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Oral Surgery (QTOSS) Billingham and Oral Surgery (QDDOSS) Darlington/Durham – NHS AND PRIVATE REFERRAL

From 20th July Queensway Dental will resume provision of Tier 2 Oral Surgery service for Teesside and County Durham.

Initially we have been advised by NHS England that we can only accept urgent referrals and any patients deemed to require a Tier 1 procedure will be returned to the referring practitioner.

Patients already in our system prior to the pandemic will be contacted and categorised into urgent and non-urgent cases and prioritised accordingly. For non-urgent cases, if they develop symptoms, they will be asked to contact their referring dentist in the first instance and if appropriate can then be re-referred as urgent.

We would ask colleagues to review the guidance released by NHS England and the Oral Surgery Managed Clinical Network regarding urgent oral surgery referrals (this includes an expectation that practitioners will undertake basic oral surgery for extraction of teeth, prior to making referrals to the Tier 2 service.)

• COVID Guidance Criteria for Urgent Oral Surgery Referrals
• Oral Surgery Referral Sites North East – Updated August 2020
• COVID Oral Surgery Referral Form
• Oral Surgery Acceptance and Rejection Criteria

Update to Urgent Oral Surgery Referrals August 2020:
For referrals to Queensway Specialist Oral Surgery services, a face-to-face assessment with your patient to discuss the rationale for referral - as well as to ensure compliance with referral criteria and take appropriate radiographs - is required before making any urgent referral.

Please note:
We are not able to accept remote triage referrals (non-compliant with regional guidance), referral from non-secure NHS email addresses and we are phasing out paper-based referrals (in-keeping with LAT/LDC guidance you must arrange an NHS.net email address as soon as possible for future referrals).

3D Digital Imaging - CBCT referrals

We welcome referrals for Dental Cone Beam CT imaging (CBCT Scans) at our Billingham and Jesmond practices.

We have state of the art Planmeca Promax 3D Classic CBCT scanners. This machine takes high-quality three-dimensional images, whilst offering the proprietary Planmeca Ultra Low Dose™ imaging protocol. This enables 3D imaging with an even lower patient radiation dose than standard 2D panoramic imaging.

The pioneering imaging protocol is based on intelligent 3D algorithms that lower effective patient doses significantly without a statistical reduction in image quality – helping clinicians everywhere adhere to the ALARA principle (As Low As Reasonably Achievable).

The unit covers the entire dentition – making it an excellent option for full arch dental 3D imaging needs.

Depending on your requirements, the area of the scan can be limited to 50x50mm for local planning such as a single implant placement, endodontic investigation or pre-surgical assessment, an 80x 50mm scan can be taken for a full arch or an 80x80mm scan for both maxillary and mandibular arches.

The endodontic mode offers an extremely high resolution with a voxel size of 75 μm. Optimal for capturing even the smallest details, the mode enables precise diagnostics and treatment planning.

Planmeca ProMax 3D Classic volume sizes:

• 80 x 80 mm
• 80 x 50 mm
• 50 x 80 mm
• 50 x 50 mm
• Stitched volume 140 x 105 x 80 mm

We can send back scans to referring dentists either by a password protected memory stick or electronically through a secure cloud hosting service.

Please note that Queensway Dental does not offer a CBCT reporting service.

The fee for an unreported CBCT scan is £175.

Legal requirements

The Health Protection Agency require a service level agreement to be in place between the CBCT practice and referring practice. Before we can accept referrals, a service level agreement will be required outlining the training of the referring practitioner and to ensure requests are justified. Justification referral criteria can be seen in chapter 4 of the SEDENTEXCT evidence-based guidelines for Cone Beam CT for dental and maxillofacial radiology.

The prescribing dentist is required by The Health Protection Agency to have undertaken 'Core Training in CBCT' as outlined in the HPA-CRCE-010 report.