Only 6 more shopping days until Christmas!

Why not treat a loved one to the gift of better oral health this Christmas?

We currently have Oral B 1000 brushes in stock for the special price of £33.75.

Please call our reception team or pop in for yours today!

In the Christmas Spirit!

Wessington Way Dental Practice want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Please click the link for your Christmas E-card:

Merry Christmas from Wessington Way 

Improvements at Wessington Way

There has been some major housekeeping going on at the practice in the last couple of months!

We have been very busy renewing all four of our dental chairs. They are state of the art and very comfy! We have also been renewing our computer systems to allow us to use the latest dental software.

These are the first of many changes we have planned at Wessington Way. You can look forward to a new look practice in 2014. Watch this space!

Team News

A big congratulations to our dental nurse, Naomi Iley, on passing the NVQ level 3 in Dental Nursing. Well done Naomi!

We would also like to welcome back our nurse, Karen Russell, who has been on maternity leave since giving birth to daughter, Lily.

Christmas Shopping

Have you tried Practice Plan Perks yet? To help ease the financial strain of this time of year, make the most of your Wessington Way membership by taking advantage of the on-line savings website, Practice Plan Perks.

Click here for great savings!

For those that have not already used the site, all you need is your Wessington Way patient reference number. This can be found on your membership card but don't worry if you don't have it, just give the reception team a call and they will be happy to help. Simply enter your number on the website and browse to your heart's content! There are currently offers available for John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and ASDA to name just a few.

If you have any questions about Practice Plan Perks, please do not hesitate to call or email us.

EROSION EXPLOSION!

When you attend for your dental health check, one of the things your dentist will check for is tooth damage caused by acid erosion. In the last few years, we have noticed a big increase in the number patients showing signs of acid wear. Please read below for advice on how to reduce your risk.

Advice to Reduce Dental Erosion

 

 Acid wear of teeth and tooth hyper sensitivity is not a rare occurrence in today’s society.

• 29% of 18-35 year olds in Europe have significant tooth wear.
• 2 in 5 young adults have tooth sensitivity. 

 Erosion of teeth is associated with fresh fruit, fruit drinks, smoothies, isotonic drinks, carbonated drinks, alcohol consumption, fruit yoghurts and tea. Also stomach problems, leading to heartburn, can cause tooth erosion.

 

Anything that reduces salivary flow can also lead to an increased risk of acid erosion. This can be a problem for smokers and patients on certain medications.

 

In Order to Reduce Your Risk of Erosion

 

1.Decrease the amount of acidic foods and drinks in your diet.

 

2.We do not want to stop you eating healthy fruit therefore we advise a reduction in frequency of meals and snacks. Try to have fruit based foods and drinks all together rather than snacking throughout the day.

 

3.Drink acidic/erosive drinks through a straw.

 

4.Stop smoking.

 

5.Use fluoride mouth rinses between brushing.

 

Treatments for erosion/hyper sensitivity are available from ourselves. These can include:

 

• Sealing teeth
• Fluoride treatments
• Filling in eroded cavities
• Desensitisers

Christmas opening hours

Merry Christmas from Wessington Way Dental Practice!

 

 

If you wish to make an appointment over the Christmas period, or have a dental emergency, please see below for our Christmas opening hours.

 

Monday 23rd December   8am - 8pm

Christmas Eve                  8am - 5pm

Christmas Day                  Closed

Boxing Day                      Closed

Friday 27th December      8am - 3pm

Saturday 28th December  Closed

Sunday 29th December    Closed

Monday 30th December   8am - 8pm

New Year's Eve                8am - 5pm

New Year's Day                Closed

Thursday 2nd January       Opening hours as normal

If you have a dental emergency outside of our opening hours, Please contact NHS Direct on 111.

 

 

 

Movember

During the month of November, our dentist Richard is growing a rather fetching moustache as part of the charity event, Movember.

This is to raise awareness and money for the men's health charity, Prostate Cancer UK.

We are collecting donations in practice throughout the month.

You may not want to hear this but...

...there are only 68 shopping days left until Christmas!! To help ease the strain of this expensive this of year, make the most of your Wessington Way membership by taking advantage of the on-line savings website, Practice Plan Perks.

Click here for great savings!

For those that have not already used the site, all you need is your Wessington Way patient reference number. This can be found on your membership card but don't worry if you don't have it, just give the reception team a call and they will be happy to help. Simply enter your number on the website and browse to your heart's content! There are currently offers available for John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and ASDA to name just a few.

If you have any questions about Practice Plan Perks, please do not hesitate to call or email us.

Welcome back Amanda

Wessington Way Dental Practice would like to give a warm welcome back to our Practice Manager, Amanda Oliver, who returned from maternity leave last week. She has had a busy year taking care of baby Sophia!

New to Wessington Way

We are pleased to announce a range of new services are available to you during your visits to Wessington Way Dental Practice.

All of our patients can now use free WIFI at the practice, in case you would like to bring your work along with you (or perhaps just enjoy a quick game of Angry Birds)

Each dental surgery is now equipped with an Ipod docking station. If you wish to play your own music during your dental appointments, we will be happy to do this for you.

Finally, do not despair when your precious mobile phone runs out of battery! We have a universal phone charger  to use, for your convenience.

Please ask a team member for you wish to take advantage of any of these complimentary services.

We have done it again!

Wessington Way are delighted to announce that we have been re-accredited with the national standard for customer service, the Customer First award.

The whole team took part in the assessment, which deemed that we were fully complaint with all 30 of their standards. These ranged from how we identify the needs of our customers to our market awareness to how we enable the team to provide excellent customer service.

When you visit Wessington Way Dental Practice, you can rely on the fact that you are at the heart of everything we do!

Do you suffer from jaw pain or headaches?

Tooth grinding or clenching (known as bruxism) is a very common problem that affects up to 80% of people at some point in their lives. Many people are unaware that they have a problem as it is often something that they do unconsciously or whilst sleeping. It is sometimes, but not always attributed to stress.

Bouts of bruxism can pass quickly for some, but for others it can be a chronic condition with many short and long term effects. These effects can include:

• Headaches and migraines
• Facial pain
• Ear ache
• Stiff neck and shoulders
• Sleep disturbance (For partners as well as sufferers!)
• Broken and/or mobile teeth
• Tooth wear
• Receding gums 
• Limited opening of the mouth
• Clicking or popping jaw joints

These symptoms can become quite serious and have a negative impact on a person's quality of life. Many people seek advise from their GP when they have these symptoms but usually the best person to speak to, is your dentist.

In the past, patients would have been given a soft splint to wear over all of the lower teeth overnight. Whilst this was effective in protecting your teeth from damage and wear, it does not provide relief to the over-worked facial muscles affected by clenching and grinding. 

Clinical studies have shown that a much more effective treatment is a new-generation of splint know as a NTI splint. This is worn over the front teeth only, making it more comfortable than traditional splints. It works be reducing the intensity of the force being used by the facial muscles when clenching and grinding, rather than simply acting acting as a barrier between teeth.

At Wessington Way, we have been making NTI splints for over two years, which have provided relief from symptoms for our patients. 

An NTI splint can be made in one visit to the practice, taking about 30 minutes to do so. If you think you may be a bruxism sufferer, please contact the practice to arrange an appointment to see a dentist.

To find out more about NTI splints, please visit www.headacheprevention.com

Farewell to Andy Robson

After 3 and a half years with Wessington Way Dental Practice, we are bidding a fond farewell to our associate dentist, Andy Robson. We will all miss Andy's wicked sense of humour and wish him all the best in his new career as a tandem skydiving instructor! (Only joking!)

As one door closes, another one opens, so we are delighted to introduce our new dentist, Terri Nugent who will be taking care of Andy's patients from later this month.

Terri is married to an Oral Surgeon and they have 3 young daughters. She is joining Wessington Way on a part time basis initially as she also works in the Community Dental Service.

As well as looking after Andy's patients, Terri is also taking on new patients. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining Wessington Way, Terri has new patient appointments available at our Friday and Saturday clinics. Please visit the book and visit section on the website.

Assessment time

We don't like to rest on our laurels here at Wessington Way so have applied for re-accreditation in two national awards: The British Dental Association's Good Practice award and Customer First.

We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the Good Practice standard for the 7th year running, meaning that we have now gained silver membership status. Our commitment to Good Practice
is outlined below, in what we like to call our ten commandments!

1.   We aim to provide dental care of a consistently good quality for all patients.
2.   We only provide care that meets your needs and wishes.
3.   We aim to make your treatment as comfortable and convenient as possible.
4.   We look after your general health and safety while receiving dental care.
5.   We follow current guidance on infection control.
6.   We check for mouth cancer and tell you what we find.
7.   We take part in continuing professional development to keep our skills and knowledge up-to-date.
8.  We train all staff in practice-wide work systems and review training plans once a year.
9.   We welcome feedback and deal promptly with any complaints.
10. Every member of the practice is aware of the need to work safely under General Dental Council             guidelines

Two years ago, we became the first dental practice in the country to be awarded the Customer First award. We want to hold on to that prestigious title so are being reassessed this week. We will keep you posted with the results.

The results are in

Thank you to all of our patients that have completed our Customer Sure survey in the Practice. At Wessington Way we like to make sure that you are satisfied with our service and we are pleased to say that the latest results are very positive.

If you have any comments or suggestions you would like to make about our service, please contact the practice or send an email to enquiries@wessingtonway.com

Cake!

We just wanted to share a photo of the wonderful gift that Martin Anderson received from one of his patients. We are sure you will agree that there is an uncanny resemblance to the man himself!

Smile Month Winners

A big congratulations goes out to our smile months winners: Richard Nelson and Ella Ho.

Richard correctly guessed how many tubes of toothpaste were in our vase throughout National Smile Month. For those who entered this competition, the correct answer was 178!

Ella had the team smiling with her lovely picture in the "draw your dentist" competition.

We hope Richard and Ella are both "buzzing" with their prizes of brand new electric toothbrushes!

Investing in our people

At Wessington Way Dental Practice, we are strong believers in investing in our team to get the best out of them and to help them grow.

The practice sets aside 2 hours every Thursday lunch time to allow for team training. This training is very diverse ranging from dealing with medical emergencies to customer service role plays.

We also encourage the team to tell us what they would like to do to help them develop their careers. Our nurse Kirsty has just begun an NVQ level 3 apprenticeship in Customer Service. We wish her all the best!

Wessington Way Dental Practice supports the British Dental Health Foundation

For several years Wessington Way Dental Practice has been a supporter of the British Dental Health Foundation and we have regularly taken part in the Foundation’s annual campaigns – Mouth Cancer Awareness Week and National Smile Month – in fact, we are in the middle of National Smile Month right now, which anyone who has visited us recently couldn't fail to have noticed!

The British Dental Health Foundation is an independent charity dedicated to improving oral health – in the UK and around the world.

How does it do this?

• Free Dental Helpline for the public which offers free and confidential advice by phone or email (nearly 50,000 calls)
• Provides educational material for use by the public, health and dental professionals
• Raises awareness of the importance of oral health through campaigns such as Mouth Cancer Awareness Week and National Smile Month
• Magazine “Word of Mouth” and a blog which can be accessed along with other information, tips and contact details on the website www.dentalhealth.org

Wessington Way in the community

As part of National Smile month, Richard, Jayne, Emelia and Ashleigh visited Southwick Community School to take part in a school assembly on healthy teeth.

The children had a great time playing healthy eating games, learning how to brush their teeth and even dressing up like dentists! Click here to read the full article in the Sunderland Echo.

National Smile Month :D

Today sees the start of National Smile Month! This is a campaign run by the the British Dental Health Foundation and aims to promote key oral health messages, in a fun way. These messages are:

1. Brush your teeth for two minutes, twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste.
2. Cut down on how often your have sugary drinks and snacks.
3. Visit the dentist regularly, as often as they recommend.

At Wessington Way, we are getting into the Smile Month spirit. As you can see by the big smiles on our faces! If you come in to the practice this month, we have loads of free samples to give away and you will have the chance to enter our great competitions!

We are also going to taking part in a Smile Month assembly at Southwick Community School, taking our oral health messages out in to the community.

Click here to learn more about the Smile Month campaign.

Please rate us!

We have just received a very kind testimonial from a new patient that, in her own words, wishes she had joined the practice years ago! To read this, and other testimonials from our patients, please click here.

Our practice grows primarily through word of mouth and it is always a pleasure when a new patient attends based on a recommendation from one of our own. If you have any family, friends or colleagues that you think would benefit from our services, please feel free to pass on our contact details, or refer them to our website.

In recent years there has been a surge in the popularity of consumer review websites. This now also extends to the dental industry. We would really appreciate it if you could take a moment to visit the link below, to rate and leave a comment about the practice. Your kind words could help a potential patient in need, make the right choice!

http://www.dentist-finder.co.uk/city-Sunderland/1845991-dentist-Wessington-Way-Dental-Practice.html

If you would like to add a testimonial to our website, please email Jayne at Jayne@wessingtonway.com

Campaign against illegal tooth whitening

Over recent years, the popularity of chemical tooth whitening has escalated. It is a safe, simple and cost effective way to improve the whiteness of your smile without the removal of tooth enamel when carried out within a dental environment. Not everyone however, is a good candidate for the tooth whitening procedure. It is not effective if you have crowns, bridges or fillings at the front of your mouth and you should be declared dentally healthy prior to treatment commencing.

As the law currently stands, only a General Dental Council (GDC) registered dentist, or dental hygienist/therapist (with a prescription from a dentist) can carry out tooth whitening as it is considered to be an act of dentistry in accordance with The Dentists Act 1984.

The chemical of choice for tooth whitening is hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. In October 2012, EU legislation was amended to allow up to 6% hydrogen peroxide (or products breaking down to 6%) to be used for tooth whitening within the confines of the dental profession.

Here is where the problem lies. In 2007, the House of Lords agreed tooth whitening products were to be licensed as a cosmetic. No changes to the laws surrounding the procedure were considered. This was grossly misinterpreted by the cosmetic and beauty industry and the unregulated "tooth whitening technician" was born.

A multi million pound illegal tooth whitening industry has evolved which permits anyone from the street to attend a one day course and become "certified". This unregulated and illegal practice has become a risk to public safety with incidences of people attending dental practices with chemical burns becoming a common occurrence across the country.

Many tooth whitening technicians claim they are working within the law as they are using a chemical called sodium perborate. This chemical breaks down to up to 35% hydrogen peroxide and has been linked to fertility problems. The EU are currently working on legislation to ban this product in the beauty industry.

The dental profession has united to raise awareness of illegal tooth whitening through a Facebook page https://en-gb.facebook.com/StampOutIllegalToothWhitening?group_id=0&filter=1 Here people can discuss concerns, receive advice and find out how to report illegal tooth whitening in their area.

If you are concerned that there is an illegal tooth whitening technician practising near you, we encourage you to report your concerns to the illegal practice department at the General Dental Council and your local trading standards office.

http://www.gdc-uk.org/Membersofpublic/Illegalpractice/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/2263/contents/made

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/24

If you would like to find out more about the tooth whitening treatment at Wessington Way, please click here or the reception team will happily answer any of your queries. Remember, if you are a Wessington Way Dental Practice member, you will benefit from a 20% discount on this treatment.

Members' only special offer now on until 30th April 2013: Book in for tooth whitening with Richard, Maxine or Kay and receive an additional £30 off! Please contact reception to make an appointment.

Book now for whiter teeth in time for the summer months!

Practice Plan Perks

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all of our membership patients that their membership entitles them to more than just outstanding service and dental care! Your membership also includes access to the fantastic discount website, Practice Plan Perks.

If you haven't registered with Practice Plan Perks already, you can do so by clicking on this link https://practiceplan.corporateperks.com/login All you need is your Wessington Way Dental Practice membership number. If you are unable to find this, please contact the practice who will be happy to help.

The offers on the site change regularly. At the moment you will find discounts of up to 35% on holidays, 5% at major electrical stores and 5% at big supermarkets. The more you use the site, the more reward points you can save for better deals and even cash back.

Happy shopping!

You said, we did

At Wessington Way Dental Practice, we survey our patients regularly in order for us to continuously improve our services. We would like to express our gratitude to those that have taken part.

Our most recent survey has highlighted that a few of our patients have had to wait longer than they would like for an appointment. We apologise to any of our patients that have had to wait longer than they think is acceptable for an appointment and would like to offer the following explanation and advice:

We review our appointment book on a regular basis to try and ensure appointments are available. A patient is unlikely to wait more than 2 weeks for a dental treatment appointment however we do appreciate that this can be longer if you require a longer than normal appointment, or in the event of a dentist or hygienist being on holiday. If you have a dental emergency, we will always endeavour to see you within 24 hours and if urgent treatment is required, we will do our best to accommodate your needs. The practice operates a list for patients that may wish to attend for their appointment in the event of a short notice cancellation. We have always operated this priority appointment list, however, we feel that we can promote this service better by offering it to all patients.

Our appointment book is managed to try and offer patients a variety of appointment times that are suitable for them. Each dentist and hygienist works a combination of shifts to offer patients appointments on different days of the week including some early mornings, late evenings and Saturday mornings. These out-of- hours appointments always prove to be very popular and patients can sometimes wait longer for an appointment if they only wish to come at these times.

Many patients find it convenient to visit the practice for their dental health check and plaque control visit at the same time. We appreciate that this is convenient and will try our best to accommodate this, but please note that the dentists and hygienists only work at certain times together. We can nearly always book patients in sooner, if they are prepared to attend these appointments at different times. We are currently reviewing our hygienists' working hours and are hoping that we can offer more convenient appointment times in the near future.

Please help us to maintain out appointment book by giving us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel an appointment. The more notice we have, the more likely it is that we can offer the slot to another patient.