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In March, all Scottish Dental practices were instructed to close by the Scottish Government, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
We were asked to manage patients with dental emergencies, during the normal working week, by providing a phone triage service. This enabled us to offer advice, prescribe antibiotics when appropriate, and in cases where we considered urgent operative care to be required, we were asked to refer patients to the urgent care centre at Springfield in Arbroath.

The guidelines have now been changed to allow us to see a small number of emergency patients in the practice. The treatment options are very limited because we are not yet permitted to do any treatment that might generate a 'spray'. Emergency patients who require treatment know to generate 'spray', will still have to attend the urgent care centre at Springfield, Arbroath. We will arrange this when necessary.

Regrettably, we are still a long way from business as usual. All dental practices in Scotland remain subject to very severe restrictions on our activity. We are not allowed to open normally or to provide routine care. We are only allowed one patient in the practice at a time and the door is to be kept locked. We are still required to triage all emergency cases by phone. The only difference now is that we can offer a limited range of emergency care in the practice, so not all patients requiring emergency treatment need to travel to Arbroath.

Please be mindful of the fact that Scottish Dental Practices are not yet in a position to book appointments for routine care. Please only phone the emergency number if you require emergency treatment.

We miss being able to see our patients and being able to provide the full range of care. We look forward to the further easing of restrictions by Scottish Government. We will strive to keep patients informed of the situation by regularly updating our website and social media.

Best wishes
Links Lodge Team