Meet The Member - Wayside Dental
We had the pleasure of interviewing our member Wayside Dental to talk to them about their Harpenden based practice and the services that they provide.
As you know, we are already huge fans of Wayside Dental Practice, but for anyone who doesn’t know about you, please tell us a bit of information about your practice.
We are the longest established private dental practice in Harpenden and have been providing dental care to residents of Harpenden, St. Albans, Luton and further afield since 1938. We are committed to providing excellent, safe, and comfortable dental care using the very latest technology and training. We have embraced the digital revolution in dentistry and have digital x-rays, a CBCT scanner, intra oral scanners, 3D navigation for dental implants and a milling machine so we can make some of our restorations on site on the same day. Our clinicians are trained to use dental lasers in their treatments, including our periodontist who can use them for gum surgery and healing. Our hygienists use the very latest EMS airflow in their treatments and are also trained to use lasers. Your comfort and safety are our priority, so our clinicians all use the Wand for pain free anaesthesia and wear magnification loupes. Our surgeries and waiting room are all equipped with air purification units to rid the air of any viruses, bacteria and pollutants.
Every dental practice is different. What are you most proud of at your practice and what sets you apart from others.
At Wayside, we are committed to providing patients with the best dental care available. To us, this means utilising the very latest cutting-edge technology in dental treatment; including dental lasers, computer-guided surgery, intra-oral scanners and EMS airflow. Our Practice Principal Robin is at the forefront of laser dentistry in the UK as a Fellow of the Academy of Laser Dentistry, and as such frequently provides lectures and webinars to other dentists around the world. Through our training and investment in technology, we strive to ensure our patients receive comfortable, pain-free dental care, with world-class results.
Tell us a bit about the team and faces behind Wayside.
We have 6 highly skilled Clinicians: Robin Horton (practice principal), Amit Maisuria, Mamta Gupta, Nick Powrie, Sheena Patel and Saneel Patel. All of our clinicians are trained to use dental lasers in their treatment, as well as using intra-oral scanners, and the Wand pain free anaesthesia.
In addition to this, we have a highly qualified periodontist, Mitul Shah, who is the current chair of the Early Career Group at the British Society of Periodontology and has vast experience in complex gum disorders and reconstruction. Mitul also utilises dental lasers in treating periodontitis and gum lifts.
We also have four excellent dental hygienists: Anita Burrows, Eileen Vallely, Rebecca Katesmark and Yasmin Malik. Our hygienists use the gentle EMS airflow system and Guided Biofilm Therapy to thoroughly, yet comfortably, disrupt the harmful biofilm layer on gums and teeth. They have also completed extensive training on the use of dental lasers in the treatment of gum disease.
It would be great to hear a bit more about the services that you provide.
At Wayside, we provide many services, falling into different categories:
1. General family dentistry. This includes general dental check-ups with our experienced clinicians, who are highly skilled in treating children and nervous patients as well. We also provide hygiene appointments, as recommended by the dentist or self-referred through Direct Access. General dentistry also encompasses certain treatments such as bridges, crowns and drill-free fillings. Drill-free fillings are performed with Waterlase dental lasers: where instead of a drill, a laser light and a gentle spray of water is used, which typically causes little or no discomfort: the only sound is one similar to popping corn. The decay can be removed extremely precisely to preserve more of the healthy tooth structure and avoids possible micro-fractures that can be caused by the friction of the drill.
2. Cosmetic dentistry. Our clinicians also provide cosmetic treatments, including tooth whitening, composite bonding, veneers, invisible orthodontics and cosmetic gum surgery. To achieve your dream smile, we offer free Smile Consultations, whereby the clinician examines your teeth and advises which treatments are suitable and effective to achieve a perfect smile.
3. Complex dentistry. Some of our clinicians are highly trained and skilled in performing complex dentistry, utilising cutting-edge dental technology. This includes dental implants, root fillings and advanced gum treatments. Dental Implants are one of today’s most popular long-term solutions to missing teeth and we have been placing them here at Wayside Dental Practice for over 15 years. The benefits can be life changing, providing the answer to any embarrassment or discomfort caused by missing teeth or loose dentures. Recent technological advances make dental implant treatment much more straightforward even where there is little remaining jaw-bone, for a single tooth, several teeth or even all of your teeth. We use the Nobel Biocare dental implant system, which we feel is the best-established system worldwide and backed by extensive research, whilst undergoing continual innovation in implant components and guided technology to place them, such as the X-Mark. We do not provide low cost, low quality substitutes, as these can lead to failure later on and do not provide the best results. We believe that providing dental implant treatments requires investment in the best surgical facilities, the most highly developed implant systems and the latest imaging and dental laboratory technologies. It also requires highly trained technicians who deal with implants on a daily basis and maintenance support from experienced hygienists. For more information about implants at Wayside, please see our website.
4. Facial rejuvenation. At Wayside we offer certain facial cosmetic treatments, provided by Yasmin at Yaz Aesthetics. These include anti-wrinkle treatments, dermal fillers and skin boosters.
For someone that is nervous coming to the dentist, how could you encourage them to come and visit.
The first step is to pick up the phone and book an appointment. Our receptionists are trained to answer all your concerns and assure you ahead of the appointment. In the practice, we maintain a calm, relaxed environment from the moment you enter the door to the moment you leave. At the appointment, the clinician will talk you through the entire appointment and ensure that your needs are met. All treatment will be discussed with you in detail before being carried out, and together with the dentist, you can decide on what is right for you. Our clinicians are friendly and will do their best to ensure you feel at ease the entire time. This, together with our gentle, pain-free treatment, is a revolutionary way to experience dental care.
What is the best way for people to register?
The best way to register is to call Reception on 01582 712470, book in an appointment and register your details. We have a pay-as-you-go option and an Oral Care Plan. The Oral Care Plan is an affordable monthly fee, and entitles you to two dental health check-ups a year with scaling by the dentist, all x rays, oral cancer screening, smile analysis, 20% discount on our private fee scale on all treatments up to the value of £1000 per year, emergency assessment visit, one white filling per calendar year and a worldwide dental emergency scheme. We also have the Wayside Hygiene plan and the Hygiene plus plan, which include two and four 40-minute hygiene appointments with the hygienist instead of scaling with the dentist, respectively. We appreciate that dental treatment can be an investment in time and money. To help with this we have partnered with Tabeo to allow patients to spread the cost of their dental treatment, where finance is offered on all treatments above £500.
What is most rewarding about working at Wayside?
Everyone is valued and supported and we know we are providing the very best in dental care which makes us love our job and also be proud of what we do. We all receive a lot of training and know if there is anything new out there that will enhance our treatment, we will soon have it at Wayside!
Can you offer any advice or tips on how to best look after our teeth and oral hygiene?
We of course recommend that you have regular dental and hygiene appointments to nip any potential problems in the bud and keep you motivated and your teeth free of plaque. But we also know that it is what you do at home that is most important. Brush, floss and use interspace brushes twice a day to clean your teeth AND your gums, limit sugary snacks and drinks to mealtimes, protect your teeth with a nightguard if you are a grinder or have dental restorations and, if you smoke, try to give up.
Do you have anything exciting on the Horizon?
We have just taken delivery of our milling machine to complete our digital workflow. This means we can use the digital scan of your teeth to design your dental restoration and send it to our mill to be made. Now we have learned how to use the software and maintain the precision machine, we hope to start milling this week.
Some of us are going to the Worldwide Laser Conference in Japan this Autumn to learn more about these fantastic tools that have, in our opinion, revolutionised dentistry.
Lastly, being located in Harpenden, we’d love to know some of your favourite hotspots in and around the area!
We are big fans of Zero Sushi and Parker & Vine, especially for catering when we have training days for other clinicians. We love Simmons for our rolls on #cheese roll Thursday#, a tradition that has been going at Wayside for as long as Robin can remember! We have also been known to have a Godfreys on a Friday…..We adorn the practice with flower arrangements by Stephanie Randall and scent it with diffusers made by Handmade in Harpenden. We love the Nicky Line and the Common to walk to in our lunch breaks too (especially if we have had Godfreys!!)