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. In 2005 he was joined by Bill Seddon and the practice has continued to increase its endodontic, implant and restorative referrals.
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, Bill works exclusively in endo, Robert Dyas is a specialist in 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 Dr Seddon. ‘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. There are additional PCs in each surgery, so the nurse can input data independently of dentist’.
High-spec equipment
The practice boasts a sophisticated digital X-ray device the Digora/Soredex system, which has a laser scanner in each surgery. Recommended for endodontics and for education, Dr Seddon 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. For endodontic patients, the practice uses TDO: The Digital Office, a specialist endodontic practice management kit, as recommended by Gary Carr and Julian Webber.
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.
New contract implications
Dr Seddon said ‘Before joining the practice, prior to the new contract, I used to perform both NHS and private endodontics. Since joining SGDC, my time is exclusively devoted to providing endodontics privately. Having spoken to many other dentists, I do not think the new contract encourages endodontics, in fact it forces no endodontics. There are effectively no UDAs for endo, and our referrals from general practitioners have increased as a result.
‘I am involved with the British Endodontic Society as their Treasurer and we have lobbied the government about this issue, but they seem not to be concerned.’
Asked about the influences that have shaped his professional career, Dr Seddon immediately highlighted Garry Carr, who invented the TDO: software system. ‘Having bought the system, I have access to the discussion forums and that is a big help to me,’ he said, ‘Also, I have been over there to visit Pacific Endodontic Research Foundation a few times to see how Gary’s practice runs and it is very inspirational.
‘For the future, we want to increase awareness of our services and the outstanding philosophy at Stephen Godfrey Dental Care.
‘I like going out and visiting dentists and giving them educational sound bites and I like to have dentists visit us so they can see how we work and what we do.
‘We have also just started sponsoring our local football club Sheffield FC (www.sheffieldfc.com). They are the oldest football club in the world, and have a 150 year anniversary next year.
They play about half a mile up the road from the practice. We feel it’s important to give a little back. We also support the Boots for Africa campaign, and are local collection point for donations to this cause.’
