Seven-year review of dental foundation year 2/senior house officer training at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit in Oxford

The dental senior house officer (SHO)/dental foundation year 2 (DF2) posts in Oxford have provided hospital-based training for dentists, but in 2013 the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Unit withdrew from DF2 training because persistent negative feedback from the dental deanery varied from that obtained internally. We sent questionnaires to a consecutive group of 62 dentists who had worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, between 2006 and 2013 to find out about their experience of the posts. Forty responded (65% response rate). We analysed their expectations, the support provided, their experience of teaching and training, the opportunities available, and free-text feedback about the post and their current posts. They had all found the job helpful, and had gained generic, dental, medical, and surgical skills. The overall mean (SD) score for the post was 8 (2) on a Likert scale of 1-10 (with 10 being excellent). When they completed the questionnaire between December 2013 and July 2014, 18 respondents were working as general dental practitioners and four were training for a career in OMFS. The study showed that work as a dental SHO or DF2 has multiple benefits. We hope that our findings will help to improve OMFS training posts for dental core trainees in Oxford.