DENTO LEGAL ISSUES
We regard ourselves to be a centre of excellence with regard to the provision of dental care. We take our clinical and legal obligations to our regular patients and our referral patients very seriously. Here are some examples of the systems we have in place to protect our patients.
Consent
We will only proceed with treatment after you have given your informed consent. We will explain what we are planning to do and offer alternative treatments if appropriate. You will be given a written quote for the proposed treatment.
Examination
For our regular patients this consists of 3 parts:
1) Examination of the teeth and charting
2) Examination of the gums and monitoring of gum condition
3) Examination of the oral soft tissues
4) Screening for oral cancer
We require patients to record details of their medical history and update it on each visit. We aim to comply with current guidelines concerning all aspects of health and safety with special emphasis on cross infection control and ionising radiation (x-rays)
Radiographs
Regulations governing ionising radiation (IRMER) are followed.
Cross infection control
All instruments are sterilised and stored according to British Dental Association guidelines.
All of our nursing team are fully registered as Dental Care Professionals as required by the General Dental Council.
Rubber Dam
Research evidence accumulated over several decades points conclusively to the role of micro-organisms in the dental disease process. Without microbes in saliva we would not suffer dental decay or gum disease.
Saliva is a highly infectious substance. To date, about 650 different species of microbe have been identified within saliva. An interesting fact is for one millilitre of saliva there are 1.1 billion bugs!
A key aim in dental treatment is to prevent these microbes entering dentine or the root canal.
Rubber Dams are universally recognised as the best piece of equipment to isolate teeth from saliva.
Rubber dam will:
1) Prevent saliva and associated microbes entering the tooth.
2) Keep water and debris from the back of the throat.
3) Facilitates the removal of vapour from the mouth during procedures
