Attending Your Appointment

You may qualify for free NHS dental treatment if you are:

• Under 18 years of age
• 18 years of age and in full time education
• Pregnant or had a baby within the last 12 months (Please bring your valid NHS maternity exemption card to your appointment)

or if during the course of treatment you are receiving:

• Income Support (Incapacity benefit and Disability Living Allowance does NOT count)
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (Contribution-based does NOT count)
• Income-related Employment & Support Allowance (Contribution-based does NOT count)
• Pension Credit Guarantee Credit (Savings Credit on its own does NOT count)
• Universal Credit (If in the last assessment period there were no earnings or earnings were within the allowed limit, please check at www.nhs.uk/healthcosts)

or if you are named on one of the following certificates that is valid during your course of treatment:

• HC2 Certificate
• NHS Tax Credit Exemption Certificate/Card (Please note: you are not automatically entitled because you receive Tax Credit; there are qualifying conditions. Please check at www.nhs.uk/healthcosts. If you qualify you will be sent an exemption certificate/card)

• You MUST provide evidence/proof of your exemption from NHS Dental Charges at the start of EVERY course of dental treatment when you sign a Patient Record ("blue") form.
• In cases where no proof is provided, this will be documented as 'NO PROOF'.
• The patient is responsible for the accuracy of their claim, NOT the dental practice
• If you are not certain you are entitled to receive free or reduced cost dental services you MUST pay the dental practice.
• If you subsequently confirm you that you are entitled to free or reduced cost dental services, you can claim a refund from the NHS.
• If you have applied for a qualifying benefit or exemption certificate, but have not yet received it, you MUST pay and claim a refund when/if you do receive it.
• In above cases where you may be entitled to a refund, please request an NHS Refund Form from our receptionist. Refunds are obtained from the NHS and cannot be provided by the practice.

Checks on claims are undertaken to confirm you are entitled. Incorrect claims for free or reduced cost NHS dental services will result in a penalty charge of up to £100 in addition to the cost of the NHS dental services received. In cases of incorrect claims, you will not have the opportunity to pay for the NHS dental services first to avoid the penalty charge.

Please note all claims that are documented 'no proof' are checked by the NHS Business Services Authority for validation.

If you've been informed by a member of our team that you're unable to schedule a routine NHS dental care appointment due to not attending for a routine check-up within the past two years, we'd like to provide clarification on this matter.

It's important to understand that since 2006, there's no such thing as "registration" with an NHS dentist. Unless you are actively undergoing a course of treatment, dentists aren't obligated to see you for an appointment if they do not have the capacity to do so. Given the current demand and capacity in NHS dentistry, we're unable to accommodate every patient. The NHS England guidelines suggest a timeline of two years to define regular attendance, and we adhere to these boundaries.

We have specific 'examination appointment' slots which enable us to manage our appointment book accordingly and ensure we can get patients booked in for treatment within a timely manner. When these slots are full, there is no additional capacity unless we are able to recruit additional dentists, which is currently challenging due to nationwide NHS dentist shortages.

Our NHS routine examination appointment slots are fully booked for 2024. However, we do get cancellations so please continue to contact us as it may be possible to obtain one of these appointments.

Our appointment book for NHS routine examination appointments for 2025 will open 2 months in advance on the first working day of the month (e.g. 2nd December 2024 for February 2025, 2nd January 2025 for March 2025 etc). This change is to prevent excessively advanced bookings, which has been an issue throughout 2024, and to provide more equitable booking opportunities for everyone.

Appointments can only be made via telephone or in person and cannot be made via email due the dynamic nature of our appointment book. Please be aware we receive extremely high call volumes during these periods and due to this your call may not always be placed in a queue if the queue exceeds maximum call hold positions. Please keep trying and your call will be answered as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

At this time, we remain unable to accept new routine NHS patients or those who have not attended the practice for a NHS routine appointment during the last 2 years.

We do have a small amount of Private capacity, should you be interested in continuing your care with the Practice on a Private basis.