B & R Dental Care

Terms and conditions of services in B & R Dental Care

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TERMS & CONDITIONS v.5                        

This document contains: standard Terms & Conditions at B & R Dental Care, Failed to Attend and Late Cancellation Policy, Dental Hygienist and Dental Therapist Service with Direct Access Policy, Complaint’s Policy and Third Phase COVID-19 Reopening Policy

 

We are always pleased to assist our patients whenever we can. This document gives details of our terms and conditions of our service to you.  If you have any queries or need clarification, please contact us and a member of our team will be happy to help you.

Whilst any of our staff would be happy to help with enquiries, no professional advice can be given without a clinical consultation with a dentist. For professional dental advice, we will always strongly recommend that you see a dentist for a consultation.

B & R Dental Care Dental Practice does have an NHS contract with NHS Yorkshire Area Team and treatments are provided by us on both a private basis and NHS basis.

 

NHS TREATMENT

We provide a wide range of NHS treatments that are necessary to maintain your oral health. We have some Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) allocated to each practice with which we can provide the NHS treatment. All treatment that is (in your dentist's opinion) clinically necessary to protect and maintain good oral health is available on the NHS. This means the NHS provides any treatment that you should need to keep your mouth, teeth, and gums healthy and free of pain. More information regarding what is available on the NHS is available on the NHS website.

Under the NHS contract, B & R Dental Care GOOLE (Dental Practice) and B & R Dental Care HOWDEN (Dental Practice) are provided as independent dental surgeries. There are two different contracts, at different locations and each with their own database with clinical records. You can be only allocated to one practice as a regular patient.  However, we may occasionally see you at the practice different to your usual one (e.g. in an emergency), if we have no clinicians working at one, if one practice needs to close i.e. for refurbishment or if we can complete your treatment sooner. In a circumstance such as these, we may choose (or give you the choice) to offer to see you at the other practice.

 

PRIVATE TREATMENT

Private dental treatment allows us to offer you more treatments than available on the NHS such as cosmetic work, white fillings, white crowns, veneers, dentures, gum treatment, bridges and tooth whitening. There are some advanced treatments and materials which are not currently available under the NHS and you may choose to have these done privately or choose to have some treatments provided privately as an alternative to NHS treatment. Feel free to ask us as we are happy to discuss these options and methods of payment with you. We use quality materials, good laboratories and modern techniques in our treatments.

We have the services of a Dental Hygienist and Dental Therapist.

 

INDEPENDENT TREATMENT

Occasionally we are able to provide certain items of treatment independently at a lower cost to you than the equivalent NHS banded patient charge cost. In these circumstances, we would automatically charge you the lower price, unless you expressly request the higher standard NHS banded charge.

 

TREATMENT PLANNING

Once your treatment plan has been discussed and agreed with the Dentist, we will provide you with a written estimate of your plan. You need to sign the treatment plan if you are happy to go ahead with the proposed treatment. If this plan changes due to radiographic or clinical findings, we will inform you and discuss this with you accordingly.  If there are any questions about your treatment plan, please do not hesitate to ask us, prior to commencing treatment.  If you decide you prefer not to go ahead with any treatment after you have signed a treatment plan, we will make a record of your decision in your notes and you will be offered a routine exam appointment.  

Sometimes it may be necessary to amend the proposed and agreed treatment plan due to additional problems or clinical findings and therefore the costs may change. If this happens we will advise you about change and ask you how you wish to proceed.

 

CONSENT FORMS

During some treatments, you may be asked to read and sign further consent forms. These will relate to specific parts of your treatment, which may be made up of different disciplines in dentistry. We will always inform you about all the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment so it is essential that you read these carefully and ask any questions before commencing with that part of the treatment. Our wonderful team are great at explaining and will help you with any questions you may have.

Certain treatments require completion of a written consent form. This is in to ensure that we have explained the treatment, aftercare and any risk to you thoroughly before any of these treatments are carried out. It also allows you to make an informed decision before agreeing to treatment.

Consent for any treatment can be withdrawn at any point by the patient or dental professional.

If you are a regular patient or we have arranged to see you with a one-off emergency appointment, you are required to complete the necessary forms. These may include Patient Details, Medical History, Terms & Conditions, COVID-19- Appointment Questionnaire, NHS Practice Record Form (FP 17 PR), and contact consent. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our practice now operates paper free with all the forms delivered to you online to avoid the spread of the virus between our patients, our dental team and society. If you refuse to complete the requested forms, you will not be seen.  Please note that viruses (esp. corona) can stay on paper for up to 72h. We may charge you additionally for processing paper documentation.

 

GUARANTEE

Our work is guaranteed for 1 year from the day of fitting and will cover the failure of restorations (fillings) and laboratory work such as crowns and bridges. NHS guidelines cover the replacement free of charge but it has to be exactly the same tooth and surface.  The guarantee does not include failure due to a lack of proper cleaning and home care, breakage due to trauma, inappropriate use or deliberate damage, new decay, gum recession exposing edges of crowns/bridges, periodontal (gum) disease or habits such as nail-biting.

 Work will only be guaranteed if you attend B & R Dental Care for your regular dental check-ups and hygiene visits as prescribed by your treating practitioner.

 

At B & R Dental Practice our Veneers, crowns, bridges and dentures are guaranteed for a period of twelve months following placement, provided that the following conditions are met:

The patient has fully paid for the treatment and does not owe the practise any money for the treatment received.

The dental restorations such as Veneers, Crowns, Bridges and Dentures have not been damaged as a result of an accident, trauma or excessive grinding.

The patient has attended for routine examination every as recommended by their dentist.

Additionally, the patient has followed all post-treatment maintenance recommendations made by our dentists. 

No treatment is guaranteed for more than 1 year.

Some treatments may have a guarantee of less than 1 year, and in this case, you will be informed by your Dentist either verbally or in writing, or both.

Some treatments will not be guaranteed if you decided on a treatment option not recommended by your dentist as long term sustainable.

 

COST OF TREATMENT / FEES

The NHS groups all treatments into 3 bands.  We have no control over these charges and they will usually change yearly.  Please ask at the reception or pick up the “NHS dental services in England” leaflet which has all the cost information for each financial year.

For private patients, please ask for a price list. All prices quoted are only a guide, as it is difficult to give an accurate quote without a diagnosis and treatment plan from your dentist.  Printed estimates are given for all treatment plans. If you are not given an estimate, please ask at reception.  Charges are also outlined on our website.

 

B & R Dental Practice does not offer credit and we require fees to be settled at the appointment where treatment is provided. Where treatment incurs a laboratory fee, at least (minimum) 50% of the total fee is due at the appointment where impressions are taken. Fees for certain treatments like cosmetic treatment taken in staged payments at each visit. We will discuss and plan a schedule of payment for you.

 

B & R Dental Practice reserves the right to make a charge for any debt passed to a debt collection agency.

All the fees applied for any form of Dental treatment at the practice are based on; the materials used, laboratory costs incurred (if applicable), and the clinical time spent. The fees are, however, demonstrated as treatments prescribed on the treatment plan for your information.  Any uncompleted lab work will incur a charge due to the laboratory fees that the practice has to pay.

 

B & R Dental Care reserves the right to charge time-based deposits for booking future appointments. Deposits are deductible off the cost of treatment.

Payment methods accepted are:

• Debit/Credit Card excluding American express

B & R Dental Care does not accept any payments by cheque (unless agreed in advance with the practice owner). Please note that unpaid accounts are routinely referred to a Debt Collection Agency or the Small Claims Court, and we reserve the right to recover all costs incurred in doing so.

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APPOINTMENTS

You can make an appointment in person, by telephone or make a request via email.   When booking with us for the first time, please advise us if you have any preference to whom you are booked in with.   Please be aware that our dentists’ work different days and hours. We will make every effort to ensure that your request is met, but this may not always be guaranteed. For details, please ask at the reception.  We will keep you with the same dentist for your appointments as much as we can.  This may differ should you need an emergency appointment.

If you accept the proposed treatment (treatment plan was signed), you will need to see the same (prescribing) dentist until the treatment plan is completed. If you request to change to a different dentist in the middle of a treatment plan, there will be an additional charge(s). It will usually be for part of any treatment completed up to the request to change dentist, and then a new assessment/ examination with the different dentist, which will incur some additional charges.

 

 LATE CANCELLATION OR MISSED APPOINTMENTS

Cancellations and Failed Appointments: We require a minimum of 48 business hours’ notice (appointments under 20 min), 72 business hours’ notice (appointments 20 min and over) for cancellation of any arranged appointment. When we schedule an appointment for a patient, we are booking the surgery time off for that patient’s treatment. Failure to give the appropriate notice of cancellation will result in a Failed Appointment Fee being charged. This fee is proportionate to the length of the appointment failed and is to cover the cost of the surgery time wasted.

 

Failed Appointment fees must be settled before any other appointment is offered. Please note that we cannot accept notice of cancellation by e-mail, text message, or answer phone message, as these are not screened daily.

 

B & R Dental Care reserves the right to charge the full cost of the treatment in the event of a missed appointment or an appointment cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice. For appointments 20 minutes and longer, we require at least 72 hours’ notice.

For missed appointments or short notice cancellations, we reserve the right to take a minimum of 50% deposit to book further appointments.

Please note: it is also down to the principals’ discretion if further appointments can be booked after any late cancellations or missed appointments.

 

If you are unable to attend your appointment with us you must give us 48 - 72 business hours’ notice. Should you fail two appointments with us in a treatment course, we reserve the right to reassess your commitment to us as a patient and it may be necessary to discharge you from our service. We are an extremely busy practice and have a very high demand for appointments, and failure to attend or give enough notice could mean we are unable to offer our high standard of service to another patient.

 

Under NHS rules, we are no longer able to charge you for missed appointments. Missing appointments wastes time and resources which are needed for other patients in needs. Our practise policy is that if on more than one occasion, patients cancel with less than 48 hours' notice or do not attend an appointment, then we may no longer be able to offer them appointments for NHS treatment.

If two appointments are missed consecutively we will no longer offer the patient an NHS appointment. Special or extenuating circumstances shall be given due consideration. We may still be able to offer private dental treatment but will require part-payment for a proposed course of treatment before any appointments are made. Missed appointment policy of £1.5 per minute or £20 minimum charge for any missed private appointment will apply.  All patients will be given a copy of our practice FTA policy to read and sign over the coming months.

 

FAILED TO ATTEND & LATE CANCELLATION POLICY

We have a lot of registered patients at our practice and therefore demand for appointments is high.  Every month, valuable surgery time is lost due to missed appointments or appointments cancelled close to the time.  When a patient does not attend or cancels late, we cannot fill that slot.  Whilst we understand that unforeseen situations can sometimes arise quite suddenly, we ask for at least a minimum of 48 business hours’ notice (appointments under 20 min), 72 business hours’ notice (appointments 20 min and over) for cancelling an appointment.

 

We offer a courtesy automated text and email reminder service giving you plenty of time to cancel if you know you cannot attend.  If you do not have access to email or text or you prefer not to be contacted this way, we can ring you with a reminder.   IT IS ULTIMATELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO BE AWARE OF APPOINTMENTS AND NOT RELY ON THIS SERVICE AS IF WE HAVE A TECHNICAL ISSUE, THE REMINDERS WILL NOT SEND.

We ask you to ensure we have all your up to date details for you to be able to make use of this service.

The following policy is in place.  All patient are receiving this notification and each case will be assessed individually dependent on previous attendance records as we know situations can arise that are out of your control. Should we ever have to cancel an appointment due to sickness or annual leave, we will strive to give you as much notice as possible. The appointment shows on your records as one we have cancelled and so will not be included when assessing attendance records.  Notice for cancelling given within plenty of time shows up differently on your records and will not be included when assessing attendance records.

 

If you fail to attend a pre-booked NHS appointment on more than 2 occasions in a 12 month period, your attendance record will be assessed and you may be removed from the NHS list. 

 

You will be sent a text, an email or a letter informing you that, after the first missed appointment, if you miss or cancel late again within the next year you risk losing your NHS place.

 

If you do lose your NHS place, you can still be seen at our practice if a clinician agrees but on a private basis and a deposit will be required for your appointment. 

If you attend for 1 year without cancelling late or missing an appointment, we will look into putting you back on the NHS waiting lists.

 

If you miss an appointment or cancel late for any private/cosmetic work, you may be asked to pay a deposit towards the treatment upfront before rebooking. 

 

If children’s appointments are regularly missed, this is classed as a ‘was not brought’ rather than ‘did not attend’ and can lead to a referral to child protection services as it is classed as dental neglect. 

 

DENTAL HYGIENISTS AND DENTAL THERAPISTS SERVICE

Dental hygienists and dental therapists can carry out their full scope of practice without prescription and without the patient having to see a dentist first. The only exception to this is tooth-whitening, which must still be carried out on a prescription from a dentist.

 

Dental hygienists are registered dental professionals who help patients maintain their oral health by preventing and treating periodontal disease and promoting good oral health practice. They carry out treatment direct to patients or under prescription from a dentist.

You are able to access dental hygiene care without the need to visit a dentist first. This is referred to as `Direct Access`.

 

DIRECT ACCESS POLICY

Our practice allows direct access by patients to the dental hygienist and dental therapist. This policy describes how these arrangements work within our practice.

 

DIRECT ACCESS APPOINTMENTS

All discussions with patients about the direct access arrangements at the practice must be recorded in the patient’s clinical records together with a note of any information provided. 

 

Direct access treatments are available to existing and new patients. New patients who do not wish to see a practice dentist should, at their appointment with the hygienist or therapist, be given information on the limitations of the treatment that the hygienist or therapist can provide and be advised of the need for a full oral health assessment by a dentist.  

Direct access is available only for the following treatments

 

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

This means that our HYGIENISTS can:

 

• Provide dental hygiene care to a wide range of patients

• Obtain a detailed dental history from patients and evaluate their medical history

• Complete periodontal examination and charting and use indices to screen and monitor periodontal disease

• Diagnose and treatment plan within their competence

• Plan the delivery of care for patients 

• Give appropriate patient advice 

• Provide preventive oral care to patients and liaise with dentists over the treatment of caries, periodontal disease and tooth wear

• Undertake supragingival and subgingival scaling and root surface debridement using manual and powered instruments

• Use appropriate anti-microbial therapy to manage plaque related diseases

• Adjust restored surfaces in relation to periodontal treatment

• Apply topical treatments and fissure sealants

• Give patients advice on how to stop smoking

• Give certain types of local anaesthetic injections including infiltration and inferior dental block analgesia

• Place temporary dressings and re-cement crowns with temporary cement

• Care of implants and treatment of peri-implant tissues

• Identify anatomical features, recognise abnormalities and interpret common pathology

• Carry out oral cancer screening

• If necessary, refer patients to other healthcare professionals

• Keep full, accurate and contemporaneous patient records

• If working on prescription, vary the detail but not the direction of the prescription according to patient needs.

 

In addition to the above, our THERAPIST can also:

 

• Carry out pulpotomies on primary (baby) teeth

• Extract primary teeth

• Place pre-formed crowns on primary teeth

• Place certain types of restorations on permanent (adult) teeth.

 

REFERRALS TO A DENTIST

If a referral to a dentist is necessary, the hygienist or therapist will explain the reasons for the referral and seek the patient’s consent to be referred. The reasons for the referral and the patient’s consent or refusal are noted in the patient’s clinical records. 

If the patient declines to be seen by a dentist, the hygienist or therapist shall not continue to see the patient for hygiene or therapy treatments. This will be recorded in the patient’s notes.

 

                   FEES 2020 for Hygienist - Health Treatments

Low Maintenance Appointment   - (20 minutes)                   £48

Regular Hygiene Appointment 25 - (25 minutes)                  £60

Regular Hygiene Appointment 30 - (30 minutes)                  £70

Extensive Hygiene Appointment   -  (35 minutes)                 £82

Full Mouth Gum Treatment

(4 visits of intensive periodontal care 35 minutes each)      £255.00

 Please be aware that all new patients who request Direct Access require an initial 

“Extensive appointment” for your hygienist to establish your hygiene needs

 

Hygienist – Cosmetic cleaning

Brilliant Shine (25 minutes)                                                      £65

Smoker's Cosmetic treatment (45 minutes)                          £120

 

PATIENT GOODWILL

All patients attending the practice, including those attending for treatment under direct access arrangements, are patients of the practice and not of the individual hygienist and/or therapist providing the treatment.

 

You may be advised to return for review and prevention regarding the health of your gums in 3 - 6 months with the dental hygienist/ dental therapist – scale & polish your teeth (This will cost £42.50 for 20 min).

Note! The late cancellation charge for dental hygiene appointments 72 business hours and under [£1 per 1-minute loss clinical time (e.g. 20 min) = £20]

 

DENTAL NURSES SERVICE

Dental nurses can participate in preventative programmes without the patient having to see a dentist first. E.g. oral hygiene advice and dietary advice, and topical fluoride applications.

 

PERSONAL DETAILS:

It is very important that you give a full medical history and details of any medication you take. Should these change in any way, it is very important for you to tell your Dentist. It is the patient’s responsibility to inform the clinic of any changes in either personal details and/or their medical history. We have to ask for a current medical form and (where applicable) an NHS consent to treatment form at every new course of treatment. 

 

USE OF PATIENT CONTACT DETAILS:

At B & R Dental Care the health of our patients is our highest priority, and we also like to keep our patients informed of various important changes at the clinic and of our latest special offers. We like to remind our patients of their appointments, when they are due for appointments, and other various important reminders. On this note, you may be periodically contacted by the clinic via phone, text, email or by letter in the post. If you DO NOT wish to be contacted by the clinic by any or all of these means, please let us know.  We adhere to the latest GDPR regulations and do not use any of your personal data for marketing purposes.  Information will only ever be passed on should you require a referral to other dental services and this will be with your consent.

 

VIOLENT AND ABUSIVE PATIENTS

Patients who are violent or abusive to our practice staff, to other patients or anyone else on the practise premises will be refused treatment and reported to the appropriate authorities, including the Police. Please note that this includes being abusive to our receptionists during the booking of appointments either in person or on the telephone.

 

NO TOLERANCE/ABUSE POLICY

We operate a zero-tolerance policy to abuse to our Dentists and staff, loud/disorderly/drunken behaviour, persistent missing and late cancellation of appointments (after multiple warnings). In these situations, B & R Dental Care reserves the right to refuse treatment and admission.

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EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS

In the event of an emergency during working hours, please contact us as early as possible in the day. We have limited slots which are taken up quickly. Our reception staff will triage the calls so we can avoid taking up emergency slots for treatments that can be provided on a non-emergency basis, as a painless breakage of a back tooth. Call 01405763995 (GOOLE) or 01430 431553 (HOWDEN) to arrange this.

If you are in pain outside our surgery hours, please call NHS DIRECT on 111 where details of emergency arrangements will be available. NHS DIRECT web address is www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

 

INFECTION CONTROL

We work to very high standards of infection control and follow HTM01-05 guidance.  We wish to reassure our patients and staff that all necessary precautions are being taken in this practice to safeguard both the patients and staff against blood-borne infections. We follow all the best practice guidelines to safeguard your health and safety.

 

USE OF IMAGES AND X-RAYS:

B & R Dental Care may use images and x-rays of your smile and teeth only, for educational purposes on the B&R Dental Care website, and on promotional and educational literature. Your name will never be published, and your identity will never be disclosed. However, if you DO NOT wish for us to use your images and x-rays in this way, please let us know.

 

COMPLIMENTS, CONCERNS AND COMPLAINTS

We always welcome compliments. Our staff are trained to offer the kind of respect, care and treatment they would expect themselves. We treat our patients with respect, dignity and courtesy.

We receive many lovely testimonials from our satisfied patients who also recommend their family members, friends and colleagues to come to us for dental treatment. Word of Mouth is our highest source of referred patients.

Kindly let us know what you like or/and dislike about any aspect of our services. We hope to continuously improve our services with such feedback.

If you have any complaint, please talk to a member of the team. We take all complaints seriously and have a complaints policy which you can obtain from the reception. We will listen and act on any such concern to improve the quality of our services.

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 Complaint’s policy:

At B & R Dental Care we always take complaints about any aspects of our services very seriously, in order to ensure that every patient has only the very best experience at all times.

Complaints can be made in writing by filling out a simple complaints form available from reception, or via email, by the patient or by an authorized person on the patient’s behalf. Complaints should be made to the ‘Complaints Manager’, and should be clear so that they can be dealt with efficiently.

Every complaint will receive a prompt written/email acknowledgement, and the Management will strive to resolve the complaint within a quick, reasonable period of time (usually about 2 weeks). For our full complaints procedure and policy, please ask a member of our reception team. If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be acknowledged by the Management team and then referred to the treating Dentist. Please note that in these cases, B&R Dental Care accepts no liability on behalf of the treating Dentist and acts as a liaison between the patient and the treating Dentist, only.

If you are unsatisfied with our internal handling of your complaint, you are free to forward your complaint to the Dental Complaints Service (www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk). If still unsatisfied, you may wish to forward your complaint to the General Dental Council.

 

PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY

We have a strict practice confidentiality policy which all our staff are aware of. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and all personal information is treated in the strictest confidence in accordance with the Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulations. If you wish to view data held about you or see our privacy policy, please contact the practice manager.

 

YOUR RIGHTS TO INFORMATION

• Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to requests information about us. These rights are subject to some exemptions which have to be taken into consideration before deciding what information we can release.

• Under the Data Protection Act 1998/GDPR, you are entitled to access your dental records or any other personal information held about you and you can contact The Practice Manager to do this.

 

FEEDBACK

We welcome feedback from our patients. This helps us to improve the quality of our services. If you are pleased with the quality of care and treatment you receive from our practice, please recommend us to others. If you have any comments about our services, please inform us by telephone or preferably in writing or by email on surgery@gbb-dental.co.uk

 

KEEP US INFORMED

If you change your contact details like address or telephone number, please let us know as soon as possible. This helps keep our records up to date and make our recall system more efficient.

 

WAYS TO PAY

You can pay credit or debit card including a switch (Visa, MasterCard, delta, & maestro) or by cash.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN

In addition to English, the following languages are spoken in the practice: Portuguese, Polish, and Greek.

 

TOOTH CARE PRODUCTS

We have some oral hygiene products like toothbrushes, mouthwashes, dental floss among others which you will find beneficial. The dentists and the hygienist may recommend these for your use. Please ask at the reception if you wish to buy them from us.

 

DISABLED FACILITIES

We are compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, the Equality Act and the Disability Access Act. We welcome all patients. We have a downstairs surgery at both sites.  If you require a downstairs surgery, please inform our receptionist at the time of booking.

 

REOPENING POLICY FOR PATIENTS

REOPENING POLICY - THIRD PHASE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This policy has been created based on multiple updated sources from within the dental and medical professions and the government <Standard operating procedure (SOP) – Transition to recover>.
It outlines modifications to our normal procedures that we intend to employ once the practice can be reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic peak has subsided.

It is not known at this time whether these procedures are temporary or whether they will become a permanent feature of the way dental practices must be run to ensure patient and staff safety in the future.

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is still being evaluated and studied and policies and recommendations are likely to change in line with new scientific evidence over time.

We would like to thank all of our patients for their patience and forbearance during the period of temporary practice closure and for their understanding and cooperation whilst we implement new measures at the practice.

We will of course be providing dental care to all of our patients in the safest possible environment. We greatly appreciate your assistance with any new or modified procedures at the practice.

 

PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

Some of our B & R Dental Care practices will re-open for patients who require essential urgent or emergency dental treatment in early June and we will confirm a date closer to that time.

Currently, we are able to arrange a face to face appointments at both our Goole and Howden practices.

The appointments will be extended to other patient groups as the lockdown restrictions are eased further, in accordance with and adhering to the latest NHS advice and guidance.

 

According to the SOP Office of Chief Dental Officer of England: ‘All dental practices should continue to provide remote consultations with triage and advice as necessary options. This will enable practices to identify patients who are confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases or household/support bubble contacts, those who are clinically vulnerable and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, in order to ensure safe care in an appropriate setting.’

 

The B & R Dental Care team will prepare the practices for reopening and will be practising our updated procedures before patients return to the practice. We will initially be seeing:

• Patients with emergency problems or other dental problems that require urgent assessment and treatment

When the lockdown restrictions are further lifted we will be able to see:

• Patients with treatment that was not completed prior to the lockdown

• Patients who were due for routine examinations and hygienist visits during the period of closure, and whose dental health might have deteriorated.

• Patients who are due to a specialist referral or who are undergoing treatment on referral.

• Patients with a higher risk of developing dental disease.

 

PATIENT COMMUNICATION BEFORE REOPENING

Currently, all routine appointments already booked are still required to be cancelled. We will be seeing emergency patients and confirming appointments ahead of their scheduled time.

We will request that all patients who are attending the practice update their standard medical and dental history forms beforehand. These forms will now be in electronic format and we will no longer be using paper forms.

The assessment forms include a new section which will allow us to assess your level of risk for coronavirus infection before you attend the surgery.

New measures to reduce the risk of Covid19 transmission between staff members and patients attending to our dental surgery.

Our normal cross-infection control protocols at B & R Dental Care practices (against all previously known pathogens) are already woven into all clinical activity carried out at the practice.

It should be remembered that a dental practice is already a very clean environment compared to public areas and there is no evidence of COVID-19 transmission occurring in increased rates in dentists or their staff.

We have collectively evaluated all of the updated guidance and observed what measures have been put in place in other countries. We feel that the measures which are outlined in this policy will reduce risk to the minimum level at the practice.

Please be assured that all of our clinical staff will also be complying with our updated procedures to reduce the risk of cross-infection in both directions.

 

BEFORE ATTENDING AT THE PRACTICE

We will carry out a pre-attendance assessment via your completed Medical history/Assessment forms prior to your appointment and, if necessary, a follow-up telephone conversation to assess relative coronavirus infection risk. Our staff will contact you to remind you of this if we have not received your completed forms. If you have any difficulties with completing the forms we can help you with this over the phone. A dentist may also carry out a remote telephone consultation with you to assess your dental problem prior to your visit so that a treatment plan and cost estimate can be sent to you.

If we feel that you are at risk of having possibly been infected, even if you are asymptomatic, we will respectfully request for you to delay booking any appointments with us for at least 2 weeks to a month. If we do not receive the completed questionnaire in time and we are unable to contact you, we may need to cancel your appointment with immediate effect. You may be charged for the appointment if we are unable to fill it at short notice as per our normal terms and conditions.

We recommend that patients in the high-risk groups for developing complications from coronavirus delay non-essential dental treatment for as long as possible until the trend of the pandemic becomes clear. If you are in a high-risk group and do require treatment we will schedule your appointment at the beginning of the session. To find out whether you are in a high or very high-risk group please see the gov.uk website.

B & R Dental Care will be operating a “no cash” payment system going forward, and we will request that all payments are made online or over the phone for your appointment prior to you attending. This reduces the requirement for unnecessary contact or use of pin entries on card terminals at reception.

When travelling to practice, we would recommend that you limit close contact with other members of the public as far as possible. The doors will be locked during this phase of return and we will meet all patients outside the building and bring them straight into the surgery. One adult is able to attend with a child; please do not bring additional family members with you unless they are happy to wait in the car or outside the building.

 

ARRIVING AT THE PRACTICE

When you attend the practice, we will welcome you, and ask for you not to bring any unnecessary coats or bags with you to the practice. Although the front door will remain locked, we cannot accept liability for personal items so please limit what you bring into the building.

We will take your temperature with a no-touch thermometer. If your temperature is above 37.8°C, you will be unable to enter the practice and will be asked to return home and self-isolate as per current government guidelines.

We intend to eliminate waiting inside the practice and at reception. Accordingly, appointments will be staggered so that patients do not arrive or leave at the same time as other patients as far as we are able to manage.

Our toilet facilities will not be available for your use at this time.

If you are well, we will direct you straight to the surgery and request that you do the following before or during your appointment:

• Use the hand sanitiser in the reception area or

• Thoroughly wash your hands for 30 seconds with the antiseptic handwash provided in the surgery.

• We may ask you to use a Hydrogen Peroxide mouthwash before some dental treatments are provided.

• Rubber dam or other barrier mechanisms will be used for more procedures than previously.

 

PRACTICE PROCEDURES

The B & R Dental Care team have spent time critically looking at every aspect of the practice with a view to removing all non-essential items that can potentially be the cause of infection.

You will find that the practice may appear to be quite bare when you attend.

There will be protective screens around the reception area. All clinical and common areas including door handles and surfaces will be regularly disinfected in addition to our normal surface cleaning protocols between patients.

The B & R Dental Care team will be providing a buffer period between patients to allow additional time for additional decontamination procedures, allow for any treatment overruns and allow preparation time for the next patient so that they do not need to wait in the reception area.

This means there will be fewer appointments available on any given day. Where each of our dentists used to see 30 or so patients a day – it will now be close to a third of that…

All future appointments will be made and confirmed by email or telephone to limit your time spent at reception.

 

DENTAL PROCEDURES

All dental staff will be using personal protective equipment in line with current recommendations and evidence.

We apologise in advance for the necessary reduction in social interaction that this will necessitate.

Whilst our masks may make us appear impersonal and distant, please be assured we are still the same friendly team underneath it all!

 

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PPE

We are especially mindful that many dental treatments are aerosol-generating procedures (AGP’s). It is difficult for us to carry out some dental procedures without the generation of some level of aerosol. Aerosol suspended in the air is a theoretical source of infection which we obviously wish to keep to a minimum. Currently, dental literature suggests:

The use of our normal high-volume suction (the tube that the dental nurse hovers around your mouth) reduces aerosol production by over 90%.

The use of a dental rubber sheet where possible reduces bioaerosols by a further 30 to 90%

Our regular surgical facemasks filter approximately 60% of remaining airborne particles. FFP2 and FFP3 masks filter 94% and 99% respectively.

We, therefore, feel that our normal dental procedures can be carried out with minimal risk by the use of high-volume suction, rubber dam, surgical and FFP2 masks and, in aerosol-generating procedures FFP3 masks as appropriate.

Unfortunately, the financial impact of the coronavirus will lead to some increase in our normal fees. The time taken to carry out treatment sessions may need to be extended which will be included in the fees for your procedure. This applies to private treatments.

Any NHS related treatments will currently require referral to the NHS emergency hubs until further notice.

SUMMARY:

The vast majority of our patients are otherwise healthy without coronavirus infection and we are confident that we are able to provide dental care for these patients in as normal an environment as possible while bearing in mind our responsibilities to mitigate risks of infection spread as far as is practically possible.

This policy will be constantly reviewed and updated as necessitated by circumstances over time.

If you have any questions regarding this policy or about your dental care at B & R Dental Care please do not hesitate to contact us on:

Practice manager - Paula Redman: Howden: howden@gbb-dental.co.uk, goole@gbb-dental.co.uk