East Street Dental Practice.

 

Consent to treatment

This practice upholds the principle that a patient has the right to give or withhold consent, prior to examination or treatment.

We will always respect our patient's wishes.
Patients can assume that when they give information to us the information will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to any one without their consent, other than for the provision of caring out their healthcare.

Consent is either "implied" or "expressed". In some cases patients do not give express consent, but their agreement is implied by their actions. e.g. sitting in the dental chair and opening the mouth.
Express consent is given when patients confirm agreement in clear terms in writing or verbally.

Verbal consent is normally all that is required. Sometimes if the work is likely to involve a higher fee, we prefer to advise you in writing before the event.

We normally insist that patients under 16 years old have written consent by their parent or guardian for irreversible procedures.

We do ask that staff from boarding schools accompany all their under 16 year olds for consent purposes, if possible we like to write to the parent as well outlining the proposed treatment.

Incidentally we have a publication scheme compliant with the Freedom of information Act 2000 outlining our policies on information we hold.