We are positively excited, as we are sure you are too, to be reopening our dental practice and welcoming back our patients.
Our New Norm Patient Journey is created based on multiple updated sources from the dental and medical professions and the government involves a number of safety protocols to protect you and our team.
Things will be a little different than before as we are taking a number of precautions to ensure that your journey at Surrey Dental Spa is as smooth and most importantly as safe and efficient as possible.
Before Attending At The Practice
We will be contacting patients and confirming appointments ahead of their scheduled time. We will request that all patients who are attending Surrey Dental Spa to update their standard medical history forms on arrival which now includes COVID-19 status.
Our admin team member will call you to carry out a pre-attendance screening and again on arrival to assess relative COVID-19 infection risk.
If we feel that you are at risk of having possibly been infected, even if you are asymptomatic, we will respectfully request for you to delay booking any appointments with us for at least 2 weeks.
Patients in the high-risk groups for developing complications from coronavirus should delay non-essential dental treatment for as long as possible, until the trend of the pandemic becomes clear. If you are in a high-risk group and do require treatment, we will schedule your appointment at the beginning of the day.
We will be operating contactless payment systems going forwards, and we will request that payment is made over the phone for your appointment. This reduces the requirement for use of pin entries on card terminals at reception.
Arriving At The Practice
When travelling to the practice, we would recommend that you limit close contact with other members of the public as much as possible. When you arrive at the practice, please call us on 020 8404 8080 to let us know you are here.
If travelling by car, please stay in your car once parked and call the practice to let our team know you are here. They will instruct you and let you know if the dentist is ready for you and we will meet all patients at the front door and bring them straight into the surgery. One adult is able to attend with a child; please do not bring additional family members with you unless they are happy to wait in the car or outside the building.
When you attend the practice, we will welcome you and ask for you to place all your belongings in your personalised check-in box. This box will accompany you to your surgery. We recommend that you limit what you bring into the building.
We will take your temperature with a no-touch thermometer. If your temperature is above 37.8°C, you will be unable to enter the practice and will be asked to return home and self-isolate as per current government guidelines.
We intend to eliminate waiting inside the practice and at reception. Accordingly, appointments will be staggered so that patients do not arrive or leave at the same time as other patients as far as we are able to manage. When using the restrooms, please do your best to ensure that you leave the facilities as you would expect to find them and wash your hand thoroughly.
The restrooms will be regularly disinfected between patients.
Our team member will open the entrance door for you on your arrival.
If you are well, we will direct you straight to the surgery and request that you do the following before or during your appointment:
- Use the hand sanitiser in the reception area or thoroughly wash your hands for 30 seconds with the antiseptic handwash provided in the surgery
- We may ask you to use a Hydrogen Peroxide mouthwash before some dental treatments are provided
- Rubber dam or other barrier mechanisms will be used for more procedures than previously
Practice Procedures
The Surrey Dental Spa team have spent time critically looking at every aspect of the practice with a view to removing all non-essential items that can potentially be the cause of infection.
You will find that the practice may appear to be quite bare when you attend.
We regret that during this interim period, we will not be providing our normal tea and coffee services in the interests of reducing all opportunities for cross infection to a minimum. Water will be available upon request.
All clinical and common areas including door handles and surfaces will be regularly disinfected in addition to our normal surface cleaning protocols between patients.
All your future appointments will be made and confirmed by email or telephone to limit your time spent at reception.
Dental Procedures
All dental staff will be using personal protective equipment in line with current recommendations and guidelines.
Whilst our masks (PPE) may make us appear impersonal and distant, please be assured we are still the same friendly team underneath it all!
We are especially mindful that many dental treatments are aerosol-generating procedures (AGP). It is difficult for us to carry out some dental procedures without generation of some level of aerosol. Aerosol suspended in the air is a theoretical source of infection which we obviously wish to keep to a minimum.
Currently the dental literature suggests:
- Our use of our normal high-volume suction reduces aerosol production by over 90%.
- The use of dental rubber dam where possible reduces bio aerosols by a further 30 to 90%.
- Our regular surgical facemasks filter approximately 60% of remaining airborne particles.
- FFP2 and FFP3 masks filter 94% and 99% respectively of airborne particles in both directions (patient to clinician and clinician to patient).
- We therefore feel that our normal dental procedures can be carried out with minimal risk by the use of high-volume suction, rubber dam, surgical and FFP2 masks and, in aerosol generating procedures FFP3 masks as appropriate.
Summary
Things will feel so different at the moment; however, we are the same amazing dental team and will always aim to provide excellent dental care whilst ensuring the safety of our patients and staff by minimising the risk of infection.
Our policies and protocols are reviewed regularly for the ever-changing circumstances we find ourselves currently in.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your patience.
If you have any questions regarding your dental care at Surrey Dental Spa please contact us on 0208 404 8080 or email us on info@surreydentalspa.co.uk.
