Dental appointments during Covid-19
In line with official guidance, we have put in place stringent health and safety procedures to protect our dentists, staff and patients during these challenging times. Thank you for your patience and co-operation.
We will be giving priority to patients with acute pain, infection, special circumstances, mid-term treatments and the elderly. We will see our less urgent patients as soon as we can.
Standards of care
Our dentistry will be of our usual high standard, but other aspects of your experience are likely to be different to normal enabling us to focus on additional health and safety procedures and protocols related to Covid-19 risk prevention. These will inevitably make things slower or more time consuming – but as it is for everyone’s protection and wellbeing, please bear with us during these challenging times.
Gaps between patients
We are spacing out appointments more so we can cleanse the surgery in between patients. This inevitably means we can’t see as many patients in a day.
Your Appointment - What to expect
1. Telephone us for appointments (no emails, texts or drop ins)
- Sorry, we won’t have time to email or linger at reception due to the high risk of spread.
- We will triage your needs during the phone call (referring to your treatment plan, if any) and then your consent and payment in advance will be sought.
- Triaging by phone enables us to minimise your attendance time and therefore any associated risk.
2. Attendance for appointments – Come alone
- Adults – when attending please come alone.
- Children (under 18 yrs) – may be accompanied by one adult only.
3. On arrival - Please ring the doorbell
- The door will be opened by a member of staff when hearing you are THE expected patient.
- Please wash your hands with the hand sanitizer available near the front door
- A member of staff will then read your temperature.
- Please be mindful of social distancing at all times.
4. Your belongings
- Please place all your belongings in the large plastic case provided.
- This will be kept safe while you are in the surgery and returned when you leave.
5. Toilets
- Please avoid using our toilets if possible.
6. Treatment rooms and waiting room
We will advise you where to go when you arrive, either:- Proceed (hopefully) straight upstairs to the surgery number given to you by Reception
- Or, if it is necessary, we may ask you to take one of the carefully placed seats in our waiting area.
7. Your dental treatment
- If we will be carrying out an aerosol generating procedure, we will be dressed in full PPE when you enter the treatment room
- After the usual greeting and clarity as to exactly what we are about to do, we will then simply get on with the treatment and notify you afterwards of any advice and possible post-operative considerations.
8. Afterwards
- When your treatment is over you can simply leave the building straightaway – please remain mindful of social distancing in our narrow hallways.
- If you need or wish to make further appointments, please do so by phone.
- If you have completed your treatment plan, we will contact you for your six-monthly recall.
Thank you for your patience and understanding with our new routines. Covid-19 guidance can change daily depending on both the progress of virus pandemic and evolving guidelines set by our governing bodies.
Thank you.
January 2021