Our aim is to deliver dental care by reaching out to those who cannot access the service for themselves. Seeing that disability can affect 1 in 4 of the UK population, our service can be extremely valuable to a group of vulnerable individuals who are permanently or temporarily non-ambulatory due to physical, mental or social reasons. We recognise that our target population will potentially suffer from the same sort of oral health problems as the general population but will have difficulty accessing treatment. Moreover, poor oral health can pose an additional burden on such individuals and can reduce their quality of life significantly.  We welcome patients who are suffering from a temporary or permanent mental or physical disablity, or who are aged 90 or over.  We aim for our treatment to be equitable in terms of outcome, safety and patient experience to that received at a dental surgery

The Services We Provide Include:

• Examination and consultation
• Promotion of Oral Health
• Treatment of dental infections, toothache and discomfort from dentures
• Provision of new dentures, as well as the repair, adjustment and relining of existing dentures
• Restorations (fillings) as required
• Maintenance of periodontal (gum) health

We work closely with care homes to help improve the oral health of their residents and help them become compliant with CQC and NICE guidelines

Our team currently includes 4 Dental Care Professionals and 1 Dentist.  We cover over 1200 square miles, visit over 90 different care homes and attend over 1000 patients per year, 5 days a week

Our care is patient-centred and we do our utmost to ensure that we work effectively within a multi-disciplinary framework (when appropriate) to deliver our care in a safe and considerate manner. We always strive to ensure that the treatment we provide is appropriate given the setting, the nature of the dental problem, the facilities available at the time and the more general well-being of our patients. Whenever it is considered to be more appropriate, a referral to secondary services (e.g. the hospital, sedation services etc.) is made accordingly. Our staff regularly undertake training in Dementia Awareness, Mental Capacity, Cross-Infection Control, Record-Keeping, Data Protection and Basic Life Support.

At Castle and Costa, our practices of infection control are current and conducted in line with HTM 01-05 guidance. We regularly audit our practice protocols and procedures to ensure that they are effective and are being followed properly.

We satisfy all legal requirements relating to health and safety in the workplace and radiation protection. All patient information is confidential and is handled by the staff at the practice in line with the Data Protection Act. Should you require access to your records, please submit your request in writing to the Practice Manager.

We are committed to sharing our scientific knowledge and clinical expertise with the next generation of dental health professionals and from time to time (but only with our patients’ permission), we may undertake the training or teaching of aspiring professionals.

We operate a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory, violent, aggressive or threatening behaviour. Our staff may refuse to deal with patients under such circumstances.

For further information regarding the provision of NHS services in your area, please visit the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) website.

In order to maintain our standard of care, we make visits to our patients in a logical geographic fashion. We will normally give our patients an appointment for a given day and we are able to telephone our patients or their carers prior to arrival on the day. Since some of our patients may take longer than others and because of the somewhat unpredictable nature of vehicular journeys on Norfolk roads, we regret we may only be able to give a very general estimated time of arrival.  We routinely work between 0830 and 1830 to keep up with demand