Oak Lodge Dental Practice

08/07/2022

If you have an appointment with us soon, and you have any sort of Covid-19/cold/flu/respiratory symptoms, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss options. 01435 862685. Many thanks

28/03/2022

We have a few hygienist appointments available this week. Please call 01435862685 to book.

29/11/2021

If you have an appointment with us soon, and have any cold/flu/Covid-19/respiratory symptoms, please contact us asap to discuss options. 01435 862685. Thank you.

06/11/2020

06 November 2020

Oak Lodge Dental Practice is open and safe

Oak Lodge Dental Practice will still be open during this second national lockdown. We’d like you to keep your appointments if you have one and want to reassure you that our practice is a safe place to be.

We have excellent infection control procedures along with a robust triaging policy to ensure the safety of both patients and staff. Our dedicated team are very familiar with the infection control procedures being used to manage the virus as they are much the same as those that have been applied by our practice for many years. (Our team has been training in infection control procedures for decades).

We have all the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and will continue to follow national guidelines and standards.

What next?
If you are worried about your attendance, please contact us to discuss your concerns and we can always postpone your treatment till a later date.

We continue to recommend that patients in the high-risk category for COVID-19 delay non-essential treatment until further guidance has been given by the relevant authorities.

If you call to make an appointment, you will be asked some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again at your appointment.

When you arrive:
We advise that you wear a mask at all times while inside the dental practice and only remove your mask at the request of one of our team.

Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes early for an appointment due to social distancing guidelines.

Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.

As you enter the building you will need to use the alcohol disinfectant rub to disinfectant your hands.

The treatment rooms will be prepared prior to your appointment with all surfaces disinfected after each patient. The air purification/exchange units will continue to be used throughout the day in each surgery. We have sourced PPE and unlike the start of the Pandemic (March 2020 in the UK), there is no shortage.

We can assure you that we will continue to maintain high standards of cross infection control.

Stay safe and please contact us if you have any questions.

David and the Team at Oak Lodge

10/08/2020

Practice Update - August 2020

Dear Patients

Following the re-opening of our dental practice after more than three months of restrictions, we wanted to update you on our current operating arrangements.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our surgery. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. As part of our COVID-secure protocols, we have made some changes to help protect our patients and staff.

• You will be asked some screening questions prior to your appointment, and again on arrival at the practice
• The front door to the practice is locked. Please ring the doorbell and wait for a member of staff to collect you
• We have hand sanitiser that we will ask you to use when you enter and leave the practice
• Our toilet facilities are out of bounds except for emergencies, when a staff member must be notified.

We try to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time. We may therefore ask you to wait outside the practice until it is safe and clear to enter.

How you can help:
• Please do not arrive without an appointment – all appointments to be arranged by phone or email
• With the exception of children and patients with carers, patients should attend alone
• Patients should come wearing a mask (or a home-made facial cover) if possible or be prepared to wear one on arrival
• A distance of ideally at least 2 metres should be observed if another patient is present in the dental practice
• Payment should be made by card where possible, cash will only be accepted in sealed wipeable plastic bags and change cannot be given but will be credited to your account
• If you show COVID-19 symptoms prior to your appointment, you should contact the practice by phone so that your appointment can be deferred.

Our telephone lines are open during normal surgery opening hours, and our answerphone contains details of emergency and out of hours support services. Please contact the practice by calling us (01435 86 26 85) if you have a dental emergency or to re-book routine appointments.

The appointments and treatments you are offered may be different to those you received before, depending on staff, access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and our COVID-secure protocols. We may offer remote telephone advice and assessments if necessary.

We appreciate your patience, understanding and support as we resume dental services. We are operating with your safety and that of our staff at the forefront of all we do.

Thank you and stay safe.
David and the team at Oak Lodge

04/06/2020

COVID-19 Update

Dear Patient:

We hope that you and your family are in good health.

You may have heard that dental practices can open to routine care from Monday 8 June, we just wanted to be clear that this may not be business as usual. The appointments and treatments you are offered may be different to those you received before, depending on staff, equipment available and our access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) available. It will take some time before services return to what you previously experienced as normal. Please be patient.

Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our surgery. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.

Our practice follows infection control guidelines made by the governing bodies. We are up-to-date on new guidance that has been issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to recommendations.

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 example:

• Our practice will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again at your appointment
• We have hand sanitiser that we will ask you to use when you enter the practice. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the practice for you to use as needed.
• We no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• Our toilet facilities are out of bounds unless a staff member is notified

We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.

How You can help:

• With the exception of children and patients with carers, patients should come alone
• You will be asked to wait outside or in your car until invited into the practice
• A distance of at least 2 metres must be observed if another patient is present in the dental practice
• Payment should be made preferably by card where possible, cash will only be accepted in sealed wipeable plastic bags
• Staff will not shake your hand
• If you show COVID-19 symptoms following appointment booking, you should contact the practice by phone so that your appointment can be deferred
• Please do not arrive early to the practice. If necessary, you should wait outside the practice or in your car
• Please do not arrive without an appointment – all appointments to be arranged by phone or email
• Patients should come wearing a mask (or a home-made facial cover) if possible or be prepared to wear one on arrival.

We continuously follow government advice with regard to this constantly changing crisis.

Where face-to-face appointments cannot be offered due to shortage or no supply of essential PPE, we will continuously like before, offer remote emergency telephone advice and referrals if necessary, to a government designated COVID-19 Urgent Dental Treatment Centre.

Please contact the practice by calling us (01435 86 26 85) if you have a dental emergency.

Our telephone lines are open during normal surgery opening hours and our dentists will be available every day of this crisis to offer support to our patients in urgent need of advice or emergency care.

If you have a pending appointment within the next few weeks, we will contact you in due course.

If you have a raised temperature or a new continuous cough, remain at home, follow government advice, visit www.NHS.uk or call 111 for further advice.

Thank you and stay safe
David and the team at Oak Lodge

Find information and advice on health conditions, symptoms, healthy living, medicines and how to get help.

05/05/2020

As a result of the nation wide restrictions put in place by the government to help slow the spread and reduce the harm caused by the corona virus (COVID-19), like all other general dental practices in the UK, we have been instructed by the health authorities to temporarily close.

We continuously follow government advice with regard to this constantly changing crisis.

We are currently only able to offer emergency telephone advice and referrals, if necessary, to a government designated COVID-19 Urgent Dental Treatment Centre.

Please contact the practice by calling us (01435 86 26 85) if you have a dental emergency.

Our telephone lines are open during normal surgery opening hours and our dentists will be available every day of this crisis to offer support to our patients in urgent need of advice or emergency care.

If you have a pending appointment within the next few weeks, we will contact you in due course.

If you have a raised temperature or a new continuous cough, remain at home, follow government advice, visit www.NHS.uk or call 111 for further advice.

Thank you and stay safe

David and the team at Oak Lodge

Find information and advice on health conditions, symptoms, healthy living, medicines and how to get help.

24/03/2020

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS CLOSURE

FOLLOWING OFFICIAL GUIDANCE ON THE PROVISION OF ROUTINE DENTISTRY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS OAK LODGE DENTAL PRACTICE IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

WE ARE OPERATING AN ADVICE AND EMERGENCY SERVICE ONLY, DURING OUR NORMAL OPENING HOURS

IF YOU HAVE A SERIOUS MEDICAL EMERGENCY OF A DENTAL ORIGIN PLEASE CALL 01435 862685 FOR ADVICE OR THE EMERGENCY DENTAL SERVICES ON 01323 449170 OR NHS 111

(Our out of hours on call private emergency dentist can be reached on 07999 5764 74. For Denplan patients the call out fee is £20, for all other patient categories who wish to see the out-of-hours private on call emergency dentist, the call out fee is £150. Please be aware that when the private on-call dentist is not available or cannot be reached we refer all of our patients to the Emergency Dental Services)

WE ARE NOT PERMITTED TO TREAT ANY PATIENT WHO IS SELF ISOLATING OR WHO LIVES WITH SOMEBODY WHO IS SELF ISOLATING. WE ARE NOT ABLE TO TREAT ANYBODY WITH A RECENT PERSISTENT COUGH OR A HIGH TEMPERATURE.
WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE AUTHORITIES ARE IN THE PROCESS OF SETTING UP ‘EMERGENCY DENTAL HUBS’ FOR THIS GROUP OF PATIENTS.

WE APOLOGISE FOR THE DIFFICULTIES THAT THIS WILL CAUSE OUR PATIENTS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME

05/11/2019

One of our lovely nurses is supporting the Blue lip selfie campaign to raise awareness of mouth Cancer. Why not add YOUR selfies to the campaign. All you need to do is take a fun selfie of yourself or alongside family, friends or colleagues, and upload to the official blue lip selfie gallery at www.bluelipselfie.co.uk. On the microsite, you can customise your selfies with fun blue cartoon lips.

05/11/2019

November is Mouth Cancer Action Month so why not book an appointment to get checked.

30/07/2019

We are a drop off point for your used oral care waste products.
Every year countless pieces of oral care
products and packaging end up in landfill sites
across the UK. We are working with TerraCycle®
to put an end to this enormous loss of resources.
The Colgate® Oral Care Recycling Programme
allows us to recycle your oral care products and
packaging and prevent them from ending up in
landfill.
Not only are you helping the environment, but
the waste you recycle with us also helps to fund
schools or organisations.

31/05/2019

We're thrilled with this great offer to all patients who sign up in June with our Denplan, a free Phillips Sonicare toothbrush. Pop in or call us for more details on 01435 862685.