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From reception to social media and treatment coordination: how I shaped a new role at Riverdale Healthcare

06/07/2026/in Careers, Dental

By Rebekah Days, Treatment and Social Media Co-ordinator at Alpha Dental Care Blaydon and Vitality Dental Care Bute, Riverdale Healthcare

Summary

Rebekah Days joined Riverdale Healthcare in one of her first dental receptionist jobs after university, without a clinical background or a fixed idea of where her dental career would lead. After spotting an opportunity to improve social media across Alpha Dental Care Blaydon and Vitality Dental Care Bute, she helped grow both practices’ online presence before shaping a new Social Media and Treatment Coordinator role that supports patients, private dentists and the wider practice team.

I started on reception, but knew I wanted to do more

I joined Riverdale Healthcare almost five years ago as a receptionist at Alpha Dental Care Blaydon. I now support both Alpha Dental Care Blaydon and Vitality Dental Care Bute. I had not worked in dentistry before, so reception gave me a good grounding in how a practice works day to day. I learned:

The terminology used in practice
The different stages of treatment
How appointments are booked and managed
How much communication sits behind each patient journey

After a couple of years, I knew I wanted more responsibility. I like being busy, and I like having something I can properly get stuck into.

Outside work, I was already doing social media for small businesses, so I could see how important it was becoming. Patients don’t just look on Google anymore. A lot of them now use social media to see:

Treatments
Before-and-afters
Reviews
Team content
What a practice actually feels like before they get in touch

At the time, our practice accounts were not really being used. I raised it as something I thought we could improve, because I could see there was a gap and I wanted to help fill it.

Social media became a way to support patients and grow private dentistry

Once I had the go-ahead, I relaunched the social media accounts for Alpha Dental Care Blaydon and Vitality Dental Care Bute. Because they are two separate Riverdale Healthcare practices, that meant building two accounts and making sure each one reflected the team, treatments and patients at that site.

The content included:

Treatment updates
Diary availability
Events
Before-and-afters
Day-to-day practice content

When the accounts started doing well, Kathryn Henderson, our Area Manager, asked if I would help other practices in the region get their social media up and running too.

For around six months, I supported several practices across the region. I visited teams, helped with events, took content and spoke to people about what made their practice different.

That part really mattered, because you cannot create good content for a practice if you do not know the team. You need to understand what treatments they offer, what their dentists enjoy doing, and what kind of patients they want to reach.

Once the accounts were established, people within those practices were able to take them forward themselves. That work helped me see how social media could support the wider business, especially around private dentistry.

At Blaydon and Bute, we have:

Private dentists with specialist interests
An implantologist
A sedation dentist
A growing focus on specialist private treatment

Vitality Dental Care Bute is also becoming a specialist private centre, with two additional surgeries and more private clinicians joining the team.

As the private side of the practice grew, there was a need for someone who could support both the marketing and the patient journey. That is how my role in practice support developed into Social Media and Treatment Coordinator.

Now, my role includes:

Helping manage private diaries
Supporting events and open days
Speaking to patients about their goals
Creating social media content
Coordinating with labs and the wider team
Acting as a point of contact for private dentists when something needs organising

Because I am not clinical, my role is slightly different from some treatment coordinator roles. A lot of treatment coordinators come from a nursing background, whereas my role is more focused on communication, organisation, social media and making sure things are followed up properly.

That works well for me. I get to be involved in the positive parts of the patient journey – speaking to patients, understanding what they want to achieve, seeing their before-and-afters and helping share those stories.

I want to keep building the marketing side of my career

One of the things I have valued most at Riverdale is that I have been able to put my hand up and try things. This was not a role I stepped into because a vacancy at Riverdale already existed. It came from seeing an opportunity, talking about it, and having people around me who were willing to listen.

Chelsea, our Practice Manager, has always known I like taking on more, so if something comes up, she will ask whether I want to be involved. Kathryn also supported me when the social media work expanded across the region. That gave me more experience across different practices and helped me understand how each site works.

I have also been part of Riverdale’s Voice Forum, where people from practices can share:

Feedback
Ideas
Updates
Improvements with the wider business

That has helped me see how much opportunity there is to contribute beyond your own job title.

I’m excited about the next stage for Bute as it becomes a specialist private centre. There will be more to promote, more patients to support and more opportunities to show people what the practice can offer.

Social media will continue to be one of my main interests. If there was ever an opportunity to support marketing or social media more widely across the North East, that is definitely something I would be interested in.

For now, I am focused on helping our own practice grow, supporting our private dentists and making sure patients have a good experience from the first time they hear about us to the end of their treatment.

Explore careers at Riverdale

My career at Riverdale has shown me that progression can come from spotting an opportunity and being willing to put yourself forward.

I joined in a non-clinical role, but I have been able to build my knowledge, develop my interests and shape a role that supports both patients and clinicians.

Explore current career opportunities at Riverdale and see where a dental career could take you.

From dental nurse to Area Manager: how Riverdale helped me build a career in operations

13/05/2026/in Careers, Dental

By Kathryn Henderson, Area Manager at Riverdale Healthcare

Summary

After starting her dental career as a dental nurse, Kathryn Henderson moved into retail management, HR and operations before returning to dentistry through a career at Bupa. After she moved to Riverdale Healthcare, she was able to bring those experiences together as an Area Manager, supporting 16 practices across the North East while helping other people explore careers in dentistry and develop their own paths forward.

My career started in dentistry before taking a different direction

I started my career in dentistry in 1995 and qualified as a dental nurse in 1997.

I worked in a dental hospital until around 2005, after I had my daughter. At that point, the hours were difficult to balance with family life, so I decided to move away from dentistry for a while.

That took me into retail, where I joined B&Q in one of their larger stores. I started in kitchen sales, but over time moved into different management roles, including checkout management, profit protection and HR.

At the time, it felt like a completely different direction. Looking back, it was one of the most important parts of my career.

Explore current career opportunities at Riverdale and see where a dental career could take you.

Retail helped me build the management skills I use every day

Dentistry gave me the clinical background, but retail helped me understand the operational side of running a business.

In retail, I learned a lot about:

Managing teams
Working towards targets
Understanding profit and loss
Dealing with HR issues
Supporting people through difficult conversations
Keeping standards consistent across a busy environment

I also completed a Level 5 CIPD HR management qualification, which gave me a stronger foundation in people management.

That experience helped me understand where my strengths were. I realised I enjoyed compliance, HR, operations and working closely with people to solve problems.

When my children were older, I started thinking about returning to dentistry. I still liked the clinical world, but I also knew I wanted to stay in management. For me, the next step was about bringing those two sides of my experience together.

Riverdale Healthcare saw how my different skills could fit into a bigger role

Before joining Riverdale, I returned to dentistry as a Practice Manager at Bupa. That role helped everything come together. I was back in a dental environment, but I was also using the management, HR and operational skills I had built outside dentistry.

After a couple of years, I felt ready for the next step. I was hitting my KPIs, including NHS targets and revenue targets, but there wasn’t really a clear route for further progression. I had heard there were development opportunities at Riverdale, so I applied for a Practice Manager role to get my foot in the door.

During the recruitment process, Riverdale Healthcare looked at my CV and recognised that my wider experience could fit a different role. Before I even started, I was offered a Regional Support Manager position instead.

That made a big difference to me. It showed that Riverdale Healthcare was willing to look at the skills I had built across my whole career and how those could be applied to practice support – not just the job title I had applied for.

Since then, my role has continued to develop. I started by supporting eight practices, then moved into an Operations Lead role, and now work as an Area Manager supporting 16 practices across the Newcastle and Gateshead area.

As an Area Manager, I support practices by understanding how they actually work

My role now covers a wide range of operational responsibilities across 16 dental practices.

That includes:

Supporting 12 Practice Managers
Helping practices deliver their NHS contracts
Monitoring private revenue and plan performance
Managing compliance
Making sure equipment issues are resolved quickly
Supporting teams with operational or HR challenges
Working closely with clinical leads and senior leadership

A big part of the role is making sure practices are delivering their NHS contracts. Each contract has a set number of UDAs, which are units of dental activity. If a practice does not deliver the required number, there can be financial consequences, so it is important that we monitor performance and support teams where needed.

Some practices are mainly NHS, some are private, and some are a mix of both. Each site has different priorities, different pressures and different teams, so you cannot manage them all in exactly the same way.

That is why I spend a lot of time out in our practices. I work from home for admin one or two days a week, but most of my time is spent visiting sites and speaking directly with Practice Managers, clinicians and team members.

You cannot support a practice properly from a distance. You need to understand the people, the contract, the building, the patients and the day-to-day challenges.

Because I started as a dental nurse, I understand what it feels like to work in practice. Because I have worked in retail management and HR, I also understand how to look at performance, people and operations together.

That combination is what helps me do my role.

Riverdale Healthcare gives people access to support at every level

One of the biggest differences I have found at Riverdale Healthcare is how accessible people are.

In previous roles, it could sometimes be difficult to get hold of the right person. At Riverdale, people are approachable at every level.

I work closely with my line manager, Paula Graham, who is Chief Operating Officer, as well as with Neeraj Diddee, Regional Clinical Director. Neeraj still works clinically as a dentist, which is really valuable because he understands what is happening in practice from a clinical point of view.

My role is operational, but clinical and operational decisions often overlap. If there is something I cannot answer, or something that needs a clinical view, I can involve Neeraj and work through it properly.

That access makes a real difference. It means decisions are more joined up, and it means people feel supported rather than isolated. It is also something I try to pass on in my own role. I want my Practice Managers and teams to know they can come to me, ask questions and get support when they need it.

I want to keep helping driven people move forward

I love seeing others have the same career development opportunities I have. At Riverdale Healthcare, progression does not have to follow one fixed route – dentists have access to training through Riverdale Academy, but there are also huge opportunities to grow in operational roles.

I have seen people join with no dentistry experience and move forward because they are driven, capable and willing to learn. One person I recruited as a receptionist had worked in healthcare, but not dentistry. She progressed into a Practice Manager role and is now deputising for me while she learns more about becoming an Area Manager.

That is the kind of progression Riverdale can support. My own next step is still developing, but longer term I would like to move into a more senior operational role, supporting Area Managers and helping shape how practices are supported across a wider region.

Explore careers at Riverdale

Riverdale has given me the opportunity to combine my dental background with the management, HR and operational skills I developed elsewhere.

Whether you already work in dentistry, are returning after time away, or have built skills in another sector, there may be more opportunities than you realise.

Explore current career opportunities at Riverdale and see where a dental career could take you.

How I’m working towards my dental nurse qualification while planning my own aesthetics business

18/03/2026/in Careers

By Isabella Isaac-Griffiths, apprentice dental nurse at Stafford Dental Surgery, Riverdale Healthcare

Summary

After starting a beauty business as a teenager, Isabella Isaac-Griffiths is now working towards her dental nurse qualification at Stafford Dental Surgery while building the skills and experience she hopes will one day support her own aesthetics business.

Training as a dental nurse has opened up opportunities I never expected

When I finished my A-levels with three As, I thought my next step would be university. My original plan was to study law, but before committing I decided to spend some time working and exploring different options.

That decision led me somewhere unexpected – an apprentice dental nurse role through TempDent at Stafford Dental Surgery, part of Riverdale Healthcare. At the time, I didn’t know much about dentistry or what a dental career could look like.

Once I started, I quickly realised how much responsibility the role involves and how many different skills it requires. A typical day can include:

Assisting dentists during procedures
Preparing surgeries and equipment
Sterilising instruments
Updating patient records
Managing stock and supplies

Alongside the practical work, I’m studying towards my dental nurse qualification through Riverdale’s clinical training courses, which involves one day of learning each week while working full time in the practice.

Being part of a close-knit team and working directly with patients has made the role far more rewarding than I expected. It has also helped me see how many different directions a dental career can take.

Just as importantly, working in the practice has given me opportunities to develop skills I hadn’t expected to use in a clinical environment.

Explore current career opportunities at Riverdale and see where a dental career could take you.

The practice helped me develop business skills alongside my clinical training

A few months after joining the practice, I mentioned to our practice manager, Mel, that I was comfortable using social media. She asked if I’d like to take over the practice’s TikTok account.

At the time the account had very little activity, so I began experimenting with different types of content. Social media can be unpredictable, but relatable posts tend to perform well. One video ended up reaching more than 1.4 million views.

The opportunity also drew on experience I had built earlier. While studying for my GCSEs and A-levels, I ran a small beauty business offering eyelash and eyebrow treatments. Managing that business meant handling:

Social media promotion
Client bookings and appointments
Customer communication
Payments and basic business admin

Without realising it at the time, those early experiences helped me understand how online platforms work and how to connect with an audience – skills that have turned out to be surprisingly useful during my life at Riverdale while training as a dental nurse and contributing to the practice’s marketing.

Working in dentistry showed me how much dental nurse career progression is possible

The longer I’ve worked in dentistry, the more I’ve realised how many opportunities exist within a dental career.

One of the things that surprised me most is the range of dental nurse career progression available once you qualify. Dental nurses can develop their careers in treatment areas such as:

Orthodontics
Radiography
Oral health education
Practice management

Seeing those pathways has helped me understand how flexible a dental career can be and how many different directions it can lead.

Dental nursing is helping me build the foundation for my future aesthetics business

My own long-term ambition is slightly different from the routes many dental nurses take. I’d like to move into facial aesthetics and eventually run my own aesthetics business.

Working as a dental nurse at Riverdale is helping me build the right foundation for that goal. Every day I’m developing clinical knowledge, learning more about facial anatomy, and gaining experience working directly with patients.

At the same time, the business and marketing skills I developed earlier are helping me understand how to attract and build relationships with clients.

Together, those experiences are starting to come together in a way I never expected when I first applied for the role.

Is dental nursing a good career for you?

Working in dentistry wasn’t part of my original plan – but from my experience so far, it’s a great option for people who enjoy:

Working with people
Learning practical skills
Being part of a supportive team

At Riverdale, I’ve been able to start building a dental career, gain real experience and work towards my dental nurse qualification while working at Stafford Dental Surgery.

For me, it’s been the perfect place to start building the future I want – and whether you’re thinking about dental nursing or exploring other vacancies, Riverdale offers a wide range of opportunities to learn new skills and grow your career.

Explore careers at Riverdale

Explore current career opportunities at Riverdale and see where a dental career could take you.