LLANDUDNO SMILES 1st BIRTHDAY!

Newsletter Spring 2017

HELLO!

Welcome to our first ever newsletter.
Llandudno Smiles is one year old this month and we wanted to update you with all our news.

THE PRACTICE

We have had some great comments about the decor and feel of the practice and are really glad that you like it. We are particularly pleased with our "rogue's gallery" on the way to surgery 2. Our friend Jody Kite did the team photos and we had a lot of fun practicing our funny faces.

Thank you to those who have left suggestions in our box. As a result of your ideas we are making the following improvements:

1. FINANCE OPTION FOR LARGE TREATMENT PLANS
We are about to launch a scheme to enable us to offer 0% finance for large treatment plans. This will allow you to spread the cost of your treatment and should be available from mid April.

2. DENPLAN
We have been offering Practice Plan as a membership scheme for the past year and as a practice, we think that this works very well. However, there are some of you who used to be with Denplan prior to your move to Llandudno Smiles. We have been surprised at how loyal Denplan patients are to the brand, and want to be able to offer our patients options for their dental care. To that end, we are now happy to offer Denplan as an alternative to Practice Plan. There would be an initial administration cost for the set up but if you would like to change to Denplan then please contact our team for further information.


CHILDREN'S PLAN

So far, we have not been able to secure an NHS contract to treat children at the practice and so for the first year we have offered free dental treatment for children up to the age of 12 and a Kids Plan for those over that age.
However, we are not seeing as many children as we would like, and so, moving forwards, we have decided to offer free conservative dental treatment to all children up to the age of 18 providing their parents are registered with us on either Practice Plan or Denplan. This offer would not include any preventative care such as hygienist visits, or cosmetic treatments. Appointments would be limited to weekdays rather than Saturdays. If you have children on a plan and would now like to cancel it, then please contact us.

STAFF NEWS

Congratulations to our nurse Jo, who became engaged to Tim at Christmas. We wish her much happiness.
Congratulations also to Lynsey who became a grandma recently, and to Shirley who is soon to become a grandma. Neither look old enough, but we wish them lots of joy in their new role.





Our therapist, Rosie, has just bought her first house, our hygienist Claira has recently moved to a new house, and Ken and Alison are hoping to move to Glan Conwy as soon as they have sold their Conwy home. Best wishes to all.
Our head nurse Matthew is a very keen cyclist and this summer he will be cycling 220 miles from Manchester to London raising money for the charity Ambitious about Autism. For more information on how to sponsor him chat to Matt or look up www.rapha.cc/M2L. Thank you

AFRICA

Last summer, Ken and Alison travelled to Uganda with the charity Dentaid. A group of 4 British dentists, supported by volunteer hygienists and nurses, worked with a team of Ugandan dentists treating up to 100 patients each day, in make- shift clinics set up in schools and community buildings. They worked hard and loved the experience of working alongside the young Ugandan dentists. They had the opportunity to sit and chat to them about life as a dentist in their country and the different challenges faced. They felt very humbled as they were taught patience and the Ugandans were far better than the British at removing difficult teeth. The Ugandans have no one to refer to, so they just do their best. They work without suction and no electricity. In turn, the Western team taught theUgandans the importance of patient care and showed them how a little friendliness will help the patient enormously.

A few years ago, Ken and Alison set up a dental clinic in rural South Sudan. Sadly, there is war in that country once more and the people and friends there have had to either flee their homes and hide in the forests or attempt to cross the border into Uganda. Amazingly however, medical and dental supplies have been getting through and the dental clinic is functioning but only when safe to do so. We hope for a peaceful end to their conflict soon. People are now starving as they are forced away from their farms and food supplies.

THANK YOU

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support during our first year. Many of you have followed us from our old practice in Rhos on Sea and we thank you for the extra effort that you have made in making that change... no mean feat, as we were not allowed to tell our patients where we were going. We were very impressed with your detective skills in finding us!

For those new to us, we hope that you have had a good experience. We thank you for trusting us with your treatment.
We know for some of you your treatment has involved lots of visits and long appointments. We really hope that you have been pleased with the results, some of which have been literally life changing.

NEW PATIENT RECOMMENDATIONS

We would like to welcome more people like yourselves to our practice. We know that a personal recommendation is worth far more than an advert or brochure, and so we were wondering if you would mind passing on our details to anyone you know who you think would benefit from our high level of dental care and friendly customer service.

As part of our 1-year anniversary, we are offering new patient consultations free of charge, until the end of April. We have enclosed a few vouchers for you to give to your friends and relatives. If you need any more, just let us know. As a thank you, we will put the names of all referees into a prize draw, with the lucky winner receiving a meal for two at the new Dylan's restaurant in Llandudno.

It has been a pleasure welcoming you to our new practice and we hope to continue to serve you for many years to come.

“May your smile for ever sparkle.”
From all at Llandudno Smiles