Best Patient Care
AWARD
Since opening The Smile Spa, we have developed a comprehensive range of systems and protocols to ensure all aspects of care epitomise our first class service standards.
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you at The Smile Spa
Making FirstImpressions Count01
We work hard to encourage new patients to visit The Smile Spa, and value every opportunity to wow each patient at their appointments.
To ensure we are prepared for each patient, they are discussed at our morning huddle. The whole team has an input into raising patient’s specific requirements and any special notes we should remember.
"I couldn’t believe I was relaxed and actually enjoying my dental appointment!"
DianeManagingAnxiety02
A high proportion of our patients are dentally anxious and often the initial phone call or email enquiry is a huge leap of faith on their part. We have ensured that their initial consultation at The Smile Spa will be non-clinical, an informal chat over coffee. It is at this appointment we profile the patient’s personality to ensure we are communicating to each person as an individual at each visit.
TRAINING TO SET
THE STANDARD 03
We invest heavily, in both time and money, to ensure our team are adept at providing the best possible patient care.
Training and Meetings
Daily our morning huddle provides the opportunity for everyone to meet and discuss the requirements of the day.
Weekly we meet over lunch to discuss the day to day matters arising and explore areas for improvement and give each other feedback.
Monthly meetings extend to a full afternoon, which will always incorporate some internal training, how we can improve our procedures and protocols, encouraging all colleagues to contribute to the discussions.
Quarterly, we invest in external coaches to provide bespoke, full day training. Giving the team insights into other ideas and opportunities to grow and develop. A training programme is in place and everyone understands the importance of their attendance. The visiting clinicians give up their time in order to attend our training sessions as they understand the importance of these events and perhaps more importantly, have seen the benefit too.
GOING THE
EXTRA MILE04
Patient Care Co-ordination
As a practice we are continuously monitoring, managing and measuring our protocols and procedures. Using our stringent management procedures, we found an opportunity to improve the service we provide our patients.
Owing to the number of patients undergoing complex treatment programmes increasing, we recognised the requirement for a dedicated person to offer support, guidance and reassurance throughout the patient journey. Subsequently, the role of Patient Co-ordinator was created.
Unlike the Treatment Co-ordinator who introduces the practice and presents treatment plans, the Patient Co-ordinator provides a concierge service, ensuring the patients are fully informed and comfortable with the progress they are making towards achieving their optimum dental health.
Working with the clinicians and nurses, the Patient Co-ordinator secures their involvement to ensure everyone is providing a structured, holistic, treatment programme which is centred on the patient’s needs and requirements.
The Patient Co-ordinator becomes the first point of contact for the patient at the practice should they have any questions, concerns or feedback.
It is only through the support of the team that the role of Patient Co-ordinator can realise its full potential.
Candidate selection was crucial to the success of this role. We recruited our senior nurse to initially implement the role into the practice. Due to her clinical knowledge and patient care skills, Sharon Iredale has been exceptional with both patients and the team appreciating the service she provides.
Proactive team work
The Patient Co-ordinator enables the team to be proactive in all aspects of the patient care, ensuring we maintain clear and appropriate communication throughout the patient’s clinical experience.
Comfort Menu
To ensure patients are relaxed at their clinical appointments we offer a comfort menu which enables them to choose from the room temperature to films they can watch or to the way in which they receive treatment. All details are noted to ensure complete patient satisfaction.
of genuine patients.
"The Smile Spa make you feel so special, because they make you feel like you are the only patient.
AlexandraBuildingRelationships05
We treat everybody as an individual and build relationships based on honesty, trust and compassion. Encouraging our team to chat to patients and get to know a little bit more about them is especially important for nurses as they often provide reassurance to our patients during treatment.
The Smile Spa Clinical Care
The following day at the morning huddle clinicians and nurses will nominate patients who they feel should receive a follow up phone call for any reason such as anxiety or if it was a complex treatment or just as a thank you for being a great patient. Patients really appreciate this call, providing them with reassurance we are interested in their welfare.
END OF TREATMENT
The end of the begining06
Having invested time and money into the relationship with our patients, and likewise, them with us, it is of mutual benefit that we continue to develop it further. At the end of treatment we will discuss the importance of maintenance and introduce the Smile Spa Membership plan.
Whilst we recognise the benefits of our plan, we go to great lengths to make sure our patients don’t feel they are being “sold to” and we are happy to treat them in whichever way they would prefer.
We remind them how their journey began using their clinical photographs and what they have achieved. We will ask permission to show others their smile transformation and invite them to provide feedback on the service they received.
of our patients.
"I think the Smile Spa is fantastic, the customer care, assurance and treatment they give you, is excellent."
WinstonSatisfactionthe patient perspective07
It is important for us to understand how our patients feel about the service we offer as we strive to develop and improve. Patient satisfaction surveys form a vital part of our feedback procedure, enabling us to raise concerns or area of improvement at regular team meetings.
We also receive a comprehensive, independent annual patient survey from Denplan, the results of which enable the team to review our systems and improve our protocols.
Patient Survey
Denplan Survey Results
Please see feedback below
Recognising Appreciation
We are both delighted and fortunate to receive letters and cards of gratitude in recognition of the service we provide. The whole team takes pride and satisfaction in achieving positive results but by far the greatest compliment, is that they are happy to refer us to their family and friends.
We thank every patient who refers someone to us, appreciating the trust they are placing in us once again.
lots of cards from happy patients
"I’ve been really impressed with the service and team and now I won’t go anywhere else."
Stephen Uppal ActorAppendix08
Appendix A
Our promise and expectations
We promise to:
- Welcome you into a caring and professional environment.
- Be polite, courteous, open and honest at all times.
- Listen to your concerns and inform you of the latest techniques and all options available to you.
- Clearly describe and explain the nature of your treatment and provide written confirmation of costs where appropriate.
- Respect confidentiality.
- Resolve concerns with discretion and absolute professionalism.
- Apply the highest standards of cross infection control.
We ask you to:
- Look after the dental work we provide, following all instructions given.
- Attend all appointments as requested.
- Give at least 48 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or rearrange an appointment.
- Pay for treatment as and when requested: We accept cash, cheques, debit and credit cards. Finance options are also available.
- Tell us about any concerns that you may have with any aspect of your treatment so that we can achieve your ideal outcome.
- Kindly recommend us to others if you are happy with the service we provide. We would be delighted to welcome your colleagues, friends and family.
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Appendix B
The Morning Huddle
We cover:
- Follow up calls – we call patients who have had dental treatment to ensure they are feeling fine.
- Yesterday’s failed to attend patients
- Yesterday’s late cancellations – reasons
- Today’s list of patients by clinician
- Outstanding payments
- Any patients referred to us and if so by whom?
- Special notes about today’s patients – such as finishing treatment, birthday, family event, special clinical requirement
- Today’s emergency times
- Any patients with more than 1 treatment plan open – if so WHY and what action is required
- Any unbooked treatment – to identify patients who require treatment but have no appointment booked
- Any outstanding hygiene appointments
- Voids for today, what opportunities do we have -
- 24 an 48 hours ahead of the appointment books
- Business cards and membership talks and pt’s finished today
- To Do list – items that need completing that day
- News from yesterday’s patients – feedback from patients on their experience.
- Any other business – announce forthcoming events, training, celebrate a team birthday or anything that may be of interest to the team.
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Appendix C
Relationship Building
We nurture relationships with new patients:
- Provide a friendly welcome letter and a confirmation call to say we are looking forward to meeting them, and ensure they know how to find us.
- Greet them by name when they enter the practice, offering them a drink whilst they complete their smile wish list.
- Discuss their concerns in a private, non-clinical room with our Treatment Co-ordinator. Listening to their concerns, offering solutions and options.
- Provide a tour of the practice and introduce them to members of the team.
- Find out what they wish to achieve and provide them with options, details of procedures and estimated costs.
- Communicate with each patient appropriately. For example, some patients prefer straight facts, others prefer reassurance, or great detail.
- Where possible, we try to keep the same nurse or restrict the number of clinicians to allow the patient the opportunity to get to know us too.
- Note important social occasions and recognise them with an appropriate card or gift.
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Appendix D
Clinical Cases
1. Smile Makeover
Clinical Information:
After hearing about the practice on the local radio, Patricia contacted us regarding improving her smile. She was disheartened by the dentistry she had received in the past and felt her smile aged her. Patricia did not want a full makeover, just an improvement on what she had, such as matching crowns implants to replace the gaps.
Patricia commented she felt relaxed and calm at the practice and had done ever since she heard our advert.
After the initial consultation, Patricia had consultations with Dr Andrews, for an aesthetic assessment, Dr Doswell for an implant opinion and Dr Turner to determine if any teeth were salvageable. Michelle, Treatment Co-ordinator, met with all the clinicians to discuss Patricia’s treatment. Collectively, they produced a treatment plan which would address her dental problems.
Patricia had extensive restorative treatment, including, implants, crowns, fillings and equilibration. root canal treatment, and a course of hygiene. Once an implant the implant was placed and a course of whitening carried out. Treatment was completed aesthetically with a replacement crown and composite fillings to repair the worn upper incisors for a natural, fresh smile.
Patricia Myers: “Inevitably things always start with a photograph, usually an attractive woman, looking confident, with a beautiful smile. Finally, after much consideration, I decided to start a journey towards the teeth I’ve wanted for many years. From my first consultation to my last appointment at the Smile Spa, with the support and care of the staff, I felt this was a journey that we would be taking together. Five months later, with my treatment complete, whenever I look in the mirror I see the confident smile I have longed for.”
Patricia
Before & After
2. Dentures
Clinical information: Edna contacted the practice because she wanted a replacement for her full dentures which she had worn for 7 years. After meeting with Chris, our Clinical Dental Technician she was delighted with the options he provided. She choose to have the highest quality acrylic dentures.
Edna Lidgate: “I first heard of The Smile Spa from a newspaper advert and I booked a consultation. Everyone was really friendly and the practice was lovely.
I have had five sets of dentures over the years after losing my teeth when I was young. I was never very happy with them, as they never fitted very well. The dentist just seemed to take impressions straight away and produce a denture from there.
Meeting Chris, the dental technician was a completely different experience. He was precise, taking measurements, realigning the dentures for the best possible fit. I now have dentures which fit great and feel fabulous. They’ve lifted my face and given me so much more confidence. I’m a lot more smiley now.”
Edna
Before & After
3. Implant / Veneers – Multi Disciplinary
Adam attended the practice with a very complicated list of dental problems including missing and unerupted teeth and having already experienced a lot of time in the dentist’s chairduring his teenage years.
Following a visit with Michelle, our Treatment Co-ordinator, Adam had a full new patient assessment with Dr Simon Andrews. Dr Andrews advised Adam that orthodontics would be the best possible treatment, but Adam was clear he did not want to consider it. He wanted to have a smile he could be confident with, in a short timescale.
On examination with Dr Simon Andrews, it was explained the ideal option was surgery, implants, orthodontics and then, crowns and veneers. Adam was equally clear that in light of his past surgical and orthodontic experiences he was not prepared to go ahead with a lengthy course of treatment which included further orthodontics.
So with limited choices and following a mock up in the mouth by Dr Andrews, we elected to have treatment with just implants, bridges and veneers. Implant work was carried out by Dr Tim Doswell and the aesthetic, restorative work by Dr Andrews. Whilst the final photos show a slightly compromised cosmetic result, Adam and Dr Andrews were delighted.
Adam
Before, Mock Up & After
4. Hygiene, Invisalign, Implants and Veneers
Tracey found The Smile Spa on the internet after doing a lot of research. She was a nervous patient having had previous traumatic experiences at other practices. It took 6 months for Tracey to build up the courage to enquire about replacing her denture with and implant and looking into having some aesthetic treatment too.
Michelle, our treatment co-ordinator, listened to Tracey’s concerns and noted all of them for Dr Doswell to assess. At her implant consultation, Dr Doswell ascertained that Tracey would benefit from a full analysis from Dr Andrews as there were other factors in Tracey’s dental health which needed to be addressed.
Dr Doswell discussed Tracey’s case with Dr Andrews, prior to the examination. Dr Andrews was then able to comment on Dr Doswell’s assessment and highlight other areas of concern, such as her perio health.
Dr Andrews was made aware of Tracey’s anxiety and that she was looking to improve the aesthetics of her smile. He invited our Invisalign clinician, Dr Hunter to look at Tracey’s suitability for Invisalign treatment. Together they agreed the best way forward would be, to use orthodontic treatment to improve the aesthetics of the lower teeth and due to the reduced space of the missing UR1, we chose to place an implant on UR1 and minimal preparation, e-max veneersUR2, UL1, UL2 to achieve ideal aesthetics.
Tracey attended a treatment plan presentation, to discover the findings of the clinicians. She accepted the proposal which was to undergo a course of hygiene therapy, Invisalign treatment on the lowers, whitening, an implant and veneers on the uppers.
Over a period of 22 months, Tracey’s treatment was carried out, with her confidence growing, each appointment, as she got to know the team.
Tracey was so impressed with the service and care, that she recommended her equally nervous husband to visit the practice, who subsequently, had aesthetic treatment.