We are a family run dental practice, owned and managed by Nicola Bone and her husband Bob Seymour. Nicola qualified from the University of Birmingham Dental School in 1990 and has completed a 3 year diploma in postgraduate dental studies at Bristol University.
THE TEAM
Dr Nicola Bone BDS, DPDS (Eng) Clinical Director GDC No 65890
Mei-An Hoe BDS (Eng) Associate dentist GDC No 178989
Imogen Johnson BSc DHT(Bristol) Dental Therapist GDC No 303048
Trudi Newman Dental Nurse GDC No 113567
Donna Parkin Treatment coordinator
Zoë Harper Front of House
Ellie Bridges Trainee Dental Nurse
Veronica Vodi Trainee Dental Nurse
Bob Seymour Practice Manager
PATIENTS WITH DISABILITIES
We are sensitive to the needs of patients with disabilities and have endeavoured to provide the best facilities within the confines of an old building. We are able to see patients in Surgery 2 for most treatments but not all, currently there are a flight of 4 stairs preventing full all ability access to the upper surgery and the disabled access toilet.
TREATMENT PLANS
After your examination or assessment you will be given a fully itemised treatment plan and estimate. This also outlines appointment times and shows the costs per visit.
We are fortunate, at the practice, to have a hygienist who will carry out dental hygiene and periodontal treatments.
Patients requiring, sedation or other specialist care will be referred to colleagues locally.
PAYMENTS
It is our policy to ask for payment at the end of each visit. We accept cheques, cash and the major credit and debit cards. If you wish to discuss alternative arrangements, please contact the Practice Manager before starting your course of dental treatment.
HEALTH & SAFETY AND CROSS INFECTION CONTROL POLICIES
We also want your visit to be as safe as possible. To this end we follow the highest standards of cross-infection control with state of the art disinfection and sterilisation equipment. Our practice health and safety and cross-infection policies are available to view at reception.
PATIENT COMMUNICATIONS
Because we believe good communications are essential, we will endeavour to keep you informed about any changes to our policies or the way we manage the Practice. We do appreciate your opinion regarding the way we run the Practice and would like to know in any way you feel we could improve our service to you. In the future we will be implementing regular patient surveys to enable you to provide us with valuable feedback.
CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY
We observe complete patient confidentiality at all times and comply with the Data Protection Act to maintain the security of your computerised records. Our Confidentiality Policy and our data security policy is on display at reception, or you can view a copy of them here (security) and here (Protection) We are registered with the information commissioners office (number Z1852075) and you can see our registration online buy searing that number at the ICO webiste Additionally we are compliant with the PCI DDS (self regulating security protocall relating to the use of card machines). A copy of our privacy notice can be seen here
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Should there be an occasion when we fall short of our own high standards, please let us know and we will do everything we can to rectify the situation. You can view a copy of the complaints procedure here. the full procedure for handling complaints is also on display in the reception area. For further information about complaints please see the GDC website
CANCELLED OR FAILED APPOINTMENTS
Please advise us as soon as possible if you are unable to keep an appointment. We do normally make a charge for late or non-attendance and for cancellations where we have less than 48 hours notice. To help you remember your appointments we can call you to confirm them and email you the day before your appointment.
EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS AND OUT-OF-HOURS
If you are in pain, we will try to offer you an emergency assessment on the same day, during busy periods we will still try our best to see you on the same day although priority will be given to existing regularly attending patients of the practice . Patients with other dental problems will also be seen as soon as possible. We operate an out of hours emergency service with other dentist in Bristol until 10 pm, evenings and weekends.
The number for registered patients of The Natural Smile to call to reach the out of hours service is (07770) 941 848. If you are a member of the payment plan then you may be able to claim emergency fees back . After 9 pm you will be referred to NHS Direct on (0845) 120 6680.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, and therefore licensed to provide services by the care quality commission. The information below tell you how we fared in our most recent CQC inspection.