Archived: Tooth Booth Chesham

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 23 July 2015 to ask the practice the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this practice was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this practice was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this practice was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this practice was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this practice was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Tooth Booth Chesham offers NHS and private dental care services to patients of all ages. The practice offers mainly (approximately 90%) NHS dental care services to patients. The services provided include preventative advice and treatment and routine restorative dental care.

Tooth Booth Chesham Dental Practice is part of The Tooth Booth Group which manages eight dental practices across the South East of England.

The dental practice is based within a local medical centre and all dental services are located on the first floor.

The practice has three dentists, some are part time; they are supported by three dental nurses, receptionists and a practice manager. One of these dental nurses works at several different practices within the group and is known as the float nurse

The practice is open from 8:30am to 8pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and 8:30am to 5:30pm on Wednesday and Friday. The practice is open on Saturday from 8:30am to 1pm.

The Tooth Booth Group is owned by two people, also known as practice principals, one of those is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the practice is run.

We spoke with two patients who used the service on the day of inspection and reviewed 20 completed CQC comment cards. Patients we spoke with and those who completed comment cards were positive about the care they received about the service. They commented that staff were caring, helpful and respectful, treatment was well explained, the practice was clean and that they had no problems getting appointments.

Our key findings were:

• Patients who completed comment cards told us they were treated with care and staff were professional and friendly. We observed positive interaction between staff and patients during the inspection.

• Patients were able to access both routine and emergency appointments and there were clear instructions on how to access out of hours emergency dental treatment.

• The appointment system met the needs of patients and waiting times were kept to a minimum.

• Patients received clear explanations about their proposed treatment, costs, benefits and risks and were involved in making decisions about it.

• Patients told us through comment cards they were treated with kindness, professionalism and respect by friendly and caring staff who listened to them.

• Staff were supported in receiving training appropriate to their role and to keep up to date with developments and best practice in dental care.

• Care and treatment was based on thorough examinations and patients told us they understood their care and treatment and received treatment plans upon which to base their decisions to proceed with or decline treatment.