May 2024

Welcome to our Borough Blog. With practice expansion, a new dentist joining, investments in technology, 10^th anniversary celebrations, building plans and a charity initiative, I think this is probably the busiest edition we have ever written!

Welcome to Richard!

Our first exciting news is that highly-regarded local dentist, Richard Budworth, is joining The Borough Team later this year. We are delighted to have such a brilliant new addition to the team, and so be able to open our Practice once more to new patients.

After graduating from Birmingham University in 1998, Richard served as a military dentist for seven years, before working at The Barn Dental Practice in Odstock. From there, he started The River Dental Practice in Stockbridge in 2008 – an award winning fully private practice that he built to be one of the leading practices in Hampshire. Having recently sold his practice, and living locally to Downton, Richard is thrilled to be joining The Borough team for this next stage of his career. You can read more about Richard on our website.

Hygiene Capacity increasing

In addition, we will shortly be recruiting a new hygienist and significantly increasing our hygiene capacity at the Practice. We look forward to introducing new members of the team in the next blog!

Building Plans

To accommodate Richard’s arrival and provide greater hygiene capacity, we will shortly be embarking on a final expansion of the dental practice with a fourth surgery room. We will be building a 1^st floor extension to accommodate a 2nd state-of-the art decontamination room, as well as a small two-storey extension to enlarge the waiting room downstairs and create a new seating area upstairs too. Inevitably, there will be some temporary disruption and building noise as this work is completed over the summer months, as well as scaffolding over much of the building. We will, of course, make every effort to keep disruption and noise to a minimum. Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.

Job Opportunities

We will also be looking for a new dental nurse and a new receptionist to join our team. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please contact our Practice Manager, Laura, here for more details.

New Technology

As part of our expansion, we are investing over £100,000 in the latest dental technology to improve the patient experience and the services we offer. This includes a new state-of-the-art scanner, which will enable us to remove the need to take ‘impressions’ for many treatments, including some crowns, some dentures, mouthguards and retainers. Instead of impressions, a non-invasive digital scan of the mouth is taken using a small intra-oral camera. This creates an incredibly accurate digital model of the mouth, which can then be sent over the internet to dental laboratories instantly, rather than taking a physical mould with impression material to be collected by vehicle or sent through the post!

We have also invested in an innovative new technology called Air-flow for hygiene care. This uses air technology and warm water, rather than the traditional ultra-sonic scaler with cold water that can cause discomfort during hygiene treatments, particularly for patients with sensitive teeth. It is particularly good for removing staining pain-free. We plan to give every patient the opportunity to receive a hygiene treatment using this new device during upcoming appointments with the hygienist.

Invisalign Orthodontics

From this Autumn, we will be offering in-house clear aligner orthodontics, using the most advanced and popular clear aligner system in the world, Invisalign. Rather than traditional fixed brackets and metal wires, Invisalign uses a series of clear, thin aligners to steadily move teeth into the desired positions. More than 15 million patients have benefitted from Invisalign over the last 25 years, during which time the Invisalign system has become one of the most established and recognised brands in orthodontics.

Our new dentist, Richard Budworth, has been providing Invisalign orthodontics for many years, helping hundreds of his patients to achieve a straighter and more confident smile. He will be offering a free promotional initial assessment clinic for patients across the Practice interested in Invisalign on Friday 4^th October (limited spaces available). Please contact reception here to register your interest and book an appointment.

Invitation to our 10-Year Celebration Tea Party!

We would like to cordially invite all our patients to a Garden Tea Party on Sunday 7^th July, 2024 between 2pm and 4pm. Tea and scones will be served in the Dental Practice garden, or Downton Memorial Hall if the weather is unsettled. We hope to have some musical accompaniment from the Downton Community Choir. There will also be the opportunity to donate to local charities if you wish (see below).

Please RSVP here by 21^st June if you would like to come so we know how many scones to make! (+ any dietary requirements)

The Borough Dental Practice sponsors The River Festival!

As many of you will know, the annual Cuckoo Fayre was sadly cancelled this year. As well as a wonderful village event, The Cuckoo Fayre has always provided a crucial fundraising opportunity for a number of wonderful village organisations to raise vital funds for their activities.

Community leaders in the village have therefore devised a Downton River Festival for 2024, to provide a platform for those important village organisations to be able to publicise replacement fundraising activities and events to replace the Cuckoo Fayre shortfall.

As part of our 10^th anniversary celebrations, we have decided to match-fund up to £1,000 each to ten Downton organisations who normally rely on fundraising at the Cuckoo Fayre to encourage their alternative fundraising activities.

There is an upcoming meeting on 21st May (see here for details) for these Downton organisations and anyone who would like to support these important organisations with an event this summer. We hope to publish the ‘Downton Riverfest’ events calendar in a future blog!

Thank you for all your support over the last ten years, and for your patience and understanding as we complete one last expansion at the Practice this Summer!

With best wishes,

Jenny