“Everything was done to protect the patients and the staff and the care given to me was the best I could have hoped. I was given choices over various options available and helped to come to the best conclusion.”

Patient feedback November 2020

***URCHFONT DENTAL CARE IS OPEN***

Thank you for your support and patience with the protocols we put in place during the COVID pandemic. Most of the protocols have now been relaxed, but we continue to be vigilant to protect vulnerable patients.

Previous Updates

Update (3rd February 2022):

We continue to operate with many of the COVID protocols in place to keep vulnerable patients and staff safe.

Update (1st November 2020):

We are remaining open during the second lockdown.

With the new Covid-safe procedures put in place during the first lockdown, we are able to continue to offer treatment to all patients. All check-ups and treatments already booked will go ahead as planned. We will continue to offer beginning- and end-of-session appointments to vulnerable patients if requested.

Update (1st July 2020):

We are please to announce that we are open from today for patient appointments, starting with our emergency cases from the Lockdown period, followed by incomplete treatment, then routine dental care. We are contacting patients by phone, email or letter and will be in touch soon; please bear with us as we still have several hundred patients to contact. If you wish to rearrange your cancelled appointment soon, please feel free to email us. We look forward to seeing you soon and wish you all the best.

Update (2nd June 2020):

We have reception screens on order, similar to those that patients will be familiar with from shops, etc. in recent months. There is a severe shortage of the plastic glass used for these screens, but we hope to have these installed in the next month.

We have PPE on order, including gowns and new compact breathing masks needed for our staff. We are trying to book fit-testing for these masks, but again this is on high demand with very few tests available.

We are installing powerful extractor fans in our surgeries to create negative pressure and replenish the air more frequently. this will enable us to keep the ‘fallow period’ as short as possible (the time between patients when the surgery is purged of air-born particles and deep-cleaned).

We are investigating new web-based patient services (like appointment updates, bookings, payment and triage) and are installing a major update to our in-house software this week to push this forward.

We are planning the installing of disinfection stations subject to availability.

We are also reviewing our fee structure to ensure that we can continue to operate as a viable business. This is a real challenge for us as we have always aimed to maintain affordable fees for all patients. We are hoping to be able to keep any increases down to 10-25% where possible.

Closure (23rd March 2020)

This has been a difficult decision after several days trying our best to find ways to maintain a service to our patients through ever-changing advice from the government, and keep our practice open for our dedicated staff. We are working tirelessly to protect the jobs of our team in the long term and to ensure our patients continue to be looked after as well as possible.

If you feel you require urgent treatment for an extreme emergency, please contact us via the website and we will triage your case by phone to determine if we can provide advice / analgesic / antimicrobial medication.

• Trauma – including injury to facial bone, severe deep cut or tear to your face/lips and/or gums or if you knock a tooth out.
• Swelling of your face/ jaw that is significant and worsening
• Bleeding following a recent tooth extraction that you are unable to control at home.
• Infected tooth that is extremely tender to touch that has resulted in a raised temperature.
• Unable to open or close your jaw (trismus)
• Toothache that is keeping you awake at night and not manage by painkillers

If you have received a message cancelling a routine appointment, we will contact you to re-book this once the practice is open again.

We hope you stay safe and healthy in these unprecedented circumstances.

Note: If you are invited to attend the practice to collect a prescription, the dentist will be wearing full surgical gown, hair protection, face mask and visor in order to protect themselves; please do not be alarmed by this! (see picture below)