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Friday 10th of July 2020

Dear patient, parent or guardian,

We hope you are all keeping well and looking forwards to life returning to “normal”.

The First Minister announced on Thursday that with the start of phase 3, dental practice would return to normal on Monday 13th of July. It wasn’t made clear that we can only see 20 patients per day and we should limit out treatment to emergencies only. We can now, however, do repairs. The limiting factors remain: social distancing, PPE and the rate of infection; the R number. We are closely following Scottish Government guidelines for your safety, health and well being.

There will be many patients who have not been seen for a long time and feel that due to exceptional circumstances, they should be seen as soon as possible. When the time comes, we will make every effort to make that happen. Equally, there will be many patients who will be very disappointed to find out that there is still a long wait ahead. We offer you our most sincere apologies and hope to see you in again as soon as possible. As yet there is no date for a return to routine/normal treatment. This, we hope, will start with phase 4 in the late summer/autumn.

We are still operating an emergency only phone service. If you are in pain, have a sharp wire digging in or lost or broken your retainer. You should contact us using the emergency number where you will be triaged and asked a short list of covid related questions. Provided you are low risk, you will either be given an appointment or placed on a waiting list to be seen at the first available opportunity.

Please do not call this number if you do not have an emergency.

We expect the phones to be very busy and wish to apologise and ask for your understanding during this difficult transition back to work. On no account must you vent your frustrations on our staff. We will do everything we possibly can to help but please remember that any abuse will not be tolerated.

We hope to be able to confirm a return to work date in the near future and keep you updated as far as we possibly can as we move through rapidly developing and evolving stages.

When the time comes, we will be contacting all of our patients by text with appointments. We do not expect to be using mail for the foreseeable future.

Stay safe and hope to see you soon.
Best wishes.
From all of us at Glasgow Orthodontics.