To our friends and family of Sutton Dental & Implant Clinic,
We would like to start by thanking you again for your continued support and understanding during these very different times, and hope more than anything that you, your families, and loved ones are all safe and well.
Dentists will be allowed to reopen on the 8th June
You may have heard the news yesterday that Dentists will be allowed to reopen on the 8th June which is welcome news to us all. This news however was dropped on us like a ‘bombshell’ and the first we heard about this was when the public was told on the news.
We still have not had any official guidance from our Governing Dental organisations as to what is allowed. We expect to have something more formal next week.
have secured enhanced PPE and written our new standard operating procedures
By being proactive, we started to plan our return to work at the beginning of May, and have secured enhanced PPE and written our new standard operating procedures. This once again has put us ahead of the game and we are pleased to say we will have the provisions to allow us to reopen the Practice on 8th June 2020.
As much as our desire is to return to ‘normal’ as soon as possible, we feel a steady approach to restarting our services would be the most sensible and responsible way to act to ensure the safety of our patients, team members and the local community.
With this in mind, we feel it would be best to open our doors to those patients who have been living with dental pain, infection and problems, since the start of the lockdown which is almost 11 weeks now, and have been suffering during this time and been very patient.
This will then be followed by patients who were in the ‘middle’ of treatment when the lockdown started. This will be followed by routine care and hygiene appointments, and the resumption of all our services, which we anticipate to be the beginning of July. This of course is all depending on the official guidance once it is released.
During this period of lockdown, we have kept robust records of patients who had a dental emergency and where we have had to cancel their routine or treatment appointments. Over the next few days we will triage these patients in terms of priority starting with those that have the worst problems.
We will start calling patients from next week to arrange appointments once this has been done. To help us get through this period we kindly ask for you not to call us unless you have an emergency, and we will contact you to arrange the appointment. We understand that all dental appointments are important and we promise we will get to you, and please bear with us.
We will also be releasing details of our new protocols along with the new patient journey next week and videos demonstrating this. This will explain the new procedures you will need to follow when you attend for an appointment.
We are sorry we cant be more specific at this time, but without the formal guidelines it is difficult to say anymore. There will be more communication from us as next week unfolds and we know more.
In the meantime thank you again for your patience and understanding and please stay safe.
We cant wait to see you all at the Practice again soon!
Best Wishes
Puneet, Sheetal and The Team at Sutton Dental & Implant Clinic