Blackbird Road Dental Practice

24/12/2021

24/05/2021

Service Update: The practice is running a normal service now and has started to send our usual recall letters/emails to patients for their check-ups. These will be sent monthly and initially back dated to those patients who were due when the Pandemic began 02/2020. We will get round to everyone in due course. We are still seeing a heavy influx of emergencies and these will be our priority moving forward. Thank you to everyone who has been understanding and so supportive to us since we reopened.

02/11/2020

Service Update: We would like to reassure our patients that the dental practice will remain open despite the notification of a second national lockdown starting this Thursday 5th November.

We continue to experience an extremely high level of demand for dental treatment and cannot foresee when we will be able to offer routine check-up appointments.
If you have a child or look after someone who is vulnerable and would like them seen to (even if they are not having any pain) please call us and discuss the situation with Reception.

If you have a dental problem, it is better to call us and discuss the issue with our Reception rather than send us an email or message on Facebook. This is so we can triage the severity and allocate the most suitable time properly.

If you have already attended to have a problem assessed please be assured that we haven’t forgot about you and are working hard to manage our lists so that we can get around to treating you as soon as possible. We would like to reassure all our patients that the practice is COVID secure and operating at the safest possible capacity. If however, you would prefer not to attend during this time please let us know if we call. Similarly, if you no longer require treatment or your situation has changed please call us and let us know.

In the meantime, if you have a new emergency or a flare up of an existing problem we have already seen you can call us on 0116 2625065 Monday to Friday 8.30am – 5pm (closed for lunch 12.30pm-1.30pm).
Kind regards

BRDP

21/08/2020

Service Update:
Although restrictions have been eased around Leicester dentistry continues to operate under strict regulations and protocols.

We are currently experiencing an extremely high level of demand for our services. There are over 200 patients on our waiting list for treatment and this number is growing daily. We are only managing to sort 4-5 patients off this list each day.

We do not envisage being able to carry out routine examinations/cleaning for some time yet.
We politely ask that our patients place extra emphasis in looking after their oral health during these tough times including twice daily brushing, using floss or other interdental aids, and consuming less sugar. We are also seeing many patients who have broken their teeth while consuming tough foods like toffees and nuts.

If you call us with a dental problem our receptionists will take a brief history from you as well as a screen about possible exposure to the virus. Once this is done, all information is passed to the dentists who will assess how quickly you should be seen. Sometimes the dentists will not have a chance to review the information straight away as they might be in surgery, but we will usually get back to you within a day or so.
Most patients will be booked in for an assessment visit first. This is so that we can plan how urgent the problem is and how long the appointment needs to be including an additional 1.5 hours needed to deep clean the surgeries (see previous posts) between patients.

If you have a dental emergency outside of our opening hours, please call the NHS helpline on 111.
Thank you all for your patience and keep safe.
Kind regards
BRDP

16/07/2020

Service Update
This week the dentists at Blackbird Road Dental started performing aerosol generating procedures such as fillings and root canal treatments. The dentists will be wearing “space suit” like PPE for these. After every aerosol generating treatment the surgeries have to be thoroughly wiped down and subsequently left empty for one hour after which it has to be thoroughly disinfected again. Only after this can we allow another patient into the surgery again. This together with the time it takes to put-on and take-off the PPE will have a major impact on treatment turn around – typically one or two patients per morning or afternoon only. We have over 200 patients waiting for treatment and this list is growing daily. The dentists are working hard to triage patients so that those most in need are seen to first. We will be calling everyone on the lists over the next few weeks to arrange appointments. We understand that patients would like their treatment straight away and have been calling us frequently but please try not to as this is only adding to the stressful situation.
Many people are understandably keen to have their usual check-ups and cleaning, but we may not be able to provide this for some time.
If you are having a new problem (or flare up of an existing problem which we are already aware of) we are still here for you. Please call us on 0116 2625065. We will try our best to stabilise the issue until we can treat it properly.
We hope everyone who contacted us during lockdown (from end of March) have now been contacted. If you haven’t please accept our apologies and we would be grateful if you could get in touch with us asap.
We are grateful to you all for your co-operation and patience during these tough times.
Please keep safe and we look forward to seeing you all soon.

29/06/2020

Service update: We have been open for face to face assessments and treatment limited to extractions and temporary fillings since 8th of June. Almost everyone who contacted us during lockdown have been contacted and examined. The new way in which we must work limits how many patients the dentists can see in each day.

Patients requiring some form of spray generating procedure (filling/cleaning/root canal) are on a separate waiting list and we will contact them when we are able to although the waiting lists for these are likely to extend into the autumn months. We are hoping to begin these types of treatment sometime in July.
Appointments must be pre-arranged, and no walk-ins are permitted. If you develop a dental problem please call us and let us know. We will do our best to see you as soon as we can but we also need to ensure that we have sufficient time to maintain strict cleaning and social distancing protocols. We are still unable to book routine examination appointments at this moment.

We are awaiting further guidance as to how the recent increase in COVID cases in Leicester will affect us.
Best wishes
Blackbird Road Dental Practice

04/06/2020

On Monday 8th June the Practice will start to see patients again.
In order to maintain safety for our patients and staff, all dental practices have been provided with strict working protocols that will limit the number of patients we can see and what we can do.
The 3 dentists will operate on a rota basis so that only 2 are working on any given day. We are going through the lists of patients that need urgent care so that we can manage the diary as fair as possible.
The types of treatments we may be able to provide include; simple extractions, temporary dressings, x-rays to investigate causes of pain, soft tissue examinations to check for lesions in the mouth and urgent denture work.
The types of treatment we won’t be able to do yet include; fillings that involve drilling, scaling and polishing, root canal treatments, and crowns/veneers.
We hope to be able to provide the full range of treatments in the near future but sourcing the correct PPE and organising companies to properly fit them for us is proving extremely difficult. For the time being the Urgent Dental Clinics are still open and should a patient have an emergency that requires drilling we can refer to them the way we have been. No attempt should be made to contact the Urgent Clinics directly.
If our receptionists contact you for an appointment they will run through a few instructions about your visit and if possible email them to you too. It is extremely important that you follow these as non compliance will mean a refusal to be seen.
The practice entrance will remain closed at all times and any enquiries/emergencies should be by phone only. The door will only be opened once we are ready for you to attend an appointment.
Our on-call phone number is no longer in operation. If you need to speak to us please call the usual number 0116 2625065 between the hours of 830am-5pm Monday to Friday. For emergencies outside of these hours please call the NHS on 111.
We would like to thank all our patients for their co-operation during this time and we are looking forward to seeing you all as soon as possible.

Regards
Blackbird Road Dental Practice

29/05/2020

Service update: Following the government announcement yesterday we can confirm that the dental practice will be reopening around the 8th of June (exact date to be confirmed). For a period of time priority will be given to those people who have been suffering toothaches and we will contact them directly. No appointments will be made until proper working arrangements have been finalised.
Due to the guidelines around social distancing and PPE patient numbers will be strictly limited. We will continue to post updates especially in relation to routine dentistry commencing. In the mean time our telephone advice/triage referral to the urgent clinics is still in operation (see earlier posts).

Blackbird Road Dental Practice

11/05/2020

Further to the recent announcement by the Prime Minister we regret to announce that the Practice remains closed as we cannot keep the recommended safe distances while working.

We are continuously monitoring the situation and awaiting guidance from our superiors in Government.

We will continue to operate an emergency service for patients. If you urgently require emergency care, please call the practice number and follow the instructions on the recorded message. If you need to call
on an evening or weekend please call the NHS on 111 instead.
Thank you for your support and Stay Safe

21/04/2020

Service update: Unfortunately the practice is still closed and we are operating an emergency telephone triage/advice service.

We hope business will resume as normal as soon as possible.

Try and only contact us if you need advice or have an emergency. There is an urgent dental clinic now for severe cases but it is strictly on a referral basis only.

We will contact everyone who had an appointment during March/April/May to rearrange if we haven't already done so.

Thank you for your patience during this difficult time.

Stay Safe.
Blackbird Road Dental Practice.