I had my last clinic on Friday 20th March after which the country started locking down. No AGPs, then no patients in vulnerable groups, then no patients at all…
It is the first time, other than when I took maternity leave, that I have not worked and it is an odd new reality.
I am missing the social contact with my lovely patients, colleagues and referring dentists. I am missing the stimulation and satisfaction of treating cases both the complex and the more simple and the thrill of a good result. I have missed the British Society of Periodontology conference last week. It was to be an exciting line up of speakers focusing on areas like regeneration, grafting and peri-implantitis and Becca and I were hoping to go together and have a few days up in London. We are hoping to reschedule it in December and it will be my pleasure to send you all a synopsis of the event and cover a few of the topics in my Hartog study evenings.
The BSP in the meantime has been putting on several webinars which have been very well received. In order to support the wider dental community, some of the older webinars are now accessible on the BSP YouTube channel open to all. Gum Health Day 2020 with this year’s slogan ‘Say No to bleeding gums’ had its events and initiatives planned for May 12th postponed for later in the year, something to look forward to!
We are limited to what we can do and it is vital our patients are made aware of this and that we will be seeing them as soon as the restrictions are lifted. For my part, I have contacted a lot of our patients undergoing periodontal treatment to ensure all is well, advice regarding any concerns and make some provisional plans of future appointments.
When the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted we know that there will be patients in need of treatment but also that people’s finances will be stretched.
I am therefore pleased to be able to offer your patients an initial 60-minute consultation with a fee of £95 to continue to ensure accessibility to our services.
Additionally, as a practice, to support what will be a financially difficult period for a lot of patients we are putting in place financial plans that patients can access if required. We are also very happy to accept NHS IFR referrals which you can access at https://hartogdental.co.uk/dentists-area/ – we have a dedicated team to complete this on your behalf if you would prefer.
I wanted to leave you with a funny little story my 7-year-old daughter, Katie, wrote for me while being homeschooled a couple of weeks ago. The title I gave her was ‘A tale with a twist’ and this is what she wrote:
Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful girl called Scarlet. She lived in a comfy, cosy cottage with her mother and little sister. Her favourite colour was red and her sister’s favourite colour was red too! Her sister’s name was Little Red Riding Hood!
On a sunny Spring morning, they decided to visit their granny who lived in the local woods. They wanted to take her some flowers from their garden and homemade cookies! Unfortunately, a villain called Corona took over the country! He made everyone stay at home and if you dared go outside, he captured you and gobbled you up!
Guess what the girls did? They went out anyway!!! Guess who they bumped into? Mr Corona!!!!!!…
What Corona didn’t know was that the girls were amazing at gymnastics! They confused him so much with their gymnastics skills that he tripped down St Catherine’s Hill and was never heard of again! The girls visited their granny and spent the afternoon eating cookies and telling her about their adventure!!
On that note, I wish you and your families good physical and mental health in the challenging few weeks ahead.
With my warmest wishes,
Maria xx
Dr Maria Evangelidou, Specialist Periodontist
Maria is a registered specialist periodontist. She accepts referrals in non-surgical and surgical periodontics including periodontal plastic surgery and regeneration therapy. She also accepts patients for crown lengthening procedures and dental implants.
All referred patients will have a thorough initial consultation which will involve a complete clinical and radiographic examination and full report and quote of costs, all of which will be sent to the referring dentist as well the patient.
Further reports will be sent at the end of each course of treatment in order to keep all parties involved fully informed.
