Ark-G Dental & Cosmetics Centre is a general dental practice in Crayford offering both NHS and private treatment. The practice treats adults and children.

The premises consist of a waiting area adjacent to the reception desk and four treatment rooms. There are also two decontamination rooms, clearly separating clean and dirty zones. This is considered best practice in accordance with Department of Health guidance.

The staff structure of the practice consists of the two practice owners (both principal dentists and clinical directors), two other dentists, a practice manager, two dental nurses and two trainee dental nurses.

The practice is a training practice for the Dental Foundation Training (DFT) scheme. DFT provides postgraduate dental education for newly qualified dentists in their first (foundation) year of practice; usually within general dental practices. One of the principal dentists (also the registered manager) is a trainer for the DFT scheme and provides clinical and educational supervision. The practice currently has one dentist who is in their first (foundation) year of practice.

A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the practice is run.

Our key findings were:

We found that this practice was providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

• There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection. We found all treatment rooms and equipment appeared very clean.

• There were systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced regularly, including the suction compressor, autoclave, fire extinguishers, oxygen cylinder and the X-ray equipment.

• We found the dentists regularly assessed each patient’s gum health and took X-rays at appropriate intervals.

• The practice ensured staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of patients.

• The practice participated in an apprenticeship scheme for dental nurses and supported two trainee dental nurses in attending a two year course which would eventually enable them to qualify and register with the GDC.

• The practice kept up to date with current guidelines when considering care and treatment needs of patients.

• At our visit we observed staff were kind, caring, competent and put patients at their ease.

• We reviewed 19 comment cards that had been completed by patients. Common themes were patients felt they were given clear explanations of treatment options and received excellent care in a very clean environment from a friendly and caring practice team.