Prior to your appointment

• All patients will be seen BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. No walk in dental appointments will be permitted

• We will carry out a pre-assessment prior to your appointment

• Medical history forms and a Covid – 19 risk assessment form will be emailed to you prior to your appointment, which we would like you to complete. If you need help completing these forms, we can help you over the phone

• If we do not receive the completed questionnaires in time and we are unable to contact you, we may need to cancel your appointment. You may be charged for this if we are unable to fill the appointment slot at short notice

• If you do not have computer access and need to complete any forms at the practice, we will ask you to bring your own pen

• A dentist may also carry out a video or telephone consultation with you to assess your dental needs so that the best treatment plan can be agreed upon 

• If the practice feels that you are at risk of having possibly been infected, we will request that we delay booking any appointments for 2 weeks

• We are trying to make all payments for treatment as contactless as possible. We will therefore request that payments are made over the phone prior to the appointment. We are discouraging payment by cash. If payment needs to be made at the practice, we will either do this by card machine

• If you are identified to be in a high-risk or vulnerable group it may be recommended to delay non-essential dental treatment. If you are in a high-risk group and do require treatment we will schedule your appointment at the beginning of the day 

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Under current guidelines certain dental procedures are considered as Aerosol Generating procedures (AGP) and require additional PPE equipment, for the safety of both staff and patients.

The additional cost of the PPE required for these procedures is estimated at £50. We will charge an additional £30.00 to the appointment cost on theses procedures.

Other procedures that are considered non-AGP will also require some additional PPE. However, there will be no additional charge for these procedures.

 

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On the day of your appointment

• When you arrive at the practice, please wait in your car or outside as the practice door will be closed. Please call the reception team on 0208 744 8070 to inform them that you have arrived. They will advise you when the practice is ready for you

• Patients should attend the practice alone unless an accompanying person is essential (Parent, Carer or Comforter). Due to social distancing measures in place, patients or any accompanying persons will not be permitted to wait in the waiting area 


• Please limit the number of personal belongings that you bring to the practice. We will ask you to place any personal belongings in a check box

• Your temperature will be recorded at the front door using infra-red thermometers prior to entering to the surgery. Should the temperature reading be above 37.8C  the appointment will be rescheduled 
and you will be asked to return home and self-isolate as per government guidelines

• If you are well we will ask you to use a hand sanitiser in reception for 30 seconds and you will be then accompanied to the treatment room

• We are trying to minimise the use of the restrooms as much as possible. If you do need to use the restrooms, please leave the facilities as you would expect to find them and also wash your hands thoroughly

 

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Dental procedures

We at The Complete Smile have worked hard to ensure the practice is a safe environment for both our staff and clients. We are confident that we can continue to provide the high level of dental that we always have, but also mitigate risks of infection spread as far as possible.

All dental staff will be using personal protective equipment (PPE), and so we may look different to before. Please be reassured we are the same friendly team as before!

We are aware that some dental treatments are aerosol-generating procedures (AGP’s). 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 flter 95% and 99% respectvely of airborne particles in both directions (patent to clinician and clinician to patent)

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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 appropriate masks during aerosol generating procedures.

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In addition to this, we are or have :

1. Using additional PPE equipment

2. Installed a protective sneeze guard at reception

3. Using a fogging machine to deep clean the practice

4. Extending the length of appointments for patients

5. Allowing additional time between appointments for disinfection

6. Seeing high risk or vulnerable patients at certain times

 

If you have any questions regarding this policy or about any dental treatment you may require, please contact us at info@thecompletesmile.co.uk

 

We look forward to seeing you at the practice and continuing to provide high quality dentistry in as normal an environment as possible!

 

Kind Regards

The Complete Smile Team