Dental Services

 

Coronavirus / Winter Respiratory Virus

Treatment restrictions have been removed but COVID restrictions remain.

Staff will be using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

When you call for an appointment, you may be asked a few questions about any Respiratory Virus symptoms or exposure you may have. Where you have Winter Respiratory Virus, or are likely to have Covid, you may be asked to delay attending. Where patients with Winter Respiratory Virus/Covid require urgent dental emergency treatment, the appointment will be carried out in a manner that is safe for patients and dental staff.

NHS Shetland Public Dental Service (PDS) has decided to prioritise our patients into three categories:
1. Ongoing Emergency Care
2. Those who have had temporary care since the start of COVID
3. Identified Vulnerable Groups

For those in categories 2 and 3, one of the reception team will contact patients to arrange an appointment.
Once we have overcome this challenging period, we will be able to return to some normality with regards the availability of appointments. Longer term plans are also being considered to increase access to dental services across the whole of the community.

We would like to thank all patients in advance for their co-operation.

Who provides dental services in Shetland?

A range of Dental services are provided by the NHS Shetland Public Dental Service (PDS) and independent NHS-committed practices.

The NHS Shetland Public Dental Service exists primarily to provide dental care for patients identified as belonging to Vulnerable Groups. These include children, people with learning disabilities and people in care.

In Scotland the first point of contact for NHS dental treatment is usually expected to be the General Dental Service (GDS), which is mainly provided by independent dentists offering the full range of NHS treatment and is suitable for the majority of patients who require standard treatments such as examinations (check-ups), fillings, extractions, crowns and denture work, as well as providing emergency care.

NHS Shetland Public Dental Service (PDS)

Public Dental Service has the following core functions:

• Routine dental care to people with special needs or additional dental needs;
• Patients with disabilities (learning and / or physical disabilities)
• Medically complex patients
• Ageing patients
• Anxious and phobic patients
• Patients with mental health issues
• Children who are medically compromised or disabled
• Anxious children or those with extensive caries requiring additional input
• Children in difficult social circumstances (vulnerable and looked after children)
• Homeless patients
• Excluded groups (migrants, travelling people)
• Prison population
• Routine general dental services for Shetland residents to supplement those available through independent dental practices providing NHS dental care
• The provision of secondary care dental services (orthodontics, restorative and maxillofacial surgery) through a clinical network of visiting consultants and other staff, and local practitioners
• Oral health education and promotion services to Shetland
• Dental public health functions of school inspections and epidemiology
• Dental public health advice to Shetland through the Clinical Director of Dental Services