The opening of a brand-new dental practice in Swindon has coincided with the news that thousands of extra appointments have been made available for people needing urgent help with their teeth.
Abbey Meads Dental Practice, located in the north of the Wiltshire town, celebrated opening to patients on Friday 16 January, having first been visited a day earlier by Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock MP.
With 11 treatment rooms and enough solar panels to make the site completely self-sufficient, the new dental practice aims to help more Swindon families than ever before take control of their oral health.
Ebrahim Iravani, Business Manager, Abbey Meads Dental Practice, said:
“A healthy smile is one of the most important aspects of any person’s overall wellbeing, and we hope that our new premises will make accessing vital dental care and treatment much easier and straightforward for people of all ages, particularly young children, who live in this part of Swindon.”
The move to the new state-of-the-art practice building follows an extremely busy period for the team at Abbey Meads Dental Practice, which was first established more than 20 years ago.
With a keen focus on prevention and community engagement, the team have worked closely with a number of local schools, as well as nearby care homes, to ensure that dental health and general oral hygiene remain a constant, non-negotiable part of people’s everyday self-care routine.
In the last year alone, Abbey Meads Dental Practice have offered school-based dental screenings to over 5,000 children from fifteen schools across Swindon, as part of their voluntary outreach programme.
The decision to work more closely with schools was made after official data showed that children in Swindon were more likely to require tooth extractions in hospital than their peers living elsewhere in the country.
Prioritising good dental health in children is a key priority for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, which became responsible for commissioning local dental services in April 2023.
As part of ongoing work to empower more people to look after their smile, thousands of extra appointments for urgent dental care have been made available, with approximately 700,000 having been created across the country.
People do not need to be registered with a dental practice to access one of the thousands of new appointments, as these slots have been specially created to support those whose dental needs require urgent medical attention.
Some of the conditions for which people can access these new appointments include worsening mouth infections, severe mouth pain that can’t be relieved through over-the-counter medicines, broken teeth following an accident and knocked out baby teeth.
Jonathan Bower-Davies, Chief Dentist, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, said:
“These additional urgent appointments should make a real difference to people who need timely dental care, as we know from experience that letting problems worsen will only ever have a negative and adverse effect on a person’s long-term smile.”
People can access an urgent dental appointment through NHS 111, either online at www.111.nhs.uk or by calling 111 from any mobile or landline.
More information about local dental services can be found online at www.bsw.icb.nhs.uk.
