Cancellations, Failed and Missed Appointments Policy

We aim to provide all of our patients with the best possible service and to achieve this we need your cooperation.

It is inevitable that sometimes you may need to cancel or rearrange your dental appointments.

We would ask you to give as much notice as possible when cancelling an appointment so we have the opportunity to offer it to someone else, although we do understand that during an emergency this is not always possible. Non-attendance and cancellations at short notice without a valid reason deprive other patients of our services.

The first time a patient fails to attend a booked appointment we will send a letter or e-mail reminding them that in future they must cancel appointments if they are unable to attend.

After 2 failed to attend letters or e-mails we will advise you that we will no longer be able to book further appointments without prior payment to secure the appointment.

An appointment is considered to have been broken if any of the following occur

  • the patient fails to show up for the appointment
  • the patient appears more than 20 minutes late for a scheduled appointment, or
  • the patient calls to cancel an appointment with too little advance notice to allow that appointment time to be rescheduled with another patient (24 hours will be considered to be the minimum time necessary to avoid a broken appointment).

Patients who wish to cancel dental appointments must do so a minimum of 24 hours in advance of their scheduled appointment. If less notice is given without a valid excuse, the appointment will be considered to have been broken.