By now all our patients should have received a letter regarding Steven’s retirement from the Practice next month.

We have been lucky enough to find two local dentists, Drs. Smriti and Shash Bhakta, a lovely, highly qualified husband and wife team to take on the Practice and carry on your care.  We can’t recommend them highly enough.

Jette, Jacqui our hygienist and the rest of the staff will all remain although Jette will be reducing the days that she works to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

If you need any clarification regarding your on-going care, then please don’t hesitate to contact Reception.

Please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period

Monday 26th Dec             CLOSED

Tuesday 27th Dec            CLOSED

Wednesday 28th Dec       1.00pm – 5.00pm

Thursday 29th Dec          10.00am – 4.00pm

Friday 30th Dec              10.00am – 2.00pm

Monday 2nd Jan              CLOSED

Tuesday 3rd Jan              Normal opening hours resume at 8.00am

If you are a registered patient, and have an acute dental emergency out of hours, then please telephone 111 and the operator will put you in touch with the dentist on call. This service operates between the hours of 6.00pm and 8am weekdays and 24 hours on Weekends and Bank Holidays.

We have just received a lovely letter from the organisers of Fulford Show Tombola.  We are so pleased to learn that our prize contributions have helped you to raise a substantial amount for local charities.  Well done ladies!

It’s been a while since our last update so there are one or two things to update you on.  Melissa has now returned from her period of maternity leave and you will see her around the practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Jette has recently been over to deliver a seminar in Harrogate, to fellow dentists, to continue to spread the word about TMD and the importance of correcting bite disorders.  Finally we are all busy gathering things together to donate to this years Samaritans Purse Shoebox Appeal.  Each year, as a team, we manage to fill at least 6 shoe boxes with goodies to give to children in the world who would otherwise receive nothing at Christmas.  A really deserving cause that we all like to support.

Now that Helen has commenced a period of adoption leave from the Practice we are delighted to advise that Lynn Wilson has joined us to cover Helen’s period of absence.  Lynn brings with her a wealth of experience and will predominantly be helping out on Reception and in Steven’s surgery.

Please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period

Monday 21^st Dec                   Normal hours

Tuesday 22^nd Dec                 Normal hours

Wednesday 23^rd Dec             Hygienist only 8.00am – 3.00pm

This year the Practice will be closed for treatment over the Christmas period.  However telephone calls will still be answered during the hours detailed below in order to schedule routine or emergency appointments.

Thursday 24^th Dec           9.30am – 1.30pm

Friday 25^th Dec               CLOSED

Monday 28^th Dec             CLOSED

Tuesday 29^th Dec            10.00am – 4.00pm

Wednesday 30^th Dec        10.00am – 4.00pm

Thursday 31^st Dec            9.30am – 1.30pm

Friday 1^st Jan                  CLOSED

Monday 4^th Jan                Normal opening hours resume at 8.00am

If you are a registered patient, and have an acute dental emergency out of hours, then please telephone 111 and the operator will put you in touch with the dentist on call. This service operates between the hours of 6.00pm and 8am weekdays and 24 hours on Weekends and Bank Holidays.

We are delighted to announce that Melissa gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Daisy Matilda Mary Atkinson on 13th October.  Congratulations to all the family!

We would just like to say how very proud we all are about the wonderful comments we have received since we launched the Friends & Family survey in April.  The feedback has been amazing with everyone that has taken part rating us positively.

Thank you!

Given the amount of calls we have received over recent weeks it would appear that we are one of the few, if not the only dental practice in York that is prepared to offer one off treatment to non-patients who present with problems that whilst urgent do not warrant treatment by the emergency dentist.  We are a private practice and only see non-patients on that basis, but if we have time in the appointment book we will always be happy to help if we can.  Those we have helped in the past include students from the university, friends and family of patients who have been visiting York and a contractor who was working in the local area.  The majority of these people already have their own dentist back home and just needed help during the time they were in York.  If you think we can help, please just give us a call or don’t hesitate to pass on our details to friends, family and colleagues in case of need.

Please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period:

• 24th December                                  09.30 to 13.30
• 25th & 26th December                       Closed
• 29th & 30th December                       10.00 to 16.00
• 31st December                                   09.30 to 13.30
• 1st January                                        Closed
• 2nd January                                       Normal opening times resume

Friday saw us having our annual training in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. It is always a stark reminder to all of us that 30000 people a year have heart attacks outside hospitals and that knowing how to help is reassuring. As you are all aware we carry oxygen and a defibrillator in the rare event someone gets poorly on the premises. Meanwhile we all need to keep exercising to keep well!

Congratulations to Jo, Adam and Ella on the birth of Alice on the 14th August 2014 – mum and baby are both doing well!

Congratulations to Rachael and Kev on the birth of Tamara Macy Birch on the 29th May 2014.  Having arrived 8 weeks early, Tamara gave everyone a bit of a scare but is doing well and is now at home with her very proud parents ……… even though she wasn’t expected for another 3 weeks!

On the staffing front, we are also delighted to welcome Nicky Clarke to the team.  While Jo is away on her maternity leave, Nicky will be supporting Jacqui in the Hygienist surgery every Wednesday.

I am sure that many of you will have noticed by now that both Jo and Rachael are pregnant. They will be leaving us in July to commence their maternity leave.

This will obviously open up a couple of vacancies, the first of which has already been filled by Katie Westmoreland who has joined us as a trainee dental nurse and in due course will be supporting both Steven and Jacqui in surgery.  We’ll keep you posted on the next appointment which will be announced shortly.

We have recently been approached by a number of students who were all struggling to find help with dental problems that whilst urgent, did not warrant treatment by the emergency dentist.

We were happy to treat them and will see any patient who has suffered trauma to their teeth or needs urgent care or treatment and is unable to return to their own Dentist.  However we do only accept private patients so if you are looking for treatment under the NHS please refer to the NHS Choices website or call 111 for assistance.

If you think we can help, please give us a call.

This year the Practice will be closed for treatment over the Christmas period.  However telephone calls will still be answered each working day in order to schedule routine or emergency appointments.  Normal opening hours resume at on Thursday 2nd January at 10:00am.

If you are a registered patient, and have an acute dental emergency out of hours, then please telephone 111 and the operator will put you in touch with the dentist on call. This service operates between the hours of 6.00pm and 8am weekdays and 24 hours on Weekends and Bank Holidays.

After a lot of laughter, encouragement and hard work we all managed to complete the tree top course at Go Ape in Dalby Forest during our recent team day out. The sense of achievement for everyone was overwhelming in the end.

Having recently donated some prizes to the Fulford Show we were delighted not only to receive messages of thanks from the shows organisers but also a thank you card from one of the prize winners. It is lovely to know that the gifts were so well appreciated.

It’s all change again!

Regrettably for us, Nicki has now left the Practice having received an offer of full time employment that she felt was too good an opportunity to miss. In her place, Helen is taking some time out of surgery to work on Reception with Melissa and Pauline has increased her hours to work along-side Jette in surgery 4 days a week.

With effect from 12^th August you may notice a change when you enter the Practice.  Melissa will be hanging up her nursing whites for a few months to begin ‘job sharing’ the Reception role with Nicki.

Nicki will be in on Monday, Thursday and Friday and Melissa will be covering Tuesday and Wednesday.  But whatever the day the one thing you can be sure of is that you will still be greeted with a smile….as always!

I have recently volunteered as a dental nurse in El Jadia in Morocco. This was my first volunteering trip abroad, least to say I was very nervous about what I would experience, but also excited for the adventure. It took a while for it to sink in that not everyone gets treatment the way we do in the UK (we are privileged!) and there were people out there who didn’t even own tooth brushes or tooth paste, so they didn’t even get a fighting chance to prevent infection and severe decay of the teeth.

We spent time in a clinic in El Jadia (a port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco) which had been funded through various charities. The rest of our week consisted of going to schools and setting up out reach clinics in the class rooms. We came only to see the children and it was heart-breaking when we had to turn a few adults away, due to not having the time to see them. We worked long days and the work was very challenging, but rewarding.

In our week there we saw 2,000 children and each of them had one to one tooth brushing instruction and a tooth brush and tooth paste were given. We carried out over 400 extractions only managing to do a few fillings and only at the clinic which had a proper equipped surgery. It was hard doing treatment when knowing that in the UK we could have done more to restore their smile but you didn’t have the time or equipment over there.

We worked with numerous Moroccan dentists, nurses and translators that had all given their time and skills for free to help us in our mission. I was in a fantastic team of 10 which made the whole experience more enjoyable, especially when the days were filled with fright and cries, it was nice to have such a close team to share laughter with at the end of a long session.

I really enjoyed my time working in Morocco. The feeling of knowing you have made a difference to so many children and all the smiles, cuddles and kisses you got after they had their treatment, even though for them the dentist was a traumatic experience. The feeling was breath taking.

The whole experience was fantastic as well as eye opening, I feel the experience has improved my skills as a dental nurse, as I have had to work in a chaotic environment and improvise when you don’t always have the correct equipment to hand, and also having to learn their language to communicate. I also feel more confident when reassuring and comforting children, more than what I would do here in the UK as our children are so good and happy to come to the dentist. The children in Morocco were terrified of the dentist and treatment but were sograteful we were there to help them when there was such a desperate need.

Rachael would like to thank everybody who has contributed to her fundraising efforts ahead of her work with Dentaid and Operation Smile Morocco in May. Dentaid set Rachael a challenging individual fund raising target of £1100 by the end of March to support both her trip and the work that Dentaid undertakes. Rachael’s ‘just giving’ website has now passed this milestone and will help to fund the valuable work that Dentaid carry out all around the world.

Thank you again!

Various posters and collection boxes have now appeared around the practice promoting the work of Dentaid. Our very own Rachael French is one of only 3 nurses selected from across the UK to work on Dentaid’s latest project with their partner Operation Smile Morocco. We’re really proud that Rachael has been chosen and are supporting her to raise as much money as possible for the charity before she heads out to Morocco in May for a week of ‘very’ hard work treating children who would otherwise have no access to dental care of any kind. If you would also like to support Rachael or the work of Dentaid in general, all donations will be gratefully received. Please go to www.justgiving.com/Rachael-French.

On the 4th February, Jacqui had the fabulous honour of being appointed a Freeman of the City of York. This gives Jacqui some rather bizarre privileges which predominantly involve grazing livestock around city although she assures us that we won’t see her tending cattle around Tower Field anytime soon!

Jette has been studying hard over the last few years towards her Masters in Restorative Dentistry. As a Practice we are delighted that Jette has now received confirmation that she has passed and is just waiting to find out at what level. Well done!

Regrettably Sandie, who has been doing a sterling job on Reception whilst covering Melissa’s maternity leave, has now left the team to take up a permanent position much closer to her home. Sandie leaves with our blessing and we wish her all the best in her new role.

In her place Nichola Gage (Nicki) will be greeting everyone when they enter the Practice. Nicki brings with her lots of Reception experience and is looking forward to getting to know all of our patients.

We are delighted to announce that Melissa is now the very proud mum of baby Alfie, who was born safe and well on the 25th June 2012.

Congratulations!

We hope you like it. Please let us know what you think when you’re next in as we want to ensure the site meets all your needs.

Although many of you will already be aware, we can now officially announce that Melissa will be leaving us shortly to have a baby. The brave lady who will be stepping into Melissa’s shoes when she takes her maternity leave is Sandie Linfoot. Sandie has joined us as a Receptionist and brings with her lots of experience in office management and administration which will enable her to look after all your needs on the front desk. This will then free up Helen and Rachael to be able to cover Melissa’s clinical responsibilities.

Also, whilst in the celebratory spirit there is more exciting news from the team. Pauline and Helen have recently got engaged to their respective partners Phil and Mike – our congratulations to them all!

Given the current economic climate, we are pleased to be able to advise that there will be no increase in our fees during 2012. Whilst we hope this will help a little with your financial commitments for the coming year, we would also like to remind all of our patients that we do offer a payment plan to help spread the cost of your routine dental treatment across 12 monthly instalments.

Club Membership is open to all patients at the Practice and covers the cost of annual check-ups, routine Hygienist visits and affords discounts on many courses of treatment, all for £22.87 per month.  If you would like more information please refer to the Payment Methods section on the website, or contact Reception for more details or to join.