Before a Patient Arrives at our Practice

• Cleaning will be key! We will create gaps between patients appointments to allow for decontamination and disinfection. Unfortunately, the downside is appointments will be limited in these periods. Unfortunately, we will not be offering a walk-in service at this time. Patients will be seen by appointment only

• Covid-19 screening - we have upgraded our medical history forms to include Covid-19 specific questions and these will now be sent via email to all patients, new or existing, to be completed in advance of arriving at the practice. This will allow us to carry out a risk assessment on each patient. Rebooking can then be carried out where necessary. For example, to avoid vulnerable and high risk or patients crossing paths at the practice

• 24 hours before the appointment we will ask a series of Covid-19 related questions to all patients which the government recommend at the time to confirm they and people close to them are not not currently experiencing symptoms

• Cleaning will be key! We will create gaps between patients appointments to allow for decontamination and disinfection. Unfortunately, the downside is appointments will be limited in these periods. Unfortunately, we will not be offering a walk-in service at this time. Patients will be seen by appointment only

• Our late cancellation fees will not apply. If you do need to cancel your appointment at the last moment for a Covid-19 related reason, there will not be a charge

On Arriving at the Practice

• The door will be closed, please knock and we will come out to greet you to take your temperature with a non-contact thermometer

• Please don’t be alarmed, we will be dressed in personal protective equipment. This will include a mask (will remain on from start to finish), gloves, visor and an apron

• If your temperature is below 37.1 degrees and you confirm that you are not experiencing any symptoms, we will invite you in and offer you alcohol-based hand rub or the opportunity to wash your hands. Hand hygiene is compulsory

• Please keep to a 2-meter distance using the floor stickers as guidance until treatment prevents this from being possible

• We would kindly ask, where possible, to arrive without a chaperone to reduce footfall in the practice. If this is not possible or you are in the waiting area for a prolonged period of time we will offer you a disposable surgical mask

• Please aim to arrive at the time of your appointment, rather than being early or late, to reduce the chance of patients crossing paths or waiting in an enclosed environment

• Where possible, try to refrain from using the public toilets by using facilities before attending the practice

• No eating or drink once in the practice

During Treatment

The main risk with our treatments is through aerosols. An aerosol is a very fine spray which can be created through speaking, coughing or squeezing which is the reason Public Health England have advised a 2-metre social distancing rule during this pandemic. This spray can stay in the air for a period of time and can be breathed in by others and land on surfaces which can transmit the infection to others. Unfortunately, a machine used regularly during hygiene appointments is known as an Ultra-Sonic Scaler, some patients might refer to this as the machine that sprays water, this creates an aerosol which is not generally a risk to patient’s health unless the aerosol is contaminated with Covid-19 particles. We will have a hospital grade air purifier running from the start of our day to the end removing any particles and cleansing the air. 

We can still use this machine, but we will need to follow strict guidelines to ensure that the aerosol has completely dispersed, and the environment has been completely disinfected. Throughout this period we will place an emphasis on hand scaling rather than the use of machines to limit unnecessary aerosols. This does not mean your teeth will not be as clean as usual, but it might take longer to achieve the same result. We will factor this into your appointment.

At the End of your Appointment

• After your treatment has finished, we will revert back to maintaining social distancing at 2 metres

• We kindly request that appointments are paid for using card or via contactless payments to avoid handling cash. We will be disinfecting the card machine after every patient

• Unfortunately, we will not be able to give out appointment cards, as we will try to limit paper distribution. Reminders and bookings will be carried out online

• Please try not to linger or return to the waiting area to make phone calls after the appointment to reduce the chances of crossing paths with the next patient

Hopefully, these measures will renew confidence in the knowledge that we are doing everything we possibly can to make the environment as safe as we possibly can. If you have any other worries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will do everything we can to provide you with further reassurance.

Please note that during periods where Covid-19 restrictions are reduced certain restrictions mentioned above may not be applied. We will take our lead from the Chief Dental Officer and our Governing Bodies.  

We look forward to seeing you soon