Appointments

We will try to offer you an appointment as soon as possible at a time convenient to you. We aim to provide a prompt and high quality dental service.

We endeavour to see all patients and our practice has been designed so patients with disabilities can access care. If you do have any disability that you think we need to know about please give us a call before your appointment and we will do our best to put suitable arrangements in place to accommodate your needs.

Patients who are violent or abusive to practice personnel, other patients or anyone else on the practice premises will be refused treatment and reported to the appropriate authorities.

To enable us to continue to provide a prompt and high quality dental service, we invite you to keep your appointments. Failed appointments or short notice cancelations (i.e within 48 hours of appointment time) deprive other patients of appointments slots. It also considerably increase our operating costs.

Will be regarded as an indication by the patient to abandon that course of treatment.

A standard appointment is of 15 minutes duration. A 30 minute appointment is therefore two standard appointments. If you fail two standard appointments then you will not be seen as an NHS patient. You may be seen again at the relevant practice as a private patient but only on condition that you pay a  deposit before commencement of your treatment.

These may result in the termination of your proposed treatment at the relevant practice without further notice.

If you short notice cancel two appointments then you will not be seen as an NHS patient. You may be seen again at the practice as a private patient but only on condition that you pay a £80 deposit before commencement of your treatment.

Since the introduction of this current NHS contract in 2006, patients are not registered with the practice. NHS appointments/treatment can only be provided subject to our NHS capacity/budget availability.

NHS treatments not undertaken within two months will be regarded as an indication by the patient to abandon that course of treatment. Treatment plans are based on initial examination. A new course of treatment may involve additional statutory NHS charges.

Your dentist will also determine whether they will be able to provide the treatment on the NHS as you have not completed that course of treatment or will offer you the treatment on a private basis.

Our practices have a limited annual budget from NHS England to provide NHS treatment. Our existing NHS patients have priority to NHS treatments. However, please note that regular check-ups at recommended intervals will ensure that we are able to continue seeing you on the NHS.

Please note we do send e-mail reminder for check-ups for courtesy. Failure to attend within a reasonable amount of time from your recommended interval will mean that the allocated NHS budget will have been offered to a new patient and your re-acceptance at the relevant practice may only be available on a private basis.

For any failed or short notice cancellations a charge may be made based on the length of the booked appointment time. Your practice will take a deposit towards future treatments.

Please note hygienist appointments are only provided on a private basis. You may require more than one session (30 min) and each session will be chargeable at the normal session rate. For any failed or short notice cancellations a full charge may be made. Your practice will take a deposit towards future treatments.

Our policy is to collect the full NHS charge for the appropriate band at the first appointment and for private treatments to collect the charge for the appointment and half the cost of the next appointment.

Due to increasing costs a £5 administration fee will be charged for every reminder sent for outstanding monies. We regret we will be unable to make any further appointments until all outstanding balances have been paid.

We will of course take any special circumstances into account.

Policy last updated on 9 July 2023.