deposit and cancellation charge policy.
At tooth we will require a deposit when you book an appointment. This will be deducted from your bill for the relevant treatment at your next visit. We understand that things sometimes come up and that you may need to make changes to your appointment. We will always be as flexible as possible with our patients – that’s why the deposit will be refunded if you subsequently cancel the appointment with more than 48 hours’ notice.
However, we reserve the right to retain your deposit in case of late cancellations (any cancellation with less than 48 hours’ notice) or late arrivals which result in us not being able to see you (for example - arriving c15mins late for a 20-30min appointment). This may sound strict, but quite simply if you cancel with less than 48 hours’ notice it is very difficult for us to rebook your appointment slot or slots which means that we are unlikely to treat another patient in your place, or if you arrive too late to be seen we have still used the allocated slot without seeing anyone. This means that our team will not be treating any patients, but we’ll still have to pay them all and all of our running costs, so we will genuinely be significantly out of pocket, and it means that lovely patients just like you will have had to wait longer than they needed to for an appointment.
We will always try to be sensitive to personal circumstances in the event of late cancellations.
Deposit and Cancellation Fee Structure:
For check ups, Standard and Standard Plus hygiene appointments, and other appointments of 30 mins or less we will take a deposit of £25
For other dental treatments, such as Deluxe Shine, small/medium fillings etc., lasting up to 1 hour we will take a deposit of £50 (or the full cost of the treatment, whichever is lower)
For treatments over 1hr we will take a deposit of £100
For any treatments lasting longer than 2 hours we may take a deposit amounting to half the cost of the total treatment
For specialist appointments (such as implants or specialist endodontics) the deposit required may vary from specialist to specialist, dependent on the stage of the treatment and type of appointment. Full details will be given throughout the treatment plans.
Late Cancellation Fee for Pre-paid or On-going Treatments:
Some appointments don’t have a charge - for example if a patient has pre-paid for second stage of endo treatment, clear braces, or for other reasons, such as review appointments. However, late cancellations or no-shows still lead to a loss of chair-time and staff costs, just like a paid appointment would. For these appointments we reserve the right to apply a late cancellation fee to your account which will need to be cleared before additional or rescheduled appointments can be booked. This will be based on the following structure:
£25 (for appointments of 30 minutes or less)
£50 (for appointments over 30 minutes up to 1 hour)
£100 (for appointments over 1 hour)