What is COVID-19?
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that is caused by a type of virus called coronavirus. Coronavirus can be transmitted through droplets of saliva from the mouth or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can also be caught by touching objects which have been previously contaminated with the virus. It is therefore important we all follow the guidance to prevent the spread of the virus and in particular observe social distancing, have good cough hygiene and wash our hands thoroughly and often.
Why does COVID-19 affect your dental care with us?
We have a range of measures in place to reduce the risk of virus transmission and ensure the safety of our patients and staff. This includes for example, specialist personal protective equipment (PPE) for certain procedures and limiting the number of patients within our waiting areas. While these measures are very important they will reduce the number of patients we are able to see each day, which means we may take longer than usual to offer you an appointment.
Our clinical teams are working hard to see our patients in order of clinical priority and appointments are being issued on this basis. This applies to any new referrals received by us and for patients who were accepted prior to 23rd March 2020 or had appointments cancelled by us during the pandemic.
Our booking team will contact you as soon as we are able to offer you an appointment. In the meantime the easiest way to contact us with any general queries is by email; bchnt.dsd.bookings@nhs.net. Alternatively you can call us on 0121 466 5555 between 08:45-16:30, Monday – Friday (excluding bank holidays). Please note telephone lines may be extremely busy.
If you no longer require an appointment with our services, please contact us so that we can remove you from our waiting list. You can do this by emailing us at bchnt.dsd.bookings@nhs.net
Birmingham School of Dentistry - Student Patients
At present, student clinics are operating at a reduced capacity, prioritising patients currently under the care of a student at Birmingham Dental Hospital. Patients have been assessed for risk and appointments are prioritised in accordance with this process, as per all dental specialities. You will be contacted as soon as the team are able to facilitate an appointment for you. Please be advised that when seen, students will need to reassess all patients due to the time elapsed since the last appointment.
It is important to note that as student appointments take place on open plan clinics, there are some restrictions in place meaning appointment times/lengths may vary and patients are encouraged to attend alone. Although management of some dental emergencies may be restricted on some open plan student clinics, patients will be given advice and support in preventing deterioration until these treatment items can be safely managed.
At present screening clinics for self-referred patients are suspended with no further patients being added.
For any general appointment queries/updates, please contact our booking team on the contact details above. If you require urgent dental care, please see your clinical options below.
Patient Information Leaflets
Urgent Dental Care
Our patient advice sheets below contain frequent dental issues which may help you to alleviate some issues at home:
- If you still require assistance that is not contained in the above and are under the care of a General Dentist, we ask that you contact them regarding any immediate dental management, including clinical advice and obtaining any required medication, such as analgesics (pain-relief medication) or antibiotics.
- If you require further urgent treatment your Dental Team may then link you to an Urgent Dental Care Centre, as determined locally.
- If you are not under the care of a General Dentist and you are in pain/have an urgent dental need, please call NHS 111. Phone lines are 24/7, including bank holidays.
Community Dental Services
We are operating a limited service and will be contacting you to arrange future appointments. Please see attached updated telephone numbers for the clinics within our service.
Advice for Dental Practitioners/Specialist Dental Teams
Please be advised we are now accepting new routine referrals Please see our referrals page for ways to refer in to our services: https://www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk/patients-public/dental-services/dental-referrals-for-professionals/_
Please be aware that due to reduced capacity and high demand within our services, there may be a significant delay in providing an assessment appointment to your patient. During this time we request that General Dental Practitioners continue to monitor any patients referred to us and provide ongoing advice and treatment where possible
If you are a General Dental Practitioner or Specialist Dental Team requiring information on urgent dental care support for your patients, please click here.