COVID-19

Updated 1st June 2020

You may have heard the welcome news that dental practices can open for routine care from Monday 8 June.

Our practice will be opening on Tuesday 9^th June and we wanted to explain that the treatments offered may be different to those you received before, depending on the staff and equipment we have available. It will take some time before our services will return to what you previously experienced, so please bear with us.

Our community has been through a lot over the last few months and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing remains the same: our commitment to your safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our surgery. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.

Our practice follows infection control guidelines made by the governing bodies. We are up-to-date on new guidance that has been issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to recommendations.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

• Our practice will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again at your appointment
• We have hand sanitiser that we will ask you to use when you enter the practice. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the practice for you to use as needed.
• We no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.

We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.

How you can help:

• With the exception of children and patients with carers, patients should come alone
• A distance of at least 2 metres must be observed if another patient is present in the dental practice
• Payment should be made by card, and ideally over the phone in advance, where possible
• Staff will not shake your hand
• If you show symptoms following appointment booking, you should contact the practice by phone
• Please do not arrive early to the practice. If necessary, you should wait outside the practice
• Please do not arrive without an appointment. Should you need to, please contact the practice by phone or email
• Patients should come wearing a mask if possible or be prepared to wear one.

Updated 14th May 2020

The COVID-19 lock-down has featured almost exclusively in every aspect of our lives recently.

Dentistry has occasionally featured in the news and you may be aware NHS England and the Chief Dental Officer directed UK dental practices to stop all routine dental treatment on 25^th March and provide a triage service for emergency dental patients whilst Urgent Dental Care Hubs were setup around the country. These measures were put in force so that the chain of virus transmission could be interrupted whilst at the same time vital PPE could be directed to the NHS frontline services.

Seven weeks following lock-down and at Thorpe Lea Dental ……. Well, we are still here! James, our associate dentist, myself and the non-furloughed team have volunteered to be redeployed to the NHS frontline. Both James and I have been triaging all dental emergency patients that have contacted us. Although we haven’t been able to offer face to face appointments, we are able to do telephone or video consultations and we are delighted to use our professional skills and knowledge to offer advice and help as best we can under lock-down.

If you need us, we are still on the other side of the phone! You can contact myself, Colin Houston on 07956 586002 or James Gartshore on 07833 454302. You can also contact us via email: reception@thorpeleadental.com and can follow us on social media too!

What are we doing to keep help you safe?

Well, we have been keeping up-to-date with global knowledge and guidance on the coronavirus and the developing stringent additional infection control measures that are being implemented in other countries across the world. We at Thorpe Lea Dental pride ourselves on our high standards of cleanliness and cross-infection control and we are committed to the safety of our staff and patients.

The incredible doctors, nurses, carers, cleaners, auxiliary and support staff at our NHS frontline are doing an amazing job and risking their health to save the lives of others. In our profession, due to the nature of dentistry, we are used to a high level of PPE and infection control and it’s reassuring to know that amongst the global dental community there has not been a documented outbreak of COVID-19 related to dental practice despite a high likelihood of dentistry having been carried out during the transmission phase of the virus in the pre-lockdown period.

There is a lot of new information and it is continuously updating.

So what have we done so far?

Well, we have invested in three, newly developed air filtration, purification units from Bryant Dental. These are South Korean produced, assembled in the UK and developed specifically with the dental environment in mind. They are interactive, internet connected and responsive to air quality and have the capacity to turnaround all the air environment in an average sized room in less than 15 minutes.

We have ordered sneeze screens for our reception area. Social distancing will continue to be a feature of our new COVID-19 world for some time. We have all noticed and become accustomed to the transparent barriers cropping up in our supermarkets and newsagents. At Thorpe Lea Dental, we will do everything we can to protect our staff and patients and so you will notice transparent screening on front desk when you next attend.

We are fortunate to have a carpark on site to help maintain social distancing. We will be contacting you the day prior to your appointment to check if you or any other member of your household has developed symptoms of COVID-19 and as you will understand, this will necessitate postponement of your appointment.

On the day of your appointment, should you be travelling by car, you will be kindly requested to wait in your vehicle until called into the practice. In addition, we will temperature screen everyone at the front desk and should a high temperature be recorded, this will necessitate a re-scheduled appointment.

We are following guidance from the regulatory bodies such as CQC, NHS England and the Chief Dental Officer, and as members of CODE association for Dental Practices and the British Dental Association we will ensure we are on the ball with the latest developments.

Our team members are continuing to use this time to update their training so when we re-open we are confident in our ability to work safely.

Our priority is to keep our patients and team safe during this difficult time.

This pandemic has resulted in a change of routine for everyone and understandably this can be unsettling. Some of us will have had our hygiene or examination visits cancelled or postponed as a result of lock-down and for that we apologise and thank you for your continued patience.

Although coronavirus has taken centre-stage, it is bacteria that are the main cause of dental disease. Please remember how important it is to reduce harmful bacterial plaque and maintain a healthy mouth by continuing to use good oral hygiene measures, electric Oral B brushes, flossing and Tepe brushes as recommended by your caring team at Thorpe Lea Dental.

In the event that you’d like a refresher on how to use an Oral B brush/floss just click on the links below.

Correct Oral B brushing technique and flossing

Correct flossing technique

Our general recommendations for Electric Brush / Floss:

Please let us know if you need anything- even just a friendly voice to chat to over the telephone!

We sincerely hope all of you and your families stay safe and healthy throughout this crisis and look forward to see you all in the near future,

With Very Best Wishes,

The Team at Thorpe Lea Dental

Updated 24/03/2020

Thank you for your continued loyalty and trust in Thorpe Lea Dental during these uncertain times. We hope you and your loved ones are safe, healthy and calm, and, if you are self-isolating, that you are coping as well as can be expected.

With COVID-19 becoming more wide-spread across the UK we want to reassure our patients that our priority is to keep both you and our staff safe.

We are currently open, however offering a very limited service. We would ask that patients do not attend the practice in person.

If you need urgent treatment due to pain or swelling please call us on 01784 454 899 for an emergency telephone consultation.