I Need an Appointment - Are Dentists Re-Opening Now?
posted 7th June 2020
We're Open From 8th June!
Following the government's announcement, we are incredibly pleased and excited to announce that we are able to re-open Eyes & Smiles from Monday 8th June!
As we return to re-opening our doors, we will initially be prioritising appointments for our existing patients who have had an appointment postponed due to the pandemic or have encountered a dental emergency.
- Immediately Call , Whatsapp or Video call or email us.
If you need to be seen, we kindly ask that you contact us first and try to avoid attending on a walk-in basis. This is so that we can plan your treatment while ensuring the safety for our patients and our team.
Please get in touch with us now to make an appointment, if you have had any dental pain or problem during lockdown, or if your appointment was postponed due to the closure of the dental clinic.
You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff.
- For more information about the recent changes to your appointments and our clinic, please see the below guide
We have missed you all and we are so looking forward to seeing you back at Eyes & Smiles. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we are implementing to keep you safe in our practice.
Virtual handshakes to you. Let's hope you have stayed off the sugar!
The Eyes & Smiles Team
The Patient's Journey at Eyes & Smiles Dental Clinic
At Eyes & Smiles Dental Clinic Friern Barnet N11 the most important thing is patient safety and comfort. The clinic, as you are aware, was always a very clean and safe environment nevertheless we have spent the time of closure upgrading the clinic and introducing further measures to keep our patients and staff SAFER than ever. A summary of our changes:
- We have redesigned the patient journey in line with social-distancing. Please see below for details of all stages of this journey.
- We have implemented a protocol for conducting pre-screening of patients
- We have placed hand sanitisers at our entry and exit point
- We have upgraded and extended our PPE (personal protective equipment).
Before Your Appointment
- You will receive a pre-appointment telephone call to risk assess your COVID status
- You will be required to fill in all relevant forms (Medical History and Treatment plans where necessary) on your electronic device before you enter the practice from the comfort of your home. This means that you will not have to touch a pen, paper, or any electronic device other than your own when you attend your appointment.
- We will ask that where possible you pay using a contactless card or online payment method before the appointment. This crucial step greatly reduces touch points at the practice.
On The Day Of Appointment
- Before leaving home, please remember to hydrate yourself. We will still provide drinking water in the surgery but to minimise 'touch' areas and movement, we have temporarily restricted the patient access to this within the reception.
- Please rinse your mouth and brush your teeth before coming to reduce the number of microbials, including any viral particles, within the mouth.
- Please ensure you have used the toilet within your home, as our washroom facilities will be restricted temporarily for your safety. Let our staff know if you would like to use the restroom so that we can log the times.
- To avoid overcrowding when you arrive at the practice, we ask that you wait in your car or in a safe place outside of the practice until called in. We will notify you via your phone when you should enter the practice.
- We ask that you try to come alone for your appointment, or have someone waiting in the car rather than in the waiting room. If this is not possible or you require someone for interpretation or translation etc, we ask that they come wearing a face mask. We will provide this if needed.
When You Enter The Practice
- On arrival at the practice you will have a digital thermometer reading taken.
- Our practice follows Government guidelines for maintaining social distancing wherever possible. To this end our seating areas and reception areas have been marked and zoned to ensure that you can attend the practice while maintaining a suitable distance from one another.
- We will ask you to sanitise your hands with Alcohol Gel before taking a seat
- Our reception staff will either be wearing a mask or be behind a screen. Please do not be alarmed - this is for everyone's safety.
- Since we will be calling you into the clinic, we will open the door for you.
Between all appointments as always, our dental team will thoroughly disinfect the Dental surgery and practice overall including any 'touched' areas, reducing the risk of exposure to anything harmful while you are in our dental chair.
How It Is Inside The Surgery
We will be taking extra measures to ensure treatment or consultation is as smooth as possible.
- You will notice that our PPE is even more sophisticated to what it was before. We have standardised what we will be wearing according to your type of appointment. Please don't worry - it's still only us!
- Before any treatment or consultation, and after, we will ask you to have a rinse with anti-viral mouthwash.
- Before, or after the appointment if required, please bring a contactless card for payment. If you can only make payment by cash, please try to keep change for the exact amount if possible and place it in a sealed plastic bag.
Appointment Modifications
- We will be booking your appointments with you in a way to ensure that the Practice and waiting areas are not overcrowded and we will coordinate this with our Optician's side as well.
- We will leave suitable gaps between appointments for entry exit and surgery disinfection.
- We will be creating dedicated clinic sessions for patients who are most vulnerable, to help minimize contact with others for this group whilst they are at the practice. These will usually be at the start of the day.
- Please bear in mind that due to the extension of appointment times, and due to partitioning of the diary for those most vulnerable, it will mean that certain time slots become unavailable.
- If booking your appointment online through our Patient Portal please note it may not have synced in fully yet and therefore we will endeavour to call you to confirm or alter a time slot if needed.
- To minimise the number of visits to the Surgery, we may ask you that if you require multiple treatments that these be carried out together rather than separately.
- If your procedure requires the use of the dental drill, it may require a specific session in the week compared to non-drill treatments or consultations.
