Time to celebrate
An endodontic referral practice near Sheffield hosts regular parties for local dentists and patients. But their latest one was special, marking the 21st birthday of when the business first opened. Dentistry magazine reports
Stephen Godfrey first opened his practice in 1985 and over the years it has evolved into a referral practice for the Trent and Yorkshire region. The practice continues to increase its endodontic, implant and restorative referrals to this day.
Beverley Godfrey, the practice manager, organised the 21st birthday party which ran over three nights. The practice hosted around 30 people each night, including staff.
These regular parties aim to raise awareness of the referral practice and its facilities to the local community of dentists. During the evening guests are shown the ‘patient journey’ from initial referral letter onwards. This includes the digitised correspondence, a clear demonstration of the patient experience and the guests also get to meet the 15 staff members.
The practice
Located in Dronfield, between Sheffield and Chesterfield, Stephen Godfrey Dental Care has five dentists all together. Stephen provides specialist endodontic and restorative services, Johnathan Hoare works exclusively in endo, Robert Dyas is a specialist oral surgeon who places implants, David Murphy is the full time restorative dentist and Joanne Kearsley a general dentist. They are assisted by Christina Abson, the practice hygienist.
We offer a comprehensive restorative service, and there is a strong emphasis within the practice to provide an outstanding level of patient care’, said Stephen Godfrey. ‘We have also just completed development of a seminar room for teaching groups of dentist. It provides a live video link from the surgeries for educational work on live patients.
Each surgery is equipped with an operating microscope and to provide efficient practice administration and communication with referring dentists we have state-of-the-art servers networking with 15 workstations. This allows us to view all relevant patient radiographs, photographs, correspondence and clinical records easily and conveniently anywhere in the practice including chair side’.
High-spec equipment
The practice boasts a sophisticated digital X-ray device the Digora/Soredex system, utilising a laser scanner in each surgery. Recommended for endodontics and for education, Stephen Godfrey has a camera on his microscope for feeding back information to the seminar room. It also offers live feed-out and ‘stills’ for patient notes and for lecturing.
Software of Excellence’s Exact dental practice management software system is used.
This integrates with Digora radiography. Schick intra-oral camera and the Florida probe, an exciting new device for perio-charting. Completing the software is the Tooth Atlas, a 3-D database of the human dentition for patient education. Our servers allow for internal e-mailing and SMS messaging for recalls and notification of appointments.
