Our Cross Infection Control Promise

Minimising the risk of infection for patients and dentists at our Wickford practice.

Cygnet Dental Wickford LogoViruses are currently headline news and whilst most of us will have a viral infection from time to time, most of these will be usually relatively minor. Even with a relatively mild virus though, it is still important to take them seriously and limit the risk of cross infection.

As you would expect, the team at the Cygnet Dental Practice come into contact with a lot of patients each week and obviously we do all that we can to protect both the patient and members of our dental team.

What we do

Even before the current headlines, our dentists have always  taken the issue of cross infection seriously and worn the appropriate protection. All of our dentists will wear disposable face masks as well as disposable surgical gloves when treating a patient. These are safely disposed of after examining or treating each patient as viruses and bacteria may linger on them.

Understandably, most of the equipment and implements that we use are not disposable as they are very sophisticated and are therefore expensive. These are thoroughly sterilised though in order to kill any germs and bacteria that might linger on them. We will never use the same equipment on different patients without it having undergone this thorough sterilisation process in between.

Finally, our Wickford practice is kept thoroughly clean, not only in the general reception areas but especially the treatment rooms which regularly undergo a deep cleaning process to keep them as hygienic as possible.

Finally, you may have seen reports that there is a shortage of face masks following the present situation. Currently, this is not an issue for us but we will make alternative arrangements should it become necessary.

What can you do?

Cross infection works both ways, both from dentist to patient but also from patient to dentist. We therefore ask our patients to be aware and help us to keep the spread of all  infections to an absolute minimum.

Perhaps the most obvious thing to state is that if you have an illness and also have a dental appointment due, please consider whether you need to cancel your appointment and make a new one once the illness has passed. Attending the practice with a virus may spread it not only to our team but also any other patients, including any children and potentially vulnerable elderly patients that may be present in our waiting room. Make sure too that you take care of yourself and if you feel unwell, you should call your doctor for further advice.

You should always be careful if you cough or sneeze to do so in as hygienic a manner as possible. Do also make use of any hand cleaning gels that we have at our practice. In fact, as a general rule, it is a good idea to keep one of these on your person and use after you have been somewhere where infected hands might have been such as on a bus or a supermarket trolley.

In the event that you do have to cancel your dental appointment, please make sure to rearrange it. Leaving too long between appointments is a bad idea and problems can worsen in that additional time, possibly leading to more extensive treatment being needed.

We hope that these precautions will help to minimise any transmittable health risk and keep our patients healthy and able to receive the treatments that they need.

If you feel unwell and are unsure whether to cancel or not, our reception team are happy to offer advice. You can reach them on 01268 733078.