Terms and Conditions of Care

Please be aware that any information provided through any part of our website or social media is provided for interest or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute personal professional advice. No professional advice can be provided without a clinical consultation with a dentist. For professional dental advice we strongly recommend that you see a dentist for consultation.

Once your treatment plan has been agreed with the Clinician, we will provide you with a digital copy of your plan.
If this plan changes, due to radiographic or clinical findings, we will inform you and discuss this with you. We will then provide an up-to-date treatment plan.

If there are any points on your treatment plan that you wish to query, please do not hesitate to ask us, before the appointments for actual treatments are made.

We ask that each treatment plan is reviewed and signed, we ask you to sign to confirm that you understand the options you have been given and the associated costs. This does not tie you into treatment.

NHS patients: Treatment plans and fees are valid for up to 60 days from the date the treatment was prescribed. If you have not returned for treatment within 60 days, your course of treatment will be closed and submitted to the NHS as incomplete.

Private ‘Pay as you go’ patients and Membership Patients: Treatment plans and fees are valid for 90 days from the date the treatment was prescribed.  

Special Care (e.g.: implants, Invisalign and smile designs): Treatment plans and fees are valid for 180 days from the date the treatment was prescribed.  

Maintaining accurate and up-to-date medical histories is a legal and ethical requirement. Our governing bodies require that we obtain up to date medicals for each new course of treatment. This ensures that your Clinician has the necessary information to provide safe and appropriate care. 

We request updates to your medical history on each visit via our patient portal. These are quick and easy to complete. If you are unable to access your patient portal, please arrive 5 minutes prior to your appointment and our patient co-ordinators can assist you in completing this.

If you refuse to update your medical history, you will be unable to see the clinician for your appointment, however, you will be referred to our Short Notice cancellation or missed appointments policy (as written below).

Certain dental treatments require completion of a digital consent form. We work to strict governing guidelines in order to ensure that or patients are fully aware of the treatment, aftercare and any risk before treatment is carried out.  

We require consent forms to be signed prior to treatment being carried out.

If you refuse to complete your consent form, you will be unable to see the clinician for your appointment, however, you will be referred to our Short Notice cancellation or missed appointments policy (as written below).

We require pre-payment and deposits to secure bookings of most appointments.

NHS Patients: patients are not required to pay for examinations in advance. For treatment, patients are required to pay Band 2 fees on booking; and for Band 3 treatment £150 is required on booking and the remaining balance will be taken at the impression stage of the appointment.

New Private Patients: patients are required to pay a 100% deposit for their first appointment.

Private routine Examinations and Hygienist Visits: patients are required to pay a 50% deposit for their routine appointment.

Private Treatment: patients are required to pay a 50% deposit for a general treatment appointment.

Where treatment incurs a laboratory fee, the full fee will be taken at the impression stage of the appointment. 

Fees for certain treatments like Dental Implants and Invisalign® are broken down and taken on a pay as you go basis at each visit. We will discuss and plan a schedule of payment for you.

Private Emergency Appointments: patients are required to pay a 100% deposit for each emergency appointment.

Dental Insurance: All dental insurance holders must pay for their treatment at the time of treatment, then claim for reimbursement from their provider. Invoices will automatically be sent via email 24 hours after a treatment plan is created.

Finance: In cases where treatment is paid for by finance through a finance company, the finance agreement must be accepted and signed off prior to the start of that treatment. Finance is only available on treatments over £2000.

Cheques: We do not accept payment by cheque.

Unpaid Fees: When a fee is not paid, we contact you on 3 separate occasions to request clearance of your balance. If the balance is not cleared, we will refer this to a debt collection agency.  We reserve the right to make a charge for any debt passed to a debt collection agency.

Due to the significant demand for appointments within the practice and in order to make sure we can provide appointments in a timely manner for our patients we ask all patients to provide us with at least 24hrs notice (excluding weekends).

Alternatively, you can cancel via our Patient Portal up to 48 hours prior.

If you fail to provide suitable notice, you will be referred to our Short Notice cancellation or missed appointments policy (as written below).

Short Notice cancellation or missed appointments have a negative impact to our service and regular patients. 

Membership Patients: If you do not provide adequate notice to cancel your appointment, you will forfeit your ‘membership plan inclusive appointment’. To rebook the appointment the full treatment charge will be required to be paid at time of booking.

Private ‘Pay as you go’ patients: If you do not provide adequate notice to cancel your appointment, you will forfeit the total deposit you have paid for your appointment or half of the treatment cost associated with this appointment (whichever is greater). If you wish to rebook the appointment you will need to pay the full fee in advance.

NHS Adult patients: If you do not provide adequate notice to cancel your appointment you will be provided with a formal warning, explaining that if you fail to provide adequate notice again, your NHS course of treatment will be closed and submitted to the NHS, all further appointments will be cancelled; and you will be removed from our NHS list. If you fail to provide adequate notice to cancel your appointment a second time, you will be removed from our NHS list and you will need to seek NHS care at another practice (or we will be able to offer you private care only going forward). 

NHS Children’s patients: If you do not provide adequate notice to cancel your child’s appointment, we follow the NHS ‘Was not brought policy’, if you fail to provide adequate notice to cancel on 3 occasions, we are required to risk assess and refer you and your child to the NHS safeguarding team (social services) if we are concerned about dental neglect. Your child will also have all further appointments will be cancelled and will be removed from our NHS list at this point.

NHS Urgent Care Appointments: If you do not provide adequate notice to cancel your appointment, you will not be seen again within practice, all further appointments will be cancelled, and your NHS course of treatment will be closed and submitted to the NHS. If you experience any further pain, you will need to contact 111 for another urgent care appointment.

We will always take exceptional circumstances into account if the unforeseen happens. If you wish for us to consider exceptional circumstances associated with a short notice cancellation or missed appointment, please simply email us within 7 days of the appointment outlining the circumstances. We aim to provide a response within 7 days.

At Blossom Family dental care, we ask that all patients arrive on time, if you are running late, please contact the practice to let us know. 

We will check with the clinician if you arrive less than 5 minutes late, however if you arrive more than 5 minutes late, you will not be seen and will be treated as a missed appointment (as written above).

In some circumstances we may be able to offer a later appointment time or may be able to amend the order of patients attending (this is only possible when other appointments are available on the same day).

Our Clinicians book their annual leave as far in advance as possible, however, as patients book 6-12 months in advance for examinations and hygienists visits, we do have to reschedule appointments but provide as much notice as possible. 

On occasion we do have to cancel or offer another clinician at short notice due to sickness or family emergencies. We apologise if this does happen and will always endeavour to find alternative cover where possible.

We request that you always keep us up to date with changes to your personal details including:

• First Name
• Surname
• Address
• Email address
• Contact number

We ask that you update this information to ensure we can contact you when required, so that you receive reminders and receive recall contacts.

For NHS patients, we require this information in order to submit your NHS course of treatment.

You can update this information via the patient portal, via email or by speaking to our patient co-ordinators.

At Blossom Family Dental Care the health of our patients is our highest priority, and we also like to keep our patients informed of various important changes at the practice and of our latest special offers. We like to remind our patients of their appointments, when they are due for appointments, and other various important reminders. On this note, you may be periodically contacted by the practice via phone, text, email or by letter in the post. If you DO NOT wish to be contacted by the practice by any or all of these means, please let us know.

At Blossom Family Dental Care, we offer a 12 month guarantee for fillings, and crown and bridgework, provided that 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 made by our dentists.
• The patient has attended and routine examination every 6 months.

Some treatments may not have a guarantee, and in this case you will be informed by your clinician either verbally or in writing, or both.

Blossom Family Dental Care may use images and x-rays of your smile and teeth only, for marketing and educational purposes on the Blossom Family Dental Care website, and on promotional and educational literature. Your name will never be published, and identity will never be disclosed. However, if you DO NOT wish for us to use your images and x-rays in this way, please let us know.

If you require ‘top up’ whitening gel, you will need to book a dental examination and whitening tray check with your dentist. 

We are required to check you are still suitable for whitening treatment by carrying out an oral health examination. We are also required to check your whitening trays still fit correctly and are free from damage. 

Please ensure you bring whitening trays with you to your appointment, or we will be unable to provide you with the whitening ‘top up’ gel at your appointment.

Our patient portal is accessible to all patients who have provided their email address and mobile number. You can access our patient portal here: https://blossom-dental-care.portal.dental/

You can check all appointment dates and times, cancel appointments, book private appointments, pay outstanding balances, update your medical form, review treatment plans and update your contact details by accessing our patient portal.

The patient portal’s terms of use and privacy policy are also found via the above link.

As our patient portal is ran by our dental management software provider Dentally, if you require help with our patient portal, please access their Get Help page: https://blossom-dental-care.portal.dental/

Blossom Family Dental Care occasionally runs special offers and promotions on treatments. These are subject to availability of appointments and suitability of the treatment for the patient.

We operate a zero-tolerance policy in relation to abuse of our team. We do not allow loud, aggressive or disorderly behaviour. In these situations, Blossom Family Dental Care reserve the right to refuse treatment and admission.

We will also refuse to treat any patient presenting under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

We store all patient personal details on a secure computer system in accordance with the Data Protection Act & GDPR. All clinical notes, digital radiographs, digital photographs etc remain the property of Blossom Family Dental Care. 

Our Privacy Policy:  https://www.blossomdentalcare.co.uk/privacy-policy/

Data Protection Act:  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/contents/enacted

All subject access requests should be sent via email to info@blossomdentalcare.co.uk or in writing addressed for attention of the practice manager.

Within your SAR, please state what information you are requesting and for what period of time. 

If you would like to receive your documents by email, please confirm you will be happy for them to be sent in this way as this will be an unsecured email.

Under the Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 15, the practice is required to respond to a request for personal data within 30 days.

At Blossom Family Dental Care, we always take complaints about any aspects of our services very seriously, in order to ensure that every patient has only the very best experience at all times. Please see the link below for further information on our complaints policy.

https://www.blossomdentalcare.co.uk/complaints-policy/ 

Thank you for taking the time to read through our Terms and Conditions of Care, if you require any further information, please do get in touch with our patient co-ordinators on 01904654889.