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Dentistry FAQs

Here are some of the more common questions that we are asked about our dental services. If your question is not covered here please contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help.

We also have a number of articles about dentistry and treatment in general, including How to Find a Good Dentist and more will be added over time.  You can access these via the navigation on the left of this page.

How do I book an appointment?

Please write, email, ring or call in at the practice, and we will book an appointment that is convenient for you with either a dentist or a hygienist. We will send you a reminder a few days before your appointment. If you should need to alter your appointment, please give us as much notice as possible, and in any case a minimum of 24 hours. This allows us to offer the time to someone else, and helps keep our costs and therefore our prices down.

Why do I need to come to the dentist if I am not experiencing any pain?

Most dental disease causes no pain at all until it is well advanced. Although it is perfectly possible that the reason you have no pain is that you are completely healthy, it is equally possible that you have significant tooth decay, or advanced gum disease, or a chronic abscess, but do not know it. Our healthy mouth assessments are designed to pick up all types of potential problems, including checking for mouth cancer. If your teeth are healthy we can advise you on how to keep them that way.

How do you ensure all your equipment is sterile and safe?

We take cross infection control very seriously. In order to comply with the essential requirements of government cross infection control advice, we use properly serviced and maintained equipment which sterilises all our instruments as thoroughly as possible. We use disposable items wherever possible and we never reuse items that are recommended for single use only. However, we want to go further than this, and the first stages of our refurbishment include upgrading all our facilities to comply with the best practice defined in the government’s cross infection regulations, HTM 01-05.

 

How do I know I am receiving good quality care?

The whole team keep our General Dental Council registrations up to date, and engage in regular training and education to keep our skills current. As soon as we took over the practice, we registered to work towards membership of the British Dental Association’s Good Practice Scheme, which covers all areas of quality of care. We will announce in our e-newsletter when we have achieved this prestigious award. Where there is a choice, for instance in the government cross infection control regulations, we choose to achieve the highest levels of compliance, and we look forward to registering with the Care Quality Commission in April 2011 when they will be able to inspect our practice and publish their findings. We welcome and encourage feedback from all our clients so that we can constantly improve the service we offer.

How can I pay my bill?

The most cost effective way of paying for your treatment is to join our “lifelong sparkle club”. Your regular preventive care, along with a host of other benefits, is then covered by one simple monthly direct debit.

Treatment can be paid for by cash, personal cheque, any major credit or debit card including American Express, or, in the case of treatments over £500.00, by our interest free credit scheme.

Please come prepared to pay for all treatment received on the day you receive it. We will not normally send invoices, though naturally we will always give you a receipt for your payment.

Why don’t you offer implants at your practice?

Implants are a growing sector in dentistry, and can provide a huge benefit to the patient who receives them. We believe that it is important to provide all treatment to our highest possible standards, and to do that we cannot offer everything immediately. As the practice grows we will gradually broaden the range of treatments we offer, and implants will be one of those that we will look to provide.

For those needing implant therapy now, we currently have a referral partner, Dr Will Murphy, who places implants for our patients at his attractive city centre practice in Newhall Street.

What do I do if I need care in an emergency?

If you need to see the dentist urgently please telephone the practice as soon as possible. We guarantee to see all our registered patients who have an emergency within 24 hours, but the earlier in the day that you ring, the more likely you are to be seen that same day and at a time that suits you best.

If the practice is closed and you cannot wait till opening time, please telephone and listen to the answer phone message which will give you instructions on accessing our out of hours emergency service.

What guarantees do you offer on treatment?

In line with our promise, we want you to keep a healthy mouth and an amazing smile forever. We therefore offer a 24 month standard guarantee on all our fillings, crowns, bridges, and dentures. However, on top of this we will always assess each case on its merits, and if we believe an item needs replacing because of something we could have done better, we will redo it free of charge whether it is under guarantee or not. Valplast dentures are guaranteed for life against breakage in normal use. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee root fillings (as even perfect technique does not 100% guarantee a successful outcome), nor can we guarantee treatments that you request against our advice. For example if we advise that the only suitable treatment for a broken tooth is a crown, and you request we do the best filling we can in the circumstances, we will always try to fulfil your requirements but we cannot guarantee that filling will last.