We are very thankful for your understanding during this time and thank you for your continued support and loyalty to the practice. These have been very difficult times for all of us and we understand that many of you have been unable to access the dental care you need. One of our team will be in contact with you over the coming weeks, to make any appointments required and to reschedule any appointments we have had to postpone.

Our priority, as always, is your safety and your care, and we would like to offer you reassurance that we have re-examined all of our procedures and protocols to ensure they give the highest level possible of safety to you and our staff. We have always had very high levels of infection control in the practice but we have enhanced these measures even further to meet and go beyond new regulations and guidelines following the Covid pandemic. You will, therefore, notice a number of changes when you have your next appointment.

These will include:

• Before your appointment you will contacted by one of our team and will be asked to complete a short questionnaire regarding your overall general health. This is to ensure that you don’t have symptoms of Covid-19 when you come to the practice. You will be asked these
  questions again when you arrive at the practice.
• You will be asked to thoroughly brush your teeth before arrival to the practice as there will be restricted use of toilets.
• Where possible, you may be asked to wait in your car until your scheduled appointment time, this is to limit the number of patients in
  our waiting areas. We will be keeping waiting times to a minimum.
• Appointments will be managed to allow us to maintain social distancing standards throughout the practice. This means that there may be fewer options when arranging your appointment, but we will be extending our opening hours to be able to increase the number of appointments we can offer you.
• You will be asked to use hand sanitizer on entering the practice.
• Please wear a mask or face covering before as you arrive at the practice.
• Please minimise the amount of belongings you bring to the practice.
• Perspex shield or ‘germ-guards’ have been installed along the reception desk in the waiting room.
• We ask that you always practice social distancing whilst in public areas and these areas will be marked-out accordingly.
• If possible, we will request that you do not bring a companion with you, so we are able to limit number of people within the practice for their safety. If you do require assistance, one of our friendly team will be happy to help.
• You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• You are likely to see your dentist/hygienist and nursing staff wearing additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• We will be using special equipment to decontaminate the surgery between each patient to ensure a safe virus-free environment. All communal areas of the practice will be decontaminated regularly during the day.
• As much as possible we will make your journey as contactless as we can, therefore receipts and treatment plan will be emailed to you after your appointment. We would prefer payments to be made contactless, wither by pre paying or using Apple Pay, or a contactless function on your card.

We are constantly monitoring best practice internationally and will continue to adapt our processes if we learn of further ways to ensure your safety and comfort during your dental care journey. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the practice on 01608 737 911 or email us at info@lionhousedentalpractice.com

Again, we would like to thank you for your understanding and patience during these unprecedented times and we very much look forward to seeing you soon.