Following the announcement on 28th May by the Chief Dental Officer dental practices will be re-opening to see patients face to face from 8th June.

We will initially be prioritising appointments for our existing patients, and particularly those who have experienced problems or breakages. We will be contacting our patients directly to make an appointment so please be patient and rest assured we will contact you as soon as we are able to offer an appointment. However, after being closed for almost 3 months it would be unrealistic to think we can see everyone in the first week and we estimate it will take several months before we can see everyone again. Please do not attend the practice unless you have an appointment.

The most important factor is patient and staff safety. Our surgeries have always provided a clean and safe environment however we have now upgraded our PPE and redesigned the patient journey in line with social distancing. We will be conducting screening of patients which is likely to include taking your temperature on arrival. Between all appointments, as always, the dental team will thoroughly disinfect the dental surgery, reducing the risk of exposure to anything harmful.

We will be booking appointments to ensure that the practice and waiting rooms are not overcrowded. We will do this by leaving suitable gaps between appointments so that you can attend the practice whilst maintaining a suitable distance for one another in accordance with government guidelines and within the limitations of our current premises.

To further avoid overcrowding when you arrive at the practice, we ask that you wait in your car or outside until called in.

We expect relevant forms to be completed at home on your own electronic device and we will ask that any payments be made by contactless card or taken over the telephone. These steps will greatly reduce touch points within the practice.

We hope that our patients will appreciate that our number one priority is the safety of our patients and staff. In order to re-start seeing patients face to face we must ensure that we have a plentiful and continuous supply of PPE and robust procedures in place and inevitably these new procedures will mean longer appointment times.

The whole team at Smiles Orthodontic Practice is working extremely hard towards re-opening and we look forward to seeing our patients again as soon as possible. We will contact you as soon as we are able to offer you an appointment.

The Smiles Team