This was the first inspection since the provider registered the practice with the commission in July 2013. This scheduled inspection was to assess if patients received a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led service. The dental practice offered appointments six days a week, surgery sessions were shared between the four dentists who saw both NHS and private patients.

During the inspection we spoke with the principal dentist/ registered manager, the practice manager, the dental nurse and the receptionist on duty. We also spoke to one of the associate dentists who attended the inspection to assist with providing support to the staff team. We did not speak with any patients using the service on the day of the inspection as there were only a small number of patients attending the surgery that day. Only one of the two dental surgeries was in use. We looked at the facilities and the environment. We reviewed records relating to the management of the service, the employment of staff, and sampled the quality assurance systems in place.

We found patients received a safe and effective service. One patient had put on the practices’ social media site “I’ve been coming here for years and always had brilliant service and treatment.” Another patient had said, “A dentist that is a pleasure to visit!” Staff were caring and responsive to patients’ needs. This was because we saw patients’ remained with the surgery for many years and from comments in their own quality assurance processes we read patients valued staffs attitude and found a "Very friendly atmosphere and very relaxing" and “Very understanding, (as) I get nervous.”

Patients were provided with treatment at a well-managed and well led service. This was because the provider had systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service. Where areas of improvement were seen to be needed they took action to make the changes to improve the experiences and outcomes for patients.