Apr 1, 2022
What a shock to the system the weather has been this last week. We hadn’t quite gotten to the ‘flip flops and shorts’ stage but were definitely channelling that ‘summer’ feeling with the beautiful sunshine and warmth of the last few weeks. At least it has been mainly sunny and by swapping a t-shirt for coat and scarf we could still get out and enjoy the beautiful Spring flowers. Here’s hoping this cold spell is just a blip before a fabulous summer.
Apologies for the long silence since our last newsletter. However, what it means is that we have lots of news for you - all in one hit.
Staff news
As you may be aware, the practice currently is very busy and we mainly have you to thank for this. You have been recommending us far and wide to friends, work colleagues and family members, a huge compliment to us. Of course, this does have the knock-on effect of making the practice busier but we have addressed that with the new treatment room and the fabulous Karenn.
Karenn is a dental therapist which I know is a role within dentistry of which most people are unaware. This role has been around for a long time but in a different guise. Dental Therapy did exist when I trained as a hygienist but only allowed you to work in the community dental sector and only with children. However, the role changed in the late 90’s and now, as well as training for a hygienist role, therapists train to do dental examinations, disease diagnosis, x-ray prescription and fillings.
Having been around for a short while, (I find it hard to believe I qualified 32 years ago), I can recognise decay, missing fillings etc. Technically I have to have a dentist actually ‘diagnose’ the situation and plan the treatment. To take x-rays a dentist has to say they are justified and I cannot carry out a dental examination. A therapist however, can do all of these things.
Karenn is currently with us two days per week and is providing hygienist appointment for one day and carrying out simple fillings for the other, thus allowing space in Robs diary for more complex treatment. The exciting news is that from May she is joining us four days per week and as you can see for the picture below she is well placed to fit in with the gentle approach we offer.
We are already seeing the impact of the extra clinician on the diaries with a shorter wait for appointments with Rob when you need more complex treatment and we are once again managing to see you for your hygienist visit in a timely manner.
With the extra clinical hours and the likelihood of a lockdown almost nil, we are once again prebooking your next hygienist/dental health review appointment when you leave. Obviously if you prefer not to book in advance, we can accommodate this also.
The other bit of staff news to impart is that Victoria has decided not to return to work after her maternity leave. WIth two young daughters to care for she has decided to be a full time mum.
Charity
You may or may not be aware but Gentle Dental does a charity donation of £10 for every personal recommendation we receive from a client. We generally chose a local charity and over the last few years have supported Salisbury Hospice, Salisbury Trust for the Homeless and in 2021 our chosen charity was The Trussel Trust.
The donation is based on new clients who say they were referred by one of you when asked how they heard about us and the number of clients who searched for a dentist on google (or another search engine) and said that the reason they chose Gentle Dental over another practice was the client reviews on our website. The total donation to Trussel Trust for 2021 is £1830. Thank you so much for the huge number of recommendations.
Our chosen charity for 2022 is ‘Hope for Tomorrow’.
Hope for Tomorrow provides convenient cancer care by enabling cancer treatment to be delivered in the right way, at the right time, in close proximity to patients, via a Mobile Cancer Care Units. Our local Unit is called ‘Kayleigh’ and it is partnered with Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust delivering 2,069 cancer care treatments since April 2021 to local cancer patients. ‘Kayleigh’ travels to three local car parks in Salisbury, Dorset and Westbury to deliver cancer care treatment, and without this Unit patients may have to travel considerable distances to receive treatment elsewhere.
As it will be 2023 before we make the donation to Hope for Tomorrow, we have decided to do something now to support Hope for Tomorrow. Rob and I have signed up to do the Jurassic Coast Walk, 100k in 24 hours on May 14th for Salisbury Hospice. I know, you are now thinking how is that going to support Hope for tomorrow?
The JCC has several registration options so we have chosen the one where we pay the fundraising ‘target’ amount personally. That way if anyone does feel they would like to sponsor us for the walk perhaps they will consider making a donation to Hope for Tomorrow. This way we can support two local charities in one hit - and believe me 100k in 24 hours along the Jurrasic coast is going to feel like a hit! We are not spring chickens any more. You can all relax thought, we have booked the Monday off to allow for recover time so none of you need to worry about being on the receiving end of treatment from an exhausted dentist or hygienist. Cheekily this is the link to the ‘just giving’ page.
We will let you know how we fare with the walk in the newsletter and I hope we are smiling like this at the end of our walk in May!!
Thank you for all the support and we look forward to seeing you in the future.
Kind Regards
Niamh, Rob and the Gentle Dental team.