Jul 6, 2023
What a glorious summer it has been so far. The hottest June since the 40’s I believe.
That being said, I am enjoying the current slightly cooler weather but hoping the sunshine and warmth comes back. I have really enjoyed being able to sit out in the evenings with just a light cardigan, if even.
Our Jurassic coast 'adventure' feels like a lifetime ago and although it was hot on the day, I am so glad it wasn’t like June. Needless to say, with my 'frequently mentioned lack of ability to cope with too much heat', not a lot of walking has been happening over the past month or so. A few forays on the bike. But having put social life more of less on hold for the 3 months prior to the walk, we decided to make up for lost time.
To mention just a few of many outings - we had the priviledge of another invitation to Founders Day at the Chelsea Hospital, courtesy of Sergeant Harry Wright. It is an amazing day where all of the retired service men and women wear their 'reds' and parade proudly- in the words from the song, Waltzing Matilda, 'reliving their days of past glory'. I am always amazed as they stand for inspection for a good hour, in their long red coats....with hats....in the heat. This year the insepction was made by the King and Queen of Belgium. There are trumpeters, marching bands and so many medals on display.
All the pomp and ceremony is followed by a picnic, bands and I have no idea how the tradition started, but there are always belly dancers. No heartattacks....yet.
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We also went on a jolly to Portugal, courtesy of Practice Plan, at a 5 star resort. Suffice it to say there was great food, music, dancing and not a lot of sleep! As you can see, Rob was quite happy to 'schmoose' with the Practice Plan ladies.
Donations for Hope for Tomorrow are still dribbling in as clients attend for appointments and pop cash in the collection box and Just Giving notifications are still appearing in my inbox. Therefore, we have left the page open for now for anyone who wants it. And of course, the collection box will be available at the desk. The current total stands at an amazing £3,057. What a wonderful bunch you are. The support has been greatly appreciated.
Practice Members Payment Plan
I want to take an opportunity to remind you of the additional benefits that are part of the Gentle Dental practice membership plan. We have had several instances over the past few months where clients have not realised there was cover available.
Rather than bore you all (and myself) to tears I will cover two of the main benefits this blog and the rest the next time.
Worldwide Dental Emergency Assistance Scheme
The first one to speak about it the emergency cover and the fact that this is worldwide. So when you are away from home, in the UK or abroad, if you have a problem you can see a dentist.
Emergency temporary dental treatment
It was interesting to sit and read the leaflet as I was writing this as I learnt a lot. I did not realise that the ideal scenario is that you call the worldwide dental emergency assistance scheme (WDEAS) before you arrange your emergency appointment to get authorisation. The number to call varies according to the day, time of day, and where in the world you are. The phones will be answered 24 hours per day.
We do have business size cards at the practice with the details so if you want one for your wallet please ask when you are in.
When you visit with us at Gentle Dental for an emergency appointment, as a member of the practice you do not pay a fee. However, for out of hours (evenings or weekends) there is a fee which is mainly covered by the WDEAS scheme with a small excess payable by the client. If you attend Gentle Dental in these circumstances, the excess is payable and we make a claim for the remainder.
When you attend elsewhere for an emergency appointment, the full payment is usually charged to you and you need to make a claim to WDEAS. Please make sure you get a receipt which you can then submit for payment to you, minus the excess.
Trauma cover
You can also make a claim if teeth are damaged due to an external trauma. For instance, breakage from biting on an olive stone will not be covered but trauma from a fall, car accident, ball in the face type injury, etc, is.
The emergency cover outlined above applies initially so you can get the pain element and temporary treatment sorted and is then backed up by this element. We generally submit a treatment plan and wait until we get approval before doing the work. If the broken teeth are visible, we can complete the work but you need to be aware the approval may not be given. However to date, and we have been with Practice Plan since 2004, every claim has been approved.
Once approval has been given you will be given a breakdown of how much you can claim back. You pay Gentle Dental and then claim the money back.
One of the things I love about dealing with Practice Plan is that you deal with human beings who are always helpful and make everything as easy as possible. No long telephone menu to sit through and the staff are incredibly helpful.
Follow this link and you can download a booklet outlining all of this information, plus the phone numbers to call if you require assistance. Select Level A from the download options.
While reminding myself of the details of this scheme, I found that numerous dental practice websites came up on a search with this leaflet somewhere on it. For the life of me I cannot find a link on their website. However I am on the case and will let you know when the much easier option of just clicking a link on the Gentle Dental website is live. That way you will have access to the information you need in an emergency, without having to search around lots.
I will outline some detail on the other benefits in the next newsletter.
Electric Toothbrush Special Offer.
And now for some exciting news from Oral B - well I think its exciting but I am a bit fixated on clean teeth!!
67% off selected brushes in the iO range – you pay £79 - £150 (normally £240 - £450)
30% off the PRO3 – you pay £40 (normally £100)
To avail of this offer you simply need to contact us for a card with a unique code. The offer is valid until June 2024 so keep it in mind, even if you don’t need a new toothbrush right now.
For every toothbrsh bought through the practice code, Oral B will give 5% of the retail price to Dentaid – a dental charity which, sadly, is doing more work in the UK now than abroad – a sad reflection on the availability of NHS dentistry. Dentaid have mobile dental units which travel the UK providing outreach dental clinics for people who struggle to access treatment.
So if you want a new toothbrush in the next year, please give us a call for a code. Not only will you get a bargain but you will be supporting a great charity. The codes are not limited to clients registered with us so if you have friends or family members who want a new electric toothbrush, grab a code for them too.
I now have to ask myself....what is it with us and mobile treatment vans!!
I mentioned several brushes above. So what is the difference in these and how do you know which one to choose?
Pro3
Pro3 is the basic brush with one button which turns it off, press it again to slow it down and press a third time to turn it off. It does give the 30 second vibration so you can keep track of your time and does have a visible pressure sensor.
And now for the science..............
The mechanism by which the Pro3 works is by a metal shank which rotates the head, not the bristles. The head rotates 45 degrees, it also oscillates, and pulsates (the bristles push forward against the tooth). This is the technology on which the Oral B range has operated for ever.
But now there is something new.
iO
You have no doubt seen the advertising for Oral B’s new iO toothbrush range. The mechanism by which it works (linear magnetic force) is completely different than that described briefly above. For the scientifically minded this basically means the iO directs the energy directly to the bristle tips rather than rotating the actual head.
Despite the fact that I have had an iO since 2020 (free of charge, lucky me) and absolutely love it, I have not necessarily been making a lot of noise about it with clients as it has had an eye wateringly high RRP. Therefore I, along with many hygienist colleagues, have continuously fed back that they are too expensive and it would seem that the constant whinging from dental professionals has paid off. They have now launched some at a far more affordable price…..and launched some incredible offers.
That being said the iO4 which is mentioned in the offer is currently unavailable as there are issues with the chargers. Oral B are working to resolve this and when I will keep you updated on progress as and when I know about it.
I have outlined in the table below the differences in the three models available with the offer. Hopefully it makes sense and makes it easy to know which model is for you. It took me quite a while to get my head around the differences so I don't envy anyone stood in a shop trying to figure it out.
| iO4 | iO6 | iO8 | |
| RRP | £240 | £300 | £450 |
| No of cleaning modes | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Daily Clean mode | yes | yes | yes |
| Sensitive mode | yes | yes | yes |
| Super sensitive mode | yes | no | yes |
| Intense mode | no | yes | yes |
| Whitening mode | yes | yes | yes |
| Gum Care mode | no | yes | yes |
| Tongue Cleaning mode | no | no | no |
| Interactice Display | no | black & white | colour |
| Mode currently in use | not visible | on handle display | on handle display |
| Real time Zone tracking with AI | not available | 6 zones- visible on the app | 6 zones - visible on the app |
| Brush head replacement reminder | Light on the handle | visible on the display | visible on the display |
| Travel Case | no | yes | yes |
| Battery charge notification | power button LED | on the display | on the display |
| Charger | standard Oral B charger | sandard Oral B charger | magnetic charger |
| Charge time | up to 16 hours | up to 12 hours | up to 3 hours |
There’s no need to worry about storing this information. This blog will always be available (as are all the previous blogs) on the blog page on the Gentle Dental website
I’m not a great app lover when it comes to thing like brushing my teeth and when I first got the brush I could not manage to connect it to the app, so I never bothered looking at it. However, doing my research for this article I decided to just get on board with it. What a revelation.
The app tracks progress using three sensors in the main body of the brush. These have been trained via an algorithm to track over 1,000 brushing behaviours which essentially means the brush knows how you brush and teaches you to adapt your habits.
The app is used in real-time while you brush, with a 3D map of the mouth visible and dots to symbolise the different areas of your teeth. Once you have successfully covered each surface the dots fade and the image turns white. Dots remaining – you missed a spot. Live tracking of 6 zones in the mouth is available from iO5 upwards - iO4 does not have this function.
However, this is not fool proof! All the dots dissappeared when I used the app BUT my highest score to date for areas covered was 86%. I am not happy. The gauntlet is down. 100% or die!!!!!!!
How do you grab this bargain. We have cards, each with a unique code, which you can pick up when you visit or call/email/text and ask us to send the code across to you. Simple! Remember there is no need to rush. The offer is valid until June 30th 2024.
Well thats all folks - for now. I hope you enjoy the summer and for the sake of all those stuck in school through sweltering June, I sincerely hope the weather picks up again.
Regards
Niamh, Rob and the Gentle Dental team