Booking Team opening time for Wednesday 16th September 2020
Following a system update, please be advised that the call centre telephone lines will open on Wednesday 16th September at the later time of 9.30am.
This will allow the team to ensure any technical difficulties can be reported/resolved prior to the opening of the lines.
Thank you for your patience.
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; bdh.bookings@bhamcommunity.nhs.uk. 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 bdh.bookings@bhamcommunity.nhs.uk.
Birmingham School of Dentistry - Student Patients
It is anticipated that appointments will recommence from mid-September for patients currently under the care of a student at Birmingham Dental Hospital. Patients have been assessed for risk and appointments will be 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 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 will be additional restrictions in place with some treatments not initially available, and appointment times/lengths may vary. Although management of some dental emergencies may be restricted on the open plan student clinics, patients will be given advice and support in preventing deterioration until these treatment items can be safely managed.
At present the self-referral process for screening clinics/registering as volunteer patient is suspended.
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.
For all dental specialty patients/student patients, if you wish to discuss any issues or concerns regarding your care, please contact the Dental Services Patient Experience Team on 0121 466 5319 or dental.complaints@nhs.net. The team are available between the hours of 8am – 4pm, Monday to Friday. Please note, if you are making contact to chase an appointment / referral, you will be re-directed to the booking team as they will be able to provide you with the most up-to-date information regarding clinics.
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.
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.
