Attendance Policy

Surgery time is valuable so that we can serve the needs of all our patients. With this in mind, it is important we have an attendance policy.

Dentist Appointments - Private

Not attending your appointment may result in your dentist applying a charge to your account for the missed appointment – this is to partially recoup some of the surgery overheads.
Rescheduling or cancelling with less than 2 working days’ notice is treated the same as not attending.
Exams carry a late cancellation fee of £20 per visit.
Treatment carries a late cancellation fee of £108 per hour.
Your dentist will carefully consider your attendance history and the reasons given for attendance when considering if a charge is appropriate. Should they apply a fee, they will inform you by telephone or in writing.

Not attending, rescheduling, or cancelling with less than 2 working days’ notice will lead to us writing to you.
We operate a simple 3-strikes policy:
The first letter outlines this policy.
The second letter outlines this policy again, as well as the fact that wasting surgery time once more will mean we can no longer see you.
The third letter states you should start seeking a dentist elsewhere.
We currently have an NHS waiting list and this 3-strike policy allows us to care for other children who are waiting to be seen.

Rescheduling or cancelling a hygiene appointment with less than 7 days’ notice is considered a late cancellation.
A fixed late cancellation fee of £28 is always applied.
This is necessary as historically the viability of the hygienist service was threatened by cancellations. Both the hygienist and the nurse require paying even when a patient fails their appointment.