Patient Terms and Conditions

Private dental care and related services — patient-facing master terms for website and practice use

1. Who we are and how these terms work

These terms apply to private dental services and, where relevant, associated non-surgical facial aesthetics services provided by Azure Dental Clinic Ltd trading as Azure Dental at Azure Dental, 6 The Beacons, 1 School Lane, Formby, L37 3LN.

They are designed to be clear, fair and easy to use. They form part of the agreement between you and us together with your treatment plan, estimate, consent documents, finance documents and any written treatment-specific instructions we give you.

If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remainder will continue to apply.

2. Appointments, deposits and cancellations

We reserve clinical time specifically for you. To protect that time, we may ask for a booking fee or deposit when an appointment is made, especially for consultations, treatment planning visits, lengthy clinical sessions, sedation assessments or appointments involving laboratory work or reserved materials.

• Consultation fees and booking deposits are payable in advance unless we confirm otherwise.
• Please tell us as soon as possible if you need to rearrange. The more notice you give, the easier it is for us to offer the time to another patient.
• For routine appointments, we normally ask for at least 2 working days notice. For longer appointments, surgery sessions or appointments involving laboratory stages, we normally ask for at least 5 working days notice.
• If insufficient notice is given, we may retain a deposit and/or charge a missed appointment fee that reasonably reflects the reserved clinical time, staffing and preparation costs incurred.
• Where we are able to refill the time in full, we will usually reduce or waive any cancellation charge.
• We may waive charges for genuine emergencies or illness at our discretion, particularly where this is an isolated event.

If appointments are repeatedly missed, late-cancelled or attended significantly late, we may ask for advance payment before booking further appointments and, in serious cases, we may decline to offer additional non-urgent appointments.

3. Consultations, examinations and treatment planning

To provide safe and appropriate care, we may need you to complete or update a medical history form, medication details, contact details and relevant questionnaires before an appointment. Parents or legal guardians should complete these for children or dependent patients where appropriate.

At an initial or review appointment we may recommend an examination, photographs, scans, radiographs, study models or other records. These are part of safe diagnosis, treatment planning, consent and record keeping.

Emergency appointments are focused on making you safe and comfortable. They may not include a full examination or long-term treatment planning on the same day. We may recommend a further appointment to complete the full assessment.

Written estimates are estimates, not fixed quotations, unless we clearly state otherwise. Because dentistry is clinical and biological in nature, treatment needs can change once care starts. If the likely fees change materially, we will explain this and seek your agreement before proceeding where reasonably possible.

4. Fees, payments and finance

Our fees reflect the time reserved, materials used, laboratory charges, equipment, clinical complexity and the standard of care provided. Current fees may change from time to time.

• Unless we agree otherwise in writing, payment is due on the day of each appointment or clinical stage.
• For larger treatment plans, we may ask for staged payments, laboratory fees in advance, or full payment before a treatment phase begins.
• Any third-party finance, payment plan or lender arrangement is separate from your clinical agreement with us and will be subject to the lender or finance provider terms, eligibility checks and status.
• If a third party agrees to pay all or part of your fees, you remain responsible for making sure the account is settled on time unless we expressly confirm otherwise in writing.

If an account remains overdue, we may pause non-urgent future treatment, ask for advance payment before booking further visits, and after notice refer the matter to debt recovery or the court. You may also be responsible for any court fees or recoverable costs that a court orders.

5. Consumer rights and fairness

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any rights you have under consumer protection law, including your right to services carried out with reasonable care and skill.

If the law gives you a right to cancel, receive pre-contract information or receive a refund, those rights continue to apply. If you ask us to begin services straight away, you agree that we may charge for the work and appointments already carried out to the extent the law allows.

6. Consent and clinical decisions

We will explain the relevant treatment options, material risks, likely benefits, limitations, fees and reasonable alternatives, including the option of no treatment where relevant. Consent is a process, not a one-off event, and we may confirm or renew consent at different stages of care.

You are responsible for giving us accurate information about your medical history, medicines, allergies, pregnancy status, smoking or vaping, and any change in your health or circumstances that may affect treatment.

You may withdraw consent to treatment at any time. If you do, you remain responsible for fees already incurred, including laboratory costs, clinician time, scans, records and treatment already provided.

We may decline to start or continue treatment if we believe it would be unsafe, clinically inappropriate, outside our competence, or not in your best interests.

7. Clinical records, photographs and communication

We keep contemporaneous records as part of your care. This may include written notes, medical histories, radiographs, scans, photographs, study models, digital files, correspondence and consent records.

Clinical photographs and scans are a routine part of modern dental care and record keeping. They help with diagnosis, treatment planning, communication with laboratories and specialists, and monitoring treatment outcomes.

We may contact you by telephone, email, SMS, WhatsApp or post about appointments, treatment, account matters, recalls, patient safety and related service communications. Marketing communications are handled separately under our privacy notice and your preferences.

8. Treatment outcomes, laboratory work and appliances

Dentistry and facial aesthetics involve biological systems and healing responses. For that reason, outcomes cannot be guaranteed and different people may respond differently to the same treatment.

• Natural teeth, roots, gums and bone can change over time.
• Restorations, retainers, splints, aligners and prostheses can wear, loosen, stain, chip or break in use.
• Smoking, vaping, grinding, clenching, trauma, poor oral hygiene, missed maintenance visits, medical conditions and delayed treatment can affect outcome and longevity.
• Shade, symmetry and aesthetics involve professional judgement and patient preference; photographs and try-ins reduce risk but do not remove all variation.

Where laboratory work, aligners, appliances or custom items have been ordered specifically for you, the related fees are usually non-refundable once manufacture has started unless the law requires otherwise.

9. Limited remedial warranty for private restorative work

We want our work to last well and we stand behind treatment carried out to an appropriate professional standard. For new private definitive restorative work supplied and fitted by us, we may offer limited remedial support for proven technical failure for up to 12 months unless we state a different period in writing for a specific treatment.

• This applies to genuine technical failure of the restoration or appliance itself, assessed by our clinician, not to biological changes or new disease.
• It does not cover normal wear, staining, accidental damage, trauma, tooth decay, gum disease, tooth fracture, parafunction such as grinding, smoking-related complications, non-attendance, or failure to follow maintenance advice.
• It is conditional on you attending reviews, hygiene or maintenance visits as clinically recommended, and contacting us promptly if a problem arises.
• The remedy will normally be repair, adjustment, replacement or a reasonable credit towards remake work, rather than a cash payment, unless the law says otherwise.

Implants, grafting, endodontics and other biologically dependent treatment are subject to clinical risk and healing variation. We will always review any problem fairly and discuss the most appropriate next step with you.

10. Complaints and concerns

We are committed to handling concerns promptly, respectfully and fairly. If you are unhappy with any part of your experience, please contact us as soon as possible so that we have the best chance of putting things right.

• In the first instance, please contact Azure Dental at info@azuredentalclinic.co.uk or 01704 871743.
• If your complaint relates to private dental care and it is not resolved locally, you may be able to contact the Dental Complaints Service.
• If your complaint relates to NHS-funded care, you may also have a right to complain through the NHS complaints system.
• You can also share concerns about the service with the Care Quality Commission, although the CQC does not usually resolve individual compensation disputes.

11. If we need to change or cancel an appointment

Very occasionally, we may need to rearrange an appointment because of illness, equipment failure, clinical emergency, staff availability or another reason outside our reasonable control. If that happens, we will give you as much notice as we reasonably can and offer an alternative appointment as soon as possible.

We are not responsible for indirect or consequential loss arising from a rearranged appointment, but we will always try to minimise inconvenience.

12. Contact details

Azure Dental Clinic Ltd | Company No. 13808250

Azure Dental, 6 The Beacons, 1 School Lane, Formby, L37 3LN

Telephone: 01704 871743

Email: info@azuredentalclinic.co.uk

Website: www.azuredentalclinic.co.uk