Morriston Maxillofacial Dental Core Trainees: What it's really like at Morriston Hospital as an OMFS junior doctor/dentist.

Dear future SHO's / Dental Core Trainee's (DCT2/3).

Welcome to this page. We, the 2018-19 cohort of Dental Core trainees (DCT2s and DCT3s) wanted to write a short bit of information for you for what the job actually entails and to give you a flavour of what to expect if you decide to apply for a job here in Swansea.

If you wish to contact one us personally, feel free to drop me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I hope you do decide to take the post, you'll learn loads and it's a really worthwhile year, regardless of your dental career aspirations.

Feedback following a year as a maxfax DCT2..

Role: DCT2: No On-call. OMFS only. Morriston Hospital 2018/2019

I took the DCT2 post as a 60% LTFT (part-time) post, coming into the role following my second baby who was 8-months old.

The team were kind. It was a busy job when in theatres and on-call, but you are always well supported by the registrars and consultants, who are lovely. When timetabled to clinic, minor oral surgery or in Princess of Wales, the tempo of the day is much more relaxed.

The year begins with a helpful two-day introduction to the ward course, where you're guided through medical and dental procedures needed for the post. You'll soon figure that nobody expects you to be a maxillofacial surgeon in your capabilites - you are just expected to be safe, sensible and to ask for help. Polish up your anatomy, and ensure your ILS/ALS is up to scratch as any life support skills might come in handy.

The Morriston Consultants were extremely kind and accommodating to all of us- we were able to get what was of personal interest to us and what we needed from this job. Each of us DCT2s had career aspirations of non-maxfax specialities - including Oral Surgery, Orthodontics and Restorative dentistry speciality training, so our timetables were optimised to ensure we could do what was best for our interests. As a DCT2  in max fax/OMFS, I was able to complete lots of day case procedures, LA and sedation minor oral surgery, I had exposure to paediatric oral surgery, complex cysts and third molars and was assisting for major trauma and oncology cases. I gained my full IASCD IV sedation qualification during this post, completed audits, presented posters at national meetings, published papers and completed a silver IQT project - these are easy enough to get done as part of your job here. We were also required to attend journal club and teaching - all of which strengthened our application to STR. My two colleagues also completed PGCerts in Med Ed during the year. And your educational supervisors are excellent and will help you and push you if that's what you want.

All three of us DCT's gained registrar positions in the specialities we wanted to this year at the first attempt. I think this role was really valuable and for us as dentists applying for specialty training and am really glad to have done it for the year. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

Elle