NEW COVID-19 GUIDANCE

It has been 2 years since we reopened our doors following the COVID-19 enforced closure of the dental practice. As of 13th June 2022, we have made changes to our visiting procedures following on from the removal of the UKHSA’s COVID-19 dental infection prevention and control guidance.

FACE COVERINGS / MASKS

We will no longer require our patients to wear a face covering inside the dental practice. Should you wish to continue to wear a face covering, we would encourage you to do so at your own preference. Staff members will also not be required to wear face masks in non-clinical areas and this will be their choice.

This guidance may change subject to an increase in the local or practice wide prevalence of COVID-19, in which case we will communicate this to you before your arrival.

PRE-APPOINTMENT SCREENING QUESTIONS

Our pre-appointment screening questions will also change focus. Instead of asking specific COVID-19 screening questions, our focus will turn to attempting to eliminate a wider range of respiratory infections from entering the practice for the health and wellbeing of patients and team members.
Prior to your appointment you be asked to confirm that you are not experiencing any signs or symptoms of any respiratory illness before being seen for your appointment. To save any inconvenience, it is crucial that you let our team know prior to attending if you have had any symptoms of any respiratory infection in the past 24 hours. Symptoms include:

• A new continuous cough
• high temperature, fever or chills
• loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell
• shortness of breath
• unexplained tiredness, lack of energy
• muscle aches or pains that are not due to exercise
• not wanting to eat or not feeling hungry
• headache that is unusual or longer lasting than usual
• sore throat, stuffy or runny nose
• diarrhoea, feeling sick or being sick

A STEP CLOSER!

We are grateful that these changes in our guidance represents another step back towards pre-pandemic ways of working. However, we are aware that whilst these new arrangements gratefully allow us to take a step closer, they do not wholly represent a return to business as usual in dentistry. Practices will still have to comply with much recently adapted guidance following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We would like to take this time to thank our fantastic team who have endured so much change over the past 2 years and we would also like to thank our patients who have remained tolerant in light of the ever-changing healthcare landscape.