November 2024

Welcome to our Winter Blog!

We hope you are well.

Jenny standing atop the Practice under the scaffold ‘tin roof’ before work!

Building Work Completed

As patients who have visited us over the last six months will know, it has been a very busy and often, noisy time at the Practice! However, we are thrilled that the scaffolding has finally come down and, but for a few finishing touches of painting, the building work is now finished.

With an absolutely beautiful new state-of-the-art fourth surgery, a new waiting room and 2^nd central decontamination room upstairs, and an extended waiting room downstairs, we couldn’t be happier with our renovations.

Our new 4th surgery

Our new upstairs waiting room

Our new upstairs decontamination room

Our extended downstairs waiting room

We are biased, of course, but we are confident our Practice must be one of the best equipped and spacious in the UK offering an outstanding clinical environment for patients and staff.

Our new dentist, Richard Budworth

Thank you so much for your patience while the building work has been undertaken. This is the last expansion we intend at the Practice, so it will now return to being an oasis of peace and tranquillity!

Richard Budworth has Started!

Richard has completed his first few days at The Borough. A highly respected and experienced local dentist who built up a leading private practice at Stockbridge, Richard is joining the Practice full-time from January. Richard adds:-

“I am so delighted to be moving to The Borough to work alongside such a lovely and experienced team of clinicians and support staff. My new surgery is fantastic and so well-equipped with the latest technology to help me provide great dental care to my patients. It is the little touches, like the screen on the ceiling for patients to watch nature programmes during longer treatments, that really enhances the patient experience. I couldn’t be happier!”

The Downton Community Choir in action!

Our 10th Anniversary Party!

In July 2024, The Borough Dental Practice celebrated its 10^th anniversary with a tea party for nearly 200 patients and guests. The weather was wet, so the planned garden party moved indoors to the Memorial Hall. The beautiful cream teas, accompanied by fantastic entertainment from both The Downton Band and The Downton Community Choir, more than made up for the rainy weather outside! Over £300 was raised on the day for the Downton Band.

The celebration marked an incredible ten years at the Practice. We have just printed a newsletter describing a decade of development, which also includes a £30 credit for New Patients joining the Practice to see Richard Budworth. Click here or on the newsletter to read more!

‘Introduce a Friend’ Voucher

In just over a decade, The Borough Dental Practice has grown from zero patients to being one of the leading private practices in the region with over 4,000 patients. This has largely been due to ‘word of mouth’ recommendations, which is always the most heartening way to grow, and for which we thank all our patients. As we build up Richard’s book, we are delighted to offer an ‘Introduce a Friend’ voucher. Please click here to print off the voucher to give to a friend or family member who doesn’t yet belong to the Practice. It will give them £15 towards future treatment after their New Patient Examination with Richard Budworth (£95 including x-rays), and we will credit £15 to your account for future care too as a thank-you!

Bookings must be made by 12 noon on 24^th December, and the New Patient Examination completed before Easter, 2025. Paper vouchers are also available in the dental practice.

Daily Hygiene Care and welcome Anna

We are delighted that, with the expansion to a 4^th surgery, we are now able to offer hygiene care every day from Monday to Friday! Kerrie is stepping up to four days a week, and we are thrilled to have welcomed a new Dental Therapist and Hygienist, Anna Smith, to the Practice. Anna lives in Southampton but hails from the North-East and is working with us on Thursdays. Along with a gentle touch and warm personality, Anna brings a wealth of skills as both a hygienist and trained dental therapist. As well as hygiene care, a Dental Therapist is able to provide simple fillings, fissure sealants and other treatments, particularly for children. Welcome Anna!

We are now an accredited EMS Air Flow Provider

In the last blog, we announced that we had recently purchased a state-of-the-art Swiss-made piece of technology called AIRFLOW for hygiene appointments. This system uses air and body-temperature warm water to remove scale from tooth/gum margins, rather than the traditional cold-water with vibrating metal scaler. As well as disrupting the biofilm (reducing the bad bacteria) it is also much more comfortable during treatment, especially for those with sensitive teeth.

Rather than only offering the AIRFLOW treatment as an expensive premium service as many practices do, we decided as a trial to incorporate use of the EMS into regular standard hygiene treatments. This has received a huge ‘thumbs-up’ from our patients, one saying:- ‘For decades I’ve dreaded hygiene appointments due to my sensitive gums. With the new machine, it is almost a pleasant experience!’

Thanks to positive patient feedback, despite the purchase cost (roughly the cost of a new car!) and the ongoing consumables costs, we have decided to offer it as part of a standard hygiene treatment going forwards.

Musana Pop-Up Shop for Christmas

In Summer 2023, Jenny and her family had the privilege of visiting an extraordinary organisation in Uganda called Musana. Musana is a Community Development Organisation who use seed-funding from the West to build high quality schools, hospitals, dental clinics and other community enterprises that are 100% self-sustaining once established and run entirely by Ugandans. In fact, Musana uses profits generated locally (nearly US$1/2 million in the last twelve months) to help support thousands of families who can’t afford education or medical care. Musana also runs Women’s Empowerment Centres to teach and equip particularly young single mothers with a skill with which they can support their families.

The Pop-Up Shop at the Practice

The Women’s Empowerment Centre in Uganda

This Christmas, we are delighted to be hosting a pop-up shop full of wonderful gift items made in the Women’s Empowerment Centre in Iganga (and some wooden Christmas decorations donated by a local artist), with all proceeds going to Musana. Please feel free to come early to your appointment or just call in. Please bring cash, including change, with you, as the shop is on a self-serve honesty box system!

Jenny has recently become a trustee of the newly formed Musana UK charity and we are hoping over the next few years to bring you more news about their work. In the meantime, please visit www.musana.org for more information.

Newest addition to the Team!

And finally, the most exciting part of the blog!

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of The Borough family, Rosalie Mia Lane (Rosie), who was born to our dental nurse, Tash, and her partner Charlie on Thursday 8^th August weighing in at 7lb 3oz.

We have had several lovely lunchtimes sharing cuddles and we look forward to welcoming Tash back in 2025!

Lover Baby Bank

Continuing the baby theme, we would like to give a ‘shout out’ to an amazing local organisation who helped a friend of ours recently in a crisis. Run entirely by volunteers, they collect good quality, pre-loved baby and infant items and, after thorough cleaning and safety checks, distribute them to families in need across Salisbury, Downton, Fordingbridge and surrounding villages. Visit www.loverbabybank.co.uk to find out more!

Thank you again for all your understanding and patience with our recent building project. We hope you enjoy our new facilities!

With best wishes,

Jenny