November 2020

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been incredibly hard for many.  It has claimed the lives of many and brought financial challenges that have impacted nearly all of us.  Since the 23rd of March dentistry has been operating on an emergency/urgent care basis.  On the whole seeing only those things that were causing pain or significant distress.  This was in an effort to reduce the numbers of patients and therefore potential risk of transmission of COVID-19.  For dental teams creating a safe environment has been at the top of our agenda for decades.  Patients will be well used to us wearing PPE during treatment sessions.  What will look different now is that the dental team will be wearing PPE the full duration of patient contact, from saying hello until saying bye.  We understand it is therefore  more challenging for us to show care and compassion we normally do to put you at ease.  So please bear with us and know that it is still us under the PPE and we want to make your experience of dental care as comfortable as possible.

The Scottish Government has announced that restrictions on available NHS dental treatments are being lifted on the 1st November.  What is perhaps slightly less clear is that we do not expect things to return to how they were for some time.  COVID-19 is still here and as such the ongoing health protection measures remain in force.  This means the number of appointments available will be less, patients requiring urgent care will be prioritised over routine care.   Waiting rooms will be closed so patients will be asked to wait in their cars or outside until called.  There will be no toilet facilities available and you will be asked to use Antibacterial product on entering the building.  All patients will be required to wear a mask when in communal areas of the building or when speaking to reception.  Appointments will only be made by phone and no unbooked patients will be able to enter the building.

We appreciate this is a frustrating time.  We are dentists and we want to be able to work, caring for our patients.  We are just unable to do that to the same numbers we have in the past.  So please be patient with us.  We do not make the rules.  We must, however, follow them in the interests of society at large.  So you may need to wait longer for an appointment.  You may be asked to defer treatment to allow us to use valuable PPE to prioritise patients in pain.  If situations change again you may need to have appointments cancelled or rescheduled at short notice.   We are electing to keep a system of bubbles going, so we will only have one dentist, one nurse and one receptionist on at any one time.  This will hopefully ensure we need never shut the doors completely as there will always be another team that can step in.

For more information on accessing dental services, you can visit the NHS Inform website (Coronavirus- COVID-19): Accessing Dental Services.

What is a dental emergency?  The three big ones are Uncontrolled bleeding, Significant swelling or acute trauma e.g. damage to a permanent front tooth from trauma.  If your emergency is less severe we may ask you to be patient as we prioritise patients according to need.  

We will post regular updates as the situation changes.

Thank you for your understanding

Stay Safe