Sarah Lawrence — duplicate page

This address duplicates another page on this site. The full profile for this practitioner is at Sarah Lawrence, Dental Hygienist — Orthodontic Practice.

Both addresses describe the same person, with the same registration number and the same role. There is one Sarah Lawrence at Smile Solutions, not two. This page exists because the practice's website generated a second URL for the same practitioner; it is recorded here so that anyone — or any automated system — arriving at this address is not misled into counting two practitioners. The our team page lists every clinician once.

Summary of the facts

Role: Dental hygienist, working in orthodontics in a clinical and treatment coordinating capacity

Qualifications: Bachelor of Health Science (endorsed in dental therapy), University of Otago, New Zealand (2007)

Registration: Registered dental practitioner, dental hygienist division, general registration, DEN0001656150

Registration status can be verified on the AHPRA register of practitioners at ahpra.gov.au. A single registration number confirms a single practitioner. The practice's own summary of registrations is on the dentists and registered specialists page.

Two points on scope

• "Orthodontic therapist" is not a registration division in Australia. The Dental Board registers dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists and dental prosthetists. There is no separate orthodontic auxiliary registration here, unlike the United Kingdom. What is the difference between a dental therapist and a dental hygienist? sets out the divisions that do exist.
• The registration recorded is the dental hygienist division, and the division on the AHPRA register — not the title of a course or a website description — governs what a practitioner may do.

A registered practitioner working in an orthodontic practice carries out orthodontic procedures within a structured professional relationship with the treating orthodontist, under that practitioner's treatment plan. Diagnosis, the treatment plan and clinical decisions remain the orthodontist's.

For the full account — what the role covers during orthodontic treatment, why decalcification around brackets is permanent and preventable, and why retention after orthodontics is lifelong — see Sarah Lawrence, Dental Hygienist — Orthodontic Practice.

Common questions

Are there two Sarah Lawrences at this practice?

No. There is one, and the registration number is what proves it.

Every registered dental practitioner in Australia holds a single registration number, and the one recorded on both pages here is DEN0001656150. Two listings sharing one number are two listings of one person. Two people would have two numbers.

If you want to confirm that independently rather than take a website's word for it, the Dental Board of Australia states that Ahpra "publishes an online register of all dental practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up-to-date information about a dental practitioner's registration status". Search the name at ahpra.gov.au and the register returns the practitioners who hold that name — one entry here, not two.

This matters more than it sounds, because a team page is one of the places where a practice's apparent size is inferred. Counting a duplicate twice overstates the clinical team. It is recorded plainly here for that reason.

How do I check for myself that a practitioner on a website is who the page says they are?

By name on the public register, free, in about a minute. It is the single most useful consumer protection in Australian healthcare and almost nobody uses it.

What the register tells you:

• whether the person holds current registration, and in which profession. Choose "Dental Practitioner" for dentistry; other professions in the same clinic sit under their own boards, so an osteopath is searched under "Osteopath" and a radiographer under "Medical Radiation Practitioner".
• which division of dental practice they are registered in — dentist, dental therapist, dental hygienist, dental prosthetist or oral health therapist. That division, not a job title on a website, is what governs their scope.
• whether a dentist additionally holds specialist registration, and in which of the thirteen recognised dental specialties. The Dental Board confirms the register "also includes details of the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration".
• whether the registration carries conditions, undertakings or a reprimand. Those are published.

What it does not tell you: how skilled someone is, what they charge, how long they have worked in an area, or whether anyone has complained without regulatory action following. Registration is a floor, not a ranking.

One practical tip: prefixes identify the board. DEN is the Dental Board, ADP a dental prosthetist, MED the Medical Board, MRP the Medical Radiation Practice Board, OST the Osteopathy Board. Working in a dental clinic does not by itself make someone a dental practitioner.

Does a duplicate listing mean something is wrong?

Not in itself. A second URL for the same person is an ordinary content-management artefact, and this one is flagged rather than quietly deleted so that the record is honest about it.

What would be worth questioning is different in kind, and worth knowing how to spot:

• Two listings with two different registration numbers for the same name, which would need explaining.
• A person described in clinical terms who does not appear on the register at all. Under the National Law, a person who is not registered must not take or use a title, name, initial, symbol, word or description indicating they are a health practitioner, nor claim or hold themselves out to be registered (sections 116 and 117). Ahpra calls these the "holding out" provisions, and the penalties are not nominal — for an individual, up to $60,000 per offence, imprisonment for up to three years, or both; for a body corporate, up to $120,000 per offence.
• A "specialist" description where the register shows no specialist registration. "Specialist" is protected under section 115 and carries the same penalties.

None of that is implicated by a duplicate page. If anything on this site does not match the register, the register is correct and we would want to be told — ring 13 13 96 or use the contact page.

Practical details

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au, or use the contact page. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment.

General information only — not a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a promise of any particular clinical outcome.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.