Practice Policies

Scheduling Appointments:
Where possible, we endeavour to provide patients with an appointment time that suits their schedule during hours of business, as follows;
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8:00am – 5:00pm
Tuesday and Thursday 8:30am – 7:00pm
Weekends & Public Holidays – Closed

Confirmation of Appointments:
Appointments are deemed confirmed upon booking however, we offer a courtesy reminder 48 and 24 hours prior to the appointment via SMS (text message), email and/or phone. Please inform reception of your preferred method of contact. Whilst we make every effort to contact patients to confirm their appointment, on occasion we may not be successful. We still however expect all patients to arrive for their scheduled appointment and failing to do so may result in a late fee.

Notice of Cancellations:
As a general courtesy to other patients and the practice, we require a minimum notice of one (1) business day for all changes to booked appointments, where possible. Cancellations can only be accepted by phoning or emailing the practice directly. We are unable to cancel appointments via our automated SMS (text message) system. Failure to provide one business days’ notice of a cancellation may incur a $50 short notice cancellation fee. This fee is charged on a case by case basis.

Cancellation Policy:
Patients who repeatedly cancel their appointments will be contacted via email outlining the number of appointments, total time cancelled and the importance of committing to a booked appointment. We will attempt to contact patients who fail to attend without notice via phone at the time of the appointment. In addition, a courtesy email will be sent informing them of their missed appointment time and an offer to reschedule made. For patients who repeatedly fail to attend, a second and finally a third email will be issued outlining the conditions of rescheduling further treatment. This may involve a deposit to be paid at the time of booking or in some instances, a request for the patient to seek treatment elsewhere.

After 5pm Appointments:
These appointment times are high priority and very popular with our patients. To ensure these appointment times are utilised efficiently, we request a minimum of 48 hours notice for changes to these appointments. Any changes to appointments during these times will incur a non-refundable deposit of $100 to be paid prior to rebooking at these peak times. If no further changes are made to the next appointment any deposits paid will be deducted from the day’s treatment. Alternatively, a different appointment time (not in the peak / high priority zone) may be scheduled with no deposit required, provided the cancellation was received outside the one business day window.

Emergency Care:
Should you have a dental emergency (severe tooth ache, swelling or uncontrolled bleeding) we will endeavour to offer an appointment on the day with one of our dentists (this may not be the dentist you usually see). This will need to be booked around other appointments already scheduled so times offered may be limited. Due to the nature of emergencies, we kindly ask that patients requiring emergency care are flexible with their time to enable us to provide the required care to all our patients. For appointment requests on the day, we require patients contact the practice prior to 10am. We offer an emergency service over the weekend for our registered patients only (call out fees apply).

Financials:
Payment for treatment must be made on the day unless a payment plan has been arranged through one of our third party finance companies. We can help facilitate in obtaining credit through Denticare, Zip Money & Afterpay, however hold no responsibility for financial decisions or their outcomes. Please ensure you read the services terms and conditions prior to accepting any financial credit. For unpaid accounts extending beyond 30 days without contact from the patient, we reserve the right to refer the matter to our debt collection agency. Any fees incurred during this process will be passed on to the patient.

Our Duty of Care:
It is our legal, professional and ethical obligation as oral health care providers to inform our patients of any diagnosed, incomplete treatment plans and when continuing hygiene care appointments are due. This is to prevent the progression of disease, reduce the occurrence of emergencies and of course additional time and money needed to be spent on preventable oral diseases. We will make every effort to contact patients via phone, post, email and or SMS should our system notify us of any outstanding incomplete treatment. We will endeavour to make up to three attempts to contact patients. Should we be unsuccessful, it becomes the responsibility of the patient to contact the practice to continue with treatment. Patients may request their file to become inactive should they wish to not be contacted in the future. We reserve the right to refuse treatment to any patient without notice and reason should there be breaches of our practice policies.

Warranty of Treatment: Our dentists are dedicated to giving you the highest quality treatment and services, therefore, have chosen to take on the responsibility of offering warranty for their treatment independent of the practice they work within. This means another dentist is not obligated to warranty another dentist’s work, nor is the practice owner held liable to warranty services undertaken within our practice.