TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Terms of Service
At The Dental Café, we constantly endeavour to provide the highest quality service that we can. This agreement provides further details of our terms and conditions of service. As a patient of The Dental Café, we ask that you agree to follow these terms and conditions.
Treatment Planning
Once your treatment plan has been agreed upon with our dental care professional, we will provide printed details of your treatment plan. If this plan changes due to radiographic or clinical findings, we will inform you and discuss this with you. Treatment plans and fees are valid for 90 days from the date treatment was prescribed. If you wish to query any points on your treatment plan, please speak to a member of the team before booking an appointment.
Consent
Certain treatments with The Dental Café require the completion of a written consent form. This is to explain the treatment, aftercare, any risks, and benefits to you thoroughly before any of these treatments are carried out.
Consent can be withdrawn at any point by the patient or dental professional.
Fees
All new patients are required to pay the first consultation fee before booking an appointment.
A minimum of 50% of the total treatment cost is required when booking an appointment. The final balance for treatment is due on the day the treatment is provided.
In cases where treatment is paid for on finance through our finance company, please be aware that the finance agreement must be accepted and signed before starting treatment. Please note that finance is only available on treatments over £500.00 and does not include emergency dental treatment. If you have financed your treatment through the finance company and wish to cancel your agreement after signing the agreement, please be aware that a 15% cancellation fee of the total finance will be charged.
Payment Methods accepted are:
- Cash
- Debit/Credit Card excluding American Express
The Dental Café do not accept payments by cheque. Please note that unpaid accounts are routinely referred to a Debt Collection Agency or the Small Claims Court, and we reserve the right to recover all costs incurred doing so.
Late Cancellation and Missed Appointments
We require a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to cancel an arranged appointment. Failure to give the appropriate notice of cancellation or not attending your appointment will result in a failed appointment fee being charged.
The fee is charged at £50.00 per 30 minutes of the appointment failed for the Dental Hygienist and £100.00 per 30 minutes of the appointment failed for the General Dentist. Failed appointment fees are charged to cover the cost of the surgery time wasted.
All deposits are subject to a 10% administration charge should a refund be requested regardless of the amount of notice for cancellation received.
Failed appointment fees must be settled before any other appointment is offered. Please note it is down to the dental care professional if further appointments can be booked for any late cancellations or missed appointments.
Late for Appointments
The Dental Café understands that being late for appointments can sometimes be unavoidable. If you are more than 10 minutes, please be aware that you may be asked to reschedule your appointment.
Personal Details
All patients are required to provide a complete medical history and details of any medication you take. Should these change in any way, you must inform us. It is the patient’s responsibility to inform us of any changes to personal and medical details.
Guarantee
At The Dental Café, we offer a 12-month guarantee for permanent fillings, crown, and bridgework, provided the following conditions are met:
- The patient has fully paid for the treatment and does not owe the practice any money for the treatment received.
- The restorations have not been damaged because of an accident, trauma, or excessive grinding.
- The patient has followed all post-treatment maintenance recommendations.
- The patient has attended a routine examination every 6-months.
Invisalign comes with a guarantee by Align Technology in some cases. We recommend you familiarise yourself with these when you have the treatment.
Use of Images and X-rays
The Dental Café may ask to use images and x-rays of your smile and teeth only for marketing and educational purposes. If you do not wish for images of your smile to be used, then please inform a member of the team.
Use of Patient Contact Details
At The Dental Café, the health of our patients is our highest priority, and we also like to keep our patients informed of various significant changes, including exclusive offers. We want to remind our patients of their appointments and recalls when they are due. On this note, you may be periodically contacted via phone, text, email or by letter. If you do not want to be contacted by any form of these communication methods then please speak to a member of the team.
Complaints Policy
At The Dental Café practice, we take complaints very seriously indeed and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service. When patients complain, they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. This procedure is based on these objectives.
Our aim is to react to complaints in the way in which we would want our complaint about a service to be handled. We learn from every mistake that we make, and we respond to customers’ concerns in a caring and sensitive way.
The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is the Practice Manager.
If a patient complains on the telephone or in person, we will listen to their complaint and offer to refer him or her to the practice manager immediately. If the practice manager is not available at the time, then the patient will be informed when they will be able to talk to the practice manager and arrangements will be made for this to happen. The member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on to the practice Manager. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with it.
If the patient complains in writing or by email, it will be passed on immediately to the Practice Manager.
If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist concerned unless the patient does not want this to happen.
We will acknowledge the patient’s complaint in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice within three working days.
We will seek to investigate the complaint within ten working days of receipt to explain the circumstances which led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to them on the telephone. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within ten working days we will notify the patient, giving reasons for the delay and a period within which the investigation will be completed.
We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.
Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received as well as any actions taken to improve services because of a complaint.
If patients are not satisfied with the result of our procedure, then a complaint may be made to:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP. Telephone: 0345 015 4033 www.ombudsman.org.uk
The Dental Complaints Service, The Lansdowne Building, 2 Lansdowne Road, Croydon, Greater London, CR9 2ER. Telephone: 08456 120 540 www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk
The General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole Street, London. W1N 8DQ. Telephone: 0845 222 4141, the dentists’ regulatory body for complaints about professional misconduct
No Tolerance/Abuse Policy
The Dental Café operates a zero-tolerance policy to abuse any of our team members. Loud, disorderly drunken behaviour will not be tolerated, and you may be asked to leave the premises. We also have zero tolerance for persistent missing and late cancellation of appointments when multiple warnings have been issued, under such circumstances you may be refused an appointment.
Data Protection
All personal information is stored securely on our computer system following the Data Protection Act and GDPR. All clinical notes, digital x-rays etc remain the property of The Dental Café and are accessible to view. Copies of clinical records can be made available on request.
These terms and conditions have been written by Leah Lancashire, Operations Manager and approved by Clare Robinson, Director on April 2023.
Review date April 2024.