DS Dental Studio is a general dental practice in White City, London offering private dental treatment. The practice treats adults and children.

The premises consists of a waiting area on the ground floor, a reception area an accessible treatment room on the ground floor and two treatment rooms on the first floor. There is also a separate decontamination room.

The staff at the practice consist of the principal dentist, two associate dentists, a practice manager, a receptionist (who is also a registered dental nurse) and three other dental nurses. The practice has the services of a two part time dental hygienists who carry out preventative advice and treatment on prescription from the dentists.

The practice manager is the registered manager. 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.

We spoke with one patient on the day of our inspection and reviewed 40 comment cards that had been completed by patients. All comments reflected very positive views of the care and treatment patients had received at DS Dental Studio. Common themes were patients felt they received excellent and professional care from caring and friendly staff who treated them with respect and listened to them.

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

Our key findings were:

• 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.

• Patients told us through comment cards they were treated with kindness, professionalism and respect by friendly and caring staff who listened to them.
• Patients were able to make routine and emergency appointments when needed. There were clear instructions for patients regarding out of hours care.

• The practice had effective systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided.
• The practice had systems in place to regularly seek and act on feedback from patients and staff for the purposes of continually evaluating and improving the service provided.

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Ensure a file is maintained to identify and manage the risks associated with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
• Ensure a system is established for the stock control of medicines stored at the practice.
• Ensure an effective system is established to assess, monitor and mitigate the risks relating to the health, safety and welfare of patients, staff and visitors.

• Ensure the practice infection prevention and control processes are audited every six months to ensure compliance with Department of Health essential standards.

As part of our inspection, we spoke to five patients and looked at recent survey results. People told us that they had experienced good quality dental care and treatment at DS Dental Studio. They told us that they felt involved with planning their treatment after receiving good information from the dentists about their options and likely costs.

People who used the service told us they were treated with respect, had their privacy protected and felt safe.