Covid-19 update July 2020 Smile Store

Dear Patients,

With the outbreak of the novel corona virus pandemic, Smile Store – The Dental Specialists have postponed ongoing courses of treatments and have cancelled hundreds of appointments in the interest of safety of patients and staff. Since mid-March appointments were strictly limited to extreme emergencies only.

We have since closely monitored guidance from health authorities and have developed our road map to reopening our clinic for patients in need of dental care.

Smile Store are now open for specialist treatments (implant surgeries, periodontal treatments and orthodontics), as well as for general and urgent dental care. While we are happy to be able to resume planned and postponed treatments at this stage, we are also cautious about the pandemic that is still not over.

May we suggest and urge our patients to make an appointment now to be seen by our dentists or hygienist soon, before the country goes again into a complete lock-down due to a possible second wave.

In the interest of public and staff safety, following rules apply until further notice:

1. No walk-ins are allowed; only patients who have an appointment will be let into the practice.
2. Anybody entering the practice must wear a mask while outside of the treatment rooms (while waiting, on reception, etc.) so make sure to bring your own mask. You might have recently heard about supply bottlenecks around PPE and we can only source limited quantities; the limited stock we have we’ll need to use in the treatment areas. Secondly, you’ll need to wear your mask before you enter the practice.
3. Hands must be sanitised and temperatures measured when entering the practice.
4. Covid questionnaire has to be completed to check present/previous symptoms
5. Not every treatment type is available at this stage

While prices for PPE have gone through the roof recently, we have sourced an adequate stock and continue to source more of same. We have also implemented a set of measures to ensure patient and staff health and safety: increased diary blocks to minimize patient contact in waiting areas, installed plasma air purifiers for treatment areas, added single use and autoclavable protective equipment to our treatment protocols to name but a few.

Smile Store – The Dental Specialists are renowned for offering high quality dentistry at very reasonable fees. Unfortunately, the consequences of this pandemic, and the added safety measures to ensure that patients have a safe environment while being treated, all come at an additional cost. A cost that was not foreseen or calculated when developing our affordable fees schedule; a cost that we have no choice but to share with our patients. Therefore, a €20 Covid–19 emergency fee will be added to each and every appointment going forward.
Alternatively, to avoid this extra costs, patients are more then welcome to continue pausing their treatment and wait until this charge can be removed again; as this fee is a temporary one and will only be applied while necessary. We will be in a position to remove this fee entirely once the pandemic is over and life as well as PPE prices go back to normal.

In the event of an extreme emergency, where you are experiencing a lot of pain, heavy bleeding that does not stop, or have swellings, please phone the practice on 021-4320004 (outside of business hours on our emergency number which you can find on your treatment plan and leave a message) or email us at reception@smilestore.ie. If needed, we will get back to you as soon as possible.