Forget those Apprentice wannabes; Vital's winter cover star Laura Horton means business. In just 15 years she has gone from being a dental nurse to a successful and influential consultant running Laura Horton Consulting and studying for an MBA.

Progressing in your career in the dental industry is something that Vital aims to explore as much as possible. Perhaps you would like to specialise in implant dental nursing (see page 35) or you could take a course in oral health education (read about someone who did on page 27). In this issue we also uncover a trio of DCPs who now work for the British Dental Health Foundation (page 20).

This issue also sees a focus on the importance of the DCP's role in patient interaction. Learn more about mouth cancer and how you can help your patients reduce their risks and improve their outcomes on page 47. The article on page 14 discusses how phobic patients can be managed, emphasising that ‘Dental nurses have a role to play in supporting the patient, being empathetic, and communicating well with them. Often a person will tell the nurse something that they don't tell the dentist’.

We round up another year of Vital content with a look at dental technicians and CPD and a curious but imaginative use one patient found for her extracted teeth (page 18).

Have a toothtastic Christmas!

Kate Maynard Editor vitaleditorial@nature.com