We are extremely proud to announce that in February we became only the third practice in North Wiltshire to be admitted to the British Dental Association’s Good Practice Scheme.
The scheme sets out 96 separate standards in ten areas of dental practice including health & safety, patient consent, confidentiality, infection control, staff training and professional development and public protection. Practices are required to analyse their existing standards and audit them against those set out in the scheme. The application involves submission of random pieces of evidence requested by the BDA for assessment.
Admission to the scheme indicates that we, as a practice are meeting the standards of good practice laid down by our professional body and which exceed most minimum requirements required by legislation.
As time goes by the scheme will be updated and we will be required to comply with these changes as they come into force. Our patients can be confident that we are keeping up to date with all current standards of good practice.
You can find out more about the scheme at www.bda.org/smile

New NHS Contract

We have finally signed our new NHS dental contract with the Local Primary Care Trust.
Under the new arrangements we will be able to continue to provide NHS dental treatment for all children under 16 years of age and for 16- and 17-year olds who are in full time education.
While we are disappointed that we will no longer be able to treat students and exempt patients under the NHS, we are relieved that we have been able to achieve a solution of sorts at a time when many dentists have been forced to withdraw from the NHS altogether.
We remain deeply opposed to many aspects of the new dental contract. We feel that it has been forced on patients and the dental profession for political reasons and offers few if any benefits to dentists or the public.
The mechanics of the contract remain untried and we fear that there may be problems in the coming months but we feel a moral obligation to give it a fair chance.
Students aged 18 and over (who we previously saw under the NHS while at university) can now benefit from a reduced rate examination which is available to all patients under the age of 23 years.
We anticipate that the transition to the new contract will be a smooth one and wait to see what the future has in store...
 

Barley Mow has now acquired an ozone machine.

Follow this link to find out about the ozone revolution