We’ve extended our opening hours to accommodate more dental appointments!
We have some exciting news from Banning Dental Clinics this September. To improve our service to our patients and provide a more flexible appointment schedule, we will be opening up our operating hours to offer appointments from 8am until 8pm Monday to Friday from the 1st October 2021! On top of this, don’t forget that we are also open at weekends, and have a limited number of appointments available on Saturday’s and Sunday’s at selected clinics.
Dental appointments on demand
No matter how good your intentions are, we know how hard it is to fit your routine dental appointments in around everyday life responsibilities. Work, family and life commitments often get in the way, resulting in your teeth dropping down the priority list.
This is one of the reasons we have chosen to extend our operating hours, so that our clinics can fit more comfortably around your schedule. This has never been as important as it is now.
The turbulent events of 2020 and 2021, have resulted in a huge backlog of patients desperately needing dental appointments. Recent reports suggest that there are currently 8 million people waiting for an NHS dental appointment. This is an unfathomable amount of time to wait for treatment, and will sadly only result in overall declining dental health across the nation.
According to the Oral Health Foundation, ‘dentistry comes first on the list of the most delayed healthcare services in the UK.’ This is a saddening statistic, but currently the reality of the sector at this time.
Whilst most media publicity has focused on delays in public healthcare, and a looming NHS dental crisis this is equally having a knock on effect in the private sector also. COVID has caused havoc over the last 18 months, exacerbating the problem to even greater levels. We ourselves have seen unprecedented demand for dental care this summer which shows no signs of fading, even as the summer holidays draw to end.
There are a combination of factors that have left to this situation:
- The obvious accessibility issues at NHS clinics
- Surgeries being closed for 3 months of last year
- Limited operating capacities due to health and safety restrictions, resulting in fewer available appointments
- ‘Ping-demic’ incidences resulting in the unexpected isolation of both staff and patients, thereby causing unwanted cancellation of precious dental appointments.
From our perspective, there was really no other solution. Now that restrictions are loosening, we need to somehow address the problem, and this can only be done by increasing our capacity and extending our operating hours.
The Importance of Routine Dental Check-Ups
After experiencing an entire period of our lives when all normal activity was essentially put on hold, we can’t emphasise the importance of restoring a regular dental check-up routine. No more so than for the generation of the future, whose dental health has now been put in jeopardy.
Dentistry UK report that ‘millions of children could face years of dental decay as figures show those attending check-ups dropped by 50% during the first year of the pandemic.’ The situation has already become so bleak that the latest figures show tooth decay is the most common reason for children between the ages of five and nine to be admitted to hospital.
These such situations can be avoided completely if routine dental check-ups are in place. Children will learn the importance of at home hygiene routines and dentists will be able to take swift, non-invasive action if even the earliest signs of decay start to present.
Whilst protecting our young ones is of paramount priority, we also cannot ignore the importance of adult revisions. Cancer screening is a fundamental part of our routine check-ups. Since mouth cancer cases have now reached a record high in the UK (British Dental Journal) this testing process should be revered with as much respect as prostrate or breast cancer screening for the sake of our mortality.
Extending our schedule for dental appointments allows us to offer more general dental check-ups, thereby preventing the escalation of oral health problems for years to come.
Your first step towards a smile transformation
If your oral health was not enough reason to get on top of your dental appointments, you may be motivated by the cosmetic factor.
There has been an explosion of interest in cosmetic dental treatments in the last 2 years, with more and more patients wishing to improve and enhance their smile. If you are contemplating any form of aesthetic dentistry treatment e.g Invisalign, Composite Bonding, Dental Implants or even tooth whitening, you will need a good standard of dental health to begin. We hate to disappoint our patients by having to delay their desired treatments, due to addressing the underlying health issues first of all.
Furthermore, most of these treatments will require a series of x-rays to even begin assessment and your first set of scans can be covered in your routine dental appointment.
Whilst cosmetic procedures have become super advanced and efficient in recent years, treatment times will be compromised if there are gum or tooth health problems to begin. Therefore, if you are already one step ahead of the game and up to date with your regular dental appointments, any future plans for a smile transformation will be smooth, straightforward journey.
We hope you understand the importance of maintaining regular visits to your dentist, and we hope that by extending our opening hours you will find it easier to access more flexible dental appointments.
So, without any further ado, its over to you! Book your appointment today!
