Written out in full rather than hidden behind a link, because most of it is short and it is the sort of thing people quite reasonably want to read before they hand over their details. If anything here is unclear, ask Colin Reed at the practice and he will explain it in ordinary words.
Last reviewed January 2026 · Reviewed once a year and whenever we change how the practice works
We keep a clinical record for every patient. It is the single most important document in the building, because we cannot treat you safely without it and because we are required to keep one. It contains:
We do not hold your bank card details. Card payments are taken through a terminal at the desk and we never see or store the full number.
Current records are held in our practice management system on a server in the locked office at the practice, with an encrypted backup taken daily. Older paper notes are in locked cabinets in the same office. The building is alarmed outside opening hours.
Access to the system is by individual named login. The clinical team can see clinical records; the three members of reception and management staff can see contact details, appointments and payment records, and can see clinical notes only where they need to in order to do their job. Every access is logged against the person who made it.
There are only four reasons anything on your record is ever looked at:
We do not sell information. We do not share it for advertising. We do not send marketing messages of any kind, we do not have a mailing list, and we will not be adding one.
You consent to each piece of treatment separately, and you can withdraw that consent at any point, including part-way through a course of work. Nothing is started until you have agreed to it in writing on a costed plan.
Keeping the record itself is a different matter, and is not something we can do only if you agree, because we are obliged to keep it. That means you can decline treatment, decline x-rays, decline reminders and decline referral, but you cannot ask us to treat you without keeping notes.
Clinical records are kept for a long time, and that is deliberate rather than lazy. A crown fitted in 2011 and failing in 2026 is much easier to deal with when somebody can look up what was underneath it and why that material was chosen.
Adult records are kept for eleven years after your last appointment. Records for patients first treated as children are kept until their twenty-fifth birthday, or eleven years after the last appointment, whichever is later. When that period is up, paper notes are shredded by a licensed contractor and digital records are deleted from the live system and, within ninety days, from the backups as well.
Everything else is kept for as short a period as is sensible. Enquiries that do not lead to registration are deleted after six months. Recruitment applications from unsuccessful candidates are deleted after six months. Payment records are kept for seven years because our accountant needs them to be.
We do not keep a record of people who ring, ask a question and do not book. Reception takes no note of those calls at all beyond what is needed to ring you back.
| Record | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Adult clinical record | 11 years |
| Record started in childhood | To age 25 |
| X-ray images | With the record |
| Clinical photographs and scans | With the record |
| Payment and plan records | 7 years |
| Enquiries that do not lead to registration | 6 months |
| Complaint correspondence | 11 years |
| Unsuccessful job applications | 6 months |
| Encrypted backups | 90 days |
Periods run from your last appointment, or from the date of the document where there is no appointment attached to it.
All of these are free, none of them requires a reason, and asking for any of them will not change how you are treated here in any way whatsoever.
Tell reception and we will switch you to letters, or turn reminders off entirely. It takes about ten seconds and it is a single setting on your record.
Bear in mind that reminders are the only thing standing between a lot of people and a forgotten appointment, so if you turn them off, do keep your own note. We will not chase you if you do not come.
Recall messages when a check-up falls due can be switched off separately from appointment reminders.
You can withdraw consent for any treatment at any point, including part-way through a course of work and including in the middle of an appointment. Raise your left hand and everything stops.
We will explain what stopping at that point means practically — a tooth left with a temporary filling needs finishing eventually — but the decision is yours and nobody will argue with it or make you feel awkward about it.
You may also ask to transfer to another practice at any time, and we will send your records on with your written consent.
This website sets no cookies. It runs no analytics. It loads no fonts, no scripts, no images and nothing else from anywhere other than the page you are reading. There is no advertising network involved, no social media button that reports back, and no third party with any visibility of your visit at all.
That is not a boast, it is simply what a practice website needs to be. The pages are plain HTML with the styling written into them, which is why they load quickly and why there is nothing here to consent to.
The enquiry form on our contact page asks for three things: your name, your email address and your message. Nothing you type is stored by the page itself. If you would rather not use a web form at all, telephone the practice and reception will take the same details down on paper.
Please do not put medical information into the form. We ask for the general shape of what you need — a first appointment, a hygiene visit, a question about a plan — and we take your medical history properly, in person, on a form designed for it.
We have tried to keep this site readable: a reasonable text size, plain colours with adequate contrast, headings in a sensible order, no moving elements and nothing that flashes. Every page works with the keyboard alone and has a skip link at the top.
If you use a screen reader or a magnifier and something here does not work properly, telephone the practice and tell us what went wrong. We will fix it if we can, and in the meantime somebody will read out or send you whatever information you were trying to get to.
Large-print copies of our fee list and any treatment plan are available on request at no charge.
The practical terms on which we treat people. None of it is unusual and all of it is what reception would tell you at the desk.
Appointments are held for you personally. We ask for at least one full working day’s notice if you need to cancel, so that the time can be offered to somebody waiting or in pain. Where appointments are repeatedly missed without notice we may ask for a deposit against future bookings, and we will always discuss that with you before doing it.
If we are running late, reception will tell you when you arrive and offer to rebook rather than letting you sit and wonder. If we have to cancel or move your appointment, we will ring you as early as we can and give you priority on the next suitable slot.
Payment is due on the day of treatment unless a staged arrangement has been agreed in advance. We accept debit and credit cards and bank transfer. The practice does not hold cash on the premises overnight.
Written estimates are valid for three months. A treatment plan lasting more than one appointment can be paid in stages as the work is carried out, and we do not charge interest on staged payments for work done here. We do not use a finance company.
If treatment turns out to be more involved than the estimate allowed for, we stop, explain and get your agreement before continuing. The figure you were quoted is the figure you pay for the work described; laboratory costs, materials and the follow-up check for that item are already included in it.
Everything on this site is general information about our practice. It is not advice about your own teeth, and no web page can substitute for somebody looking in your mouth. Fees are correct at the date shown and may change. Nothing here forms a contract until treatment has been agreed in writing at the practice.
We stand behind what we make and fit. Specifically:
These arrangements do not apply where a restoration has been damaged by accident, by grinding for which a guard was recommended and declined, or where recommended follow-up appointments have not been attended. They are in addition to your ordinary legal rights rather than instead of them.
Plan payments are collected by direct debit on the first working day of the month. There is no joining fee and no minimum term beyond the first three months. Unused appointments roll forward within the same membership year but not beyond it.
You can move onto a plan at any point and off it again with a month’s notice. If your dentist thinks you no longer need the higher level of hygiene visits, we will move you down a plan rather than quietly leaving you on the more expensive one.
Tell us, and preferably tell us early. The overwhelming majority of concerns are settled on the spot by mentioning them to the dentist or nurse at the time, and nobody here would rather hear about a problem six months later from somebody else.
If you would rather not raise it with the person who treated you, ask for Colin Reed, our practice manager, or write to him at 14 Marlow Street, Ashcombe Green, Northbrook AS4 2QP. You can also email reception and ask for it to be passed to him. You do not need to put it formally or use any particular words.
Raising a complaint will not affect the treatment you receive here. That should not need saying and we are saying it anyway, because it is the thing people worry about most and it is the reason a lot of complaints never get made.
If you are complaining on behalf of somebody else, we will need their written consent before we can discuss their record with you, unless you already hold formal authority to act for them.
One person handles all of it, which is one of the few genuine advantages of a practice this size.
Colin handles record requests, corrections, deletion requests, complaints, bills and membership plans. If he does not know the answer he will find out rather than guess.