Hullbridge Dental Clinic

Hullbridge Dental Clinic – Best Dental Clinic in Hullbridge is all in a new era of significant risk while the Coronavirus is still prevalent, especially at the national level.

As you know, we have stopped face to face contact and treatment since early March in compliance with the guidance and to protect you, ourselves and the facility.

Meanwhile, the dental profession and other interested parties were attempting to devise new settings and precautions to ensure the safety of the patient and the dental team upon resumption of our services.

We plan to go beyond all these precautions as we aim to provide near 100% certainty that no risk of infection exists while you are in our clinic. This we can only attain with your understanding and help!

There are essentially three sources that can give rise to an infection:

The clinic.
The dental team.
The patient and any accompanying person with them.
Now the facility has been closed save for the dental team since March, and there is no need to believe that the virus is present within.

The dental team have been observing all the measures recommended by the authorities and followed lock-down rules. None has experienced any symptoms of the disease nor been in contact with anyone who tested positive or shown signs of the infection.

This then leaves the patient as the last source of risk to protect each and every one of you we must have evidence that any patient and guardians/chaperons scheduled for a visit to our clinic is free from the virus and will not, therefore, be bringing it into the facility. To this end, the following is required before any appointment is confirmed:

Undertake a test to confirm the absence of infection/virus (for this forward the email or the text message informing of the test result to the clinic as no other mean will be accepted.)

Observe self-isolation between the test and the appointment/visit to the surgery.

The above is more than the current guidance stipulates, but we believe that we are proposing the right and logical procedure.

Provided we meet the three main requirements stated above then we trust that we can resume a limited range of treatment options until we get the “all clear” to provide our full range of treatment options to our patients.

We suggest that patients and their guardians/companions contact 111 and ask for covid19 test on the basis that your dentist will only see you upon undergoing such test. We will be happy to confirm this to the relevant centre.

The obligation to protect you and ourselves while at our facility is upon us and we can reach a no different conclusion to the one we are proposing to you and will, therefore, hope that you will understand and support us in this approach.

We want to serve you, but we will only do this confident in the knowledge that we are all safe while you are receiving our care and treatment.

To remove any ambiguity, please note the following procedures:

The surgery will open for a limited number of days during the week, depending on demand.
Even when the surgery is open, the doors will be locked! So please do not try to enter unless we guide you.
The front entrance at Ferry Road will not be back in use until further notice
You should only come to the surgery upon confirmation of your appointment either via phone call or email.
Appointments are conditional on us receiving from you via email the negative status of a corona test result.
For new patients, the patient information and consent forms must be completed and returned via email before the appointment.
For existing patients, any new consents for treatment etc. will be sought via email and if that is not possible, then we will confirm with you during the visit and record within the system.
The preferred method for payment will be via on-line into the surgery account the details of which will be emailed to you post-treatment with a copy of your receipt.
However, if the charges are small and covered by a contactless card limit, then this can be utilised.
If payment must be made with cash, then we will kindly request that you count the money and place in a specific tray at the rear reception before you leave the clinic.
Patients in a wheelchair are requested to ensure that the chair is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before starting the journey to the surgery. The wheels and other susceptible parts will need to be disinfected again once at the rear reception of the clinic.
Our normal emergency procedures will remain unchanged.
Please do not come to the clinic door more than 5 minutes before your appointment unless you are requested to do so by the staff.
The rear entrance approached via the driveway at the side of the clinic, and rear clinic car park will be used to enter and exit the clinic. The staff will open and close the door for you.
Once in the building, you are at the rear reception area. We will give you hand gel to sanitise your hands. We will also give you over-shoes protectors to deploy on your footwear. To facilitate this, please avoid slipper-type footwear.
Any outer clothing and other items that you may be wearing or carrying will be placed in a new black plastic bag and left in the rear reception area. You will recover these before leaving the clinic.
We may ask you to don a headcover and surgical gloves before you sit in the dental chair.
We are directed by guidance to discourage you from using the toilets at the clinic.
We may request that you gurgle with mouth wash before any consultation or oral examination
Upon conclusion of your session, we request that you depart the clinic promptly as the team need to prepare for the next patient.