New patients
Your first appointment is the most important and underpins
all of your future dental care. We gather as much information
as possible in advance of your appointment using our
carefully designed forms. Please see below for more information
on our treatment process.
First contact
The majority of our patients come to us via personal recommendation or referral from a dental colleague. If you have been referred by a colleague we will attempt to contact you by telephone to arrange your appointment at the soonest time that is convenient to you.
Your consultation appointment
Your first appointment with our team is likely to be different to other dental appointments you have had before, most notably because it will typically last between 60 and 90 minutes.
In this time we systematically gather information about all aspects of your oral health, even if you perceive that your problem is relatively minor. This time allows the opportunity for you to get to know your dental surgeon and outline exactly what you want and expect from your treatment process. In the same way every dentist is different, every patient is different, and it is important we take the time to learn about one another.
Due to the detailed approach we will aim to identify any issues with your mouth and teeth and it is our responsibility to inform you of any problems that may exist, even if they are not relevant to the reason you made your initial appointment.
The objective for your appointment is that we establish a strategy for prevention, treatment and subsequent aftercare to minimise your need for extensive future dental treatment. Sometimes we require more than one consultation appointment to ensure that we have all the information required to determine your options for treatment (there will be no additional charge for the second consultation appointment).
Comprehensive reporting
Your dental report will be written by your dentist outside of working hours and generally takes between one and two hours. This is generally completed in evening and weekends and as such please allow around two weeks to receive your report. If we expect this period to be longer (for example if your dentist is away from work for any reason) we will endeavour to inform you of any potential delay.
For environmental reasons we will email you your plan as a PDF document which can then be signed and returned digitally. If you prefer you can print and bring a signed copy to your review appointment, usually around two weeks after your initial consultation.
If you have any questions at this point please enquire by return email and your dentist can aim to provide you with appropriate information.
Report discussion
You will almost certainly have questions about your proposed treatment. We schedule an appointment with our treatment coordinator two weeks after your report to discuss these questions, and we can arrange for the dentist to be available if there are any outstanding clinical questions.
Agreement to treatment
If at this point you are happy to proceed with treatment we ask that you sign our consent form which is included in your initial report.
If for any reason you are unable to undertake the full proposed treatment due to time or financial constraints please let us know and we can look into alternative options. There is always an alternative way to help you!
Our treatment coordinator will then take payment as outlined in your initial plan or arrange finance options as necessary.
Completion of treatment
Once your treatment begins it should proceed in the order indicated in your initial plan. Various x-rays and photographs may be taken throughout your care and these will be available to you if you would like.
At your final appointment we will review the treatment completed and from this point your aftercare programme will commence.
Aftercare
For most patients we will recommend hygiene appointments every three months but this may be extended if you are at very low risk of decay and gum disease.
The determined hygiene interval underpins the five year guarantee that applies to all of our treatment.