As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to evolve, all dental practices have updated their operating procedures in order to ensure continuous safe care for their patients. The omicron variant is spreading in the UK and although not fully understood at the time of writing the symptoms of the virus appear to be changing with commonly reported symptoms being: runny nose, headache, fatigue (mild or severe), sneezing, and sore throat.
With this in mind we are asking patients to delay routine appointments if they have any of the above symptoms.
We understand that orthodontic patients are keen to have their braces adjusted but in order to ensure the safety of all staff and patients we are asking that you do not attend if you have any of the recognized covid symptoms including any of the above five reported symptoms of the omicron variant even if you have carried out a recent negative lateral flow or PCR test.
Dental care is unusual among healthcare settings in that we have to ask patients to remove their masks and the dental professional has to work in close proximity to the mouth and nose of the patient. With this in mind we have decided to ask our orthodontic patients to err on the side of caution and not attend with any symptom resembling any cold or flu.
If staff become unwell due to covid or cold/flu symptoms then this would affect the running of the clinic and appointments would need to be delayed and so we are trying to minimise the risk of this happening by asking patients to take the above steps.
If you do need to cancel please call our reception giving as much notice as possible and rearrange. We will do our best to re-book your appointment for around 2 weeks later.
Please note that a delay of a few weeks is unlikely to have any significant effect on the length or progress of your treatment.
If your orthodontic appliance has broken or causing pain and you do have any cold or flu symptoms please inform our reception over the phone and if it is decided that your appointment cannot wait then an exception can be made. If pre-warned the staff can don a higher level of PPE and arrange your appointment for when the practice is quieter in order to treat you in a safe way. This would only be considered in an emergency situation e.g. you are unable to eat or require pain killers to manage pain.
This policy will be in place for the duration of your treatment.
If you have lateral flow tests available (although we will not insist on it) we would ask that you carry out a test on the day of your appointment to minimise the risk of attending whilst a contagious carrier of covid-19.
Please also note we do not treat patients with active cold sores or any other facial/neck infections. In this situation please also contact our reception to rearrange routine appointments and we will do our best to rebook you after around 2 weeks. Any cold sores should be fully healed before attending.
Thank you very much for your understanding and if you have any questions please contact our reception and they will be happy to help.