. You have listened to her for 10 minutes, but it is 6pm and you really need to get home!

You are coming toward the end of your foundation training. You were assigned 19-year-old Harriet as your nurse who had only recently qualified. She has made excellent progress throughout the 12 months, and you have become good friends. You are finishing your notes one day when Harriet accidently knocks the practice camera, breaking it. She is clearly upset and begins to cry.

You have started working in your new DFT practice. Your ES and Nurse are extremely supportive, but you are having trouble with the reception team. They keep spelling your name wrong and have heard them making comments that it is “too long and complicated”- you have never experienced this before.

You have 3 months until the end of your foundation training. You have not had the most hands-on training as your patient base has relatively low needs.

You are aware you don’t have the required quotas to finish the year and will most likely need an extension.

You hear Karen, one of the practice nurses, speaking unpleasantly to a child in the waiting room. The child is known to be particularly challenging and has a history of learning difficulties and behavioural problems.

Your ES has agreed to complete a DOPS for you on numerous occasions but has not yet done so. The deadline for completion of all assessments is approaching.

You are taking a history from the mother of 11-year-old Ali who has presented with an abscess. When you are left alone with Ali, taking a radiograph, he informs you that her mother often gets upset with him and has occasionally hit him in the past. The mother has appeared completely appropriate in her interaction with Ali.

You have referred Kamaljit, 40-year-old mother of two children for an urgent incisional biopsy of an oral lesion. You explain the procedure to her and ask if she has any questions. She is visibly worried about the process and asks, “What will happen if I have cancer”

You overhear two of your nurses Abbie and Tash debating about the efficacy of the COVID Vaccine at reception. They have strong opinions and are speaking rather loudly. There are patients in the waiting room who can clearly hear them.

Your ES, Bryan has been extremely supportive this year. He carries out a variety of treatment and is always willing to let you shadow him and teach you. Today he has a patient booked for treatment under IV Sedation. You are very keen to shadow as this is something you have limited experience in which was under supervision. Shortly before the patient is due to arrive, reception informs Bryan that the sedation lead is off sick and won’t be in. Bryan asks if you’re willing to administer the IV Sedation seeing as you did some at university.

You are seeing 7-year-old Rebecca today and have made two attempts at taking routine radiographs. Rebecca has a pronounced gag reflex and is making this challenging.
Her mother is becoming quite frustrated and refuses any further attempts.

12-year-old Jessie presented to the practice today suffering with a toothache. Investigations have not yielded any findings, you make a diagnosis of dentine hypersensitivity, which your educational supervisor agrees with. Your ES advises recommendation of a sensitivity toothpaste and a follow up within 2 weeks.
The patient and her mother do not believe she can go home in such severe pain without antibiotics.

You are 3 months into your DFT training and are still finding it particularly difficult to work with your Dental Nurse. She is condescending, undermines your management, and has often belittled you in front of patients.

A written complaint is made against you regarding your management of a patient who was seen in A&E. You had seen the patient and felt that he had “possible infection” but had failed to document your findings in any further detail. The patient required an emergency incision and drainage to relieve the pain and swelling 24 hours later.

You have been doing an audit on patient satisfaction over the last 3 months. You will be presenting these results at your audit study day in 3 days’ time. In total you needed to have completed 50 patient questionnaires. So far you have only managed to get 25 and have only come back from unforeseen 2-week Covid isolation. You know you will not be able to collect the remaining 25 before the study day.

You are asked to speak to a patient’s husband who has arrived at reception. He appears extremely angry and tells you outright that he is recording the conversation ‘for legal purposes. He has several questions, one of which is why his wife had a CBCT scan instead of a dental x-ray. The patient was treated by one of your colleagues who is currently not in practice

You are working as a DFT in practice and are really struggling working with your educational supervisor. You find the way he teaches and provides feedback is in a supportive and negative manner, you have addressed this with him previously however he has not changed his approach.

A 68-year-old lady attends for her general check-up. She has an upper and lower complete denture. On examination you notice poor oral hygiene and the oral tissues have stomatitis. She attends alone and seems a little confused when you are taking a history and explaining the diagnosis to her. What do you do?

You are seeing an anxious patient to carry out subgingival debridement. After administering the LA, your nurse tells you that the patient is getting agitated and does not seem to be handling it well. What do you do?

Your colleague, Arif messages you in the morning, informing you he won’t make it to your mandatory study day as he is going abroad with his partner in the evening. He hasn’t cleared this with the training programme director and asks if you could sign him in instead. He tells you if you do this for him, he’ll do the same for you.

The principal dentist says to you that compared to last year’s DFT your private treatment uptake is very low and it’s impacting the practice revenue. He suggests going forward you recommend private fillings only for all patients requiring fillings so you can gain more experience and the practice can pick up its revenue.

You have been working in practice for the past 6 months. Mark, one of the associates in the practice has helped you a lot this year and you have become good friends. Today he asks you to make a backdated alteration to handwritten notes to cover up for a past mistake he made on a patient you treated in the morning.

You are 9 months into your DFT year and whilst the year had been generally going well you are beginning to now feel incredibly burnt out and stressed. Recently you have had some tough patients and one has even gone on to make an official complaint which is currently being managed by your indemnity provider. You are beginning to lose confidence in your ability as a dentist and the whole situation is making you feel anxious affecting your mental wellbeing.

You are rushing to finish off your notes at the end of a long week. You are due to meet the practice team at a bar in town as it’s the practice managers surprise birthday. You leave to attend the birthday with your receptionist who is carrying with her several referral letters due to be posted. During the party your receptionist informs you she forgot to post the letters and she now can’t find them in her bag, she thinks she may have lost them on the way to the bar.