COVID-19 Information

7th January 2021

28th October 2020

Phase 4 of NHS Dental Remobilisation:

The Scottish Government has announced that, from Monday 2nd November 2020, NHS dental practices will be permitted to provide a “full range of dental services” once again. The restrictions on WHAT we can do have been lifted.

Furthermore, the Chief Dental Officer has acknowledged the difficulties this may cause:

“We understand that dental practices will require time to fully adapt to this new level of remobilising. It is also recognised that while NHS patients can now receive the full range of NHS treatments, it is not business as usual, because of the current constraints patient numbers will remain lower than normal and dental teams will have to continue to prioritise patients based on oral health needs.”

What this means is we are still severely restricted on HOW MANY patients we can see per day. We estimate we are able to see about 25% of our normal patient numbers per day – compared to our pre-COVID capacity.

We are now working our way through our waiting lists of patients who have outstanding issues from pre-lockdown – as well as those who are waiting for treatment deemed necessary during the restrictions. We will contact these patients directly, based on our assessment of urgency. Please bear with us while we try our hardest to help those who need us more urgently first.

As soon as we have the capacity to offer patients an appointment for a routine check-up we will contact you directly. Please, do not contact us yet – unless you have an issue you would like us to assess, in which case, please call us for advice.

This does not include hygienist appointments – we are able to run our hygienist service more or less normally, and we would encourage those patients who normally attend the hygienists to do so.

Please telephone us on 01505 321030 to discuss any issues you may have.

17th August 2020

Phase 3b:

From today, Monday 17th August 2020, the Chief Dental Officer is allowing NHS dental practices to use equipment that produces aerosols for URGENT and EMERGENCY treatment purposes only.

Sadly, certain media outlets have incorrectly informed the public that we can now do fillings and other routine treatment. This is still not the case.

In previous phases, if a patient required an aerosol generating procedure, for urgent or emergency reasons, we had to refer them to an Urgent Dental Care Centre. Phase 3b allows us to do those procedures in our practices now. That is all that has changed.

As before, you may find yourself having a routine appointment cancelled if you have one in September. We have already cancelled all of August.

As soon as we are able to give you a routine appointment, when we can safely give you the time and attention you deserve, we will be in touch to organise one. Please bear with us as we clear our backlog and prioritise those with problems.

These rules really only apply to our NHS patients. If you are one of our Plan patients, or you have chosen to have your dentistry under private contract, there are different rules, and we are able to provide many more routine treatments – with slightly increased PPE requirements. Even our NHS patients can choose to have treatment provided privately so, if you would like to discuss any of this, please get in touch.

Please telephone us on 01505321030 to discuss any issues you may have.

13th July 2020

Phase 3:

Phase 3 begins today for dental practices, but very little changes. We are still not able to return to normal service. We can see patients for some additional services but still only ones which do not produce aerosols – so no drills, ultrasonic scaling machines, or air syringe yet. We are really only able to help those with some kind of dental emergency, but now some less urgent things too.

We are also allowed to open an extra surgery to help meet demand for urgent care if required.

Contrary to some media reports, we are not yet in a position to perform normal “6 month check ups”. We really need to use our air syringe to do this effectively.

So, you may find yourself having an appointment cancelled if you had one in August. We have already cancelled all of July.

As soon as we are able to give you a routine appointment, when we can safely give you the time and attention you deserve, we will be in touch to organise one. Please bear with us as we clear our backlog and prioritise those with problems.

Please telephone us on 01505 321030 to discuss any issues you may have.

21st June 2020

We are opening – kind of!

Now that we have entered Phase 2 of the Coronavirus recovery pathway, the Scottish Government is allowing dental practices to reopen. However, it is NOT a return to normal service. In Phase 2 we are only allowed to see patients with an urgent emergency in the practice, so we are not booking routine appointments yet.

We reopen from Monday 22nd June to provide our Emergency Care Service. The practice door will be locked – we are only allowing patients entry who have an appointment booked – so please do not turn up unannounced. We will ask you to socially distance when in the practice, sanitise your hands on entry, and follow the instructions of our staff – for everyone’s safety.

We have also made some other changes to the practice. The reception staff will be behind a perspex screen. The waiting room has fewer chairs, and all our magazines and leaflets have been removed. The water cooler has gone and our patient toilet is not in use at the moment – so please use the lavatory and brush your teeth before you leave the house. The dentist and nurse will likely be wearing more significant PPE than before – do not be alarmed by this – again, it is for everyone’s safety.

During lockdown the Health Board created several Urgent Dental Care Centres. These UDCCs are able to provide some treatments not able to be performed in general dental practices in Phase 2. These centres are not for routine care – only emergencies. When you contact us with a problem, if it is appropriate, we will either arrange an appointment with us, refer you to a UDCC, or provide advice to attempt to keep you comfortable until Phase 3 when things will probably return slightly more to normal.

Please telephone us on 01505 321030 to discuss any issues you may have. Again, this is for emergencies only, so please try to keep the line clear for this reason.

We hope to see you again very soon when the Government announce Phase 3 and things begin to return to normal.

27th May 2020

We are now moving into the first phase after lockdown (Phase 1 of the Scottish Government Plan).

We have been instructed by the Chief Dental Officer that resuming normal dental practice is unlikely to happen in this phase. We are working on a roadmap for individual practices to be open providing our own emergency care by 31st July 2020 at the latest.

Meanwhile, all Emergency Dental Care will be provided in the new Urgent Dental Care Centres. If you are a registered patient and are experiencing severe pain, swelling, trauma or severe bleeding, access to an appointment will still take place by contacting our practice by calling us on 01505 321030 where, after leaving a message, a member of our staff will call you back and triage your call.

We are available Mon-Fri 9am-6pm to triage your calls.

We are cancelling future appointments when we realise they can no longer be fulfilled.

We will, however be rearranging all appointments, in stages, depending on Scottish Government guidance.

We will contact you when restrictions have been lifted that will allow Routine Dental Care to take place (This is likely to be in Phase 3 of the Scottish Government Plan).

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Please continue to Keep Safe and we all look forward to seeing you in the future.

We have created a self help document which may help you to help yourself. Please click the image below to access it: