We extend you a warm welcome to our long established family practices, offering an extensive range of high quality dental treatments carried out in a friendly and comfortable environment.

Coronavirus Update

Hygiene Update – 30th July

As explained in our previous updates we have been following a phased approach to opening our practices to patients. Back in May, the government introduced the Covid-19 alert system which consists of 5 risk levels. We are currently at risk level 3. At this level the guidelines state that we are unable to provide routine hygiene appointments, such as scale and polishes or airflow, for cosmetic purposes. We are however able to provide treatment for patients who have periodontal disease (gum disease).

An appointment with a hygienist for this, would consist of an assessment of current periodontal disease, scaling with hand instruments and oral hygiene instruction. At present any treatments that create aerosol (mechanical scaling and airflow) need to be minimised. These treatments require extensive PPE, long fallow time between patients and extensive surgery cleaning. Therefore our airflow treatment and ultrasonic scaling are not currently available. We will provide an update if this changes.

Our hygienists will start contacting patients that they feel would benefit from this service. They will discuss what they can offer at an appointment as well as check medical histories, Covid statuses and explain how the patient journey will work. Patients will only be booked in for a face to face appointment following a telephone conversation with a hygienist. If this is something you are interested in, please contact reception and your details will be passed on to one of our hygienists to call you back. Appointments will be booked in from the beginning of September.

We are very conscious that many of our hygiene patients are missing their regular appointments and are keen to be able to provide access to our hygienists. We regret that currently, due to the changes we are facing, we are unable to provide hygiene appointments at the usual fee. The revised hygiene fee for an appointment as detailed above is £95.

Dental Update – 23rd July

As explained in our previous letter we have been following a phased approach to reopening our practices to patients. Since June 22nd we have started to see patients with urgent problems requiring Non Aerosol Generating Procedures (Non AGP). This means we have been limited to treatments that do not use any high speed instruments such as drills, and therefore have only been able to see patients requiring treatments such as simple extractions or minor denture adjustments.

We are delighted to announce that we are now able to start progressing to Phase 2 – seeing patients with problems requiring Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGP’s) such as lost fillings, broken teeth, root canals etc. These treatments involve significantly more PPE, and new infection control guidelines. For example after each appointment the surgery needs to be left empty for an hour before being deep cleaned ready to use again. This does therefore mean that we will not be able to see as many patients in a day as usual, so please do continue to bear with us during these challenging times.

The team are continuing to work through the log of patients who have contacted us regarding dental issues over the last few months and we will shortly start contacting patients requiring AGP appointments. We will be prioritising those patients who require urgent treatment first. We also have a dentist available each day to speak to patients requiring advice over the phone so please continue to call us if you have any issues.

At present routine exams and hygiene appointments are being rescheduled and we look forward to resuming these in Phase 3. We really regret the disruption to your routine dental care and hope you understand that this is out of our control.

Your New Patient Journey

To ensure the safety of our patients and staff we have had to make a few changes to how your appointment will work. Please familiarise yourself with your new patient journey before you come to the practice. A copy of the slides can be downloaded here. Patients coming to the Stratford Practice please note that there is a temporary one-way road layout in the town centre that has been put in place in response to Covid-19. The changes are likely to have an impact on your journey to us, so please allow for this when travelling.