Welcome To Appointment Cancellation

At Byways, we strive to render excellent dental care to you and the rest of our patients. In an attempt to be consistent with this, we have an Appointment Cancellation Policy that allows us to schedule appointments for all patients. When an appointment is scheduled, that time has been set aside for you and when it is missed, that time cannot be used to treat another patient.

Cancellation of an appointment

Patients are requested to give at least 48 hours’ notice to cancel a dental appointment. If you are unable to keep your appointment, we request that you please cancel it well in advance so that it may be offered to someone else. Non-attendance and cancellations at short notice deprives other patients of our valuable services. Cancellations can be made by telephone on: 01491 680412 or via email to info@bywaysdental.co.uk.

There is a fee for private dental appointments that are missed or cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice. The charges are as follows:

• Dentist appointments will be charged up to the value of the appointment missed.
• Hygienist & Specialist appointments will be charged at the full appointment rate.

Patients on any of our plans are also subject to payment for missed or late cancellation appointments.  Alternatively, you may lose your plan entitlement for that period.

For anybody seen on the NHS, if more than one NHS dental appointment is missed or cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice, we may no longer be able to see you on the NHS.

If you miss or cancel an appointment at short notice, you will be asked to pay the associated charges before booking any further appointments.  We will also ask you to pay a deposit towards your next booked appointment. 

We endeavour to remind patients by texts and emails of their appointments but please bear in mind this is a courtesy service.  If you do not receive a reminder from us for any reason, please do not assume your appointment has been cancelled.  We appreciate there are reasons why you may need to cancel your appointment at short notice.  If you feel you do need to, then please do get in touch with our reception team. 

Appointments are often wasted as people do not attend.   An average of 6 hours per month are being wasted. These appointments could have been used by other patients.

Deposit Policy

At byways Dental we will now require a deposit to be made when you are booking appointments. This will be deducted from your bill for the relevant treatment at your next visit. We understand that sometimes things can occur and you need to make changes to the appointment. We will always be as flexible as we can with our patients- that’s why your deposit will be refunded if you subsequently cancel the appointment with more than the 48 hours’ notice or can be help on your account for the next appointment.

However, we reserve the right to retain your deposit in case of late cancellations (any cancellation with less than 48 hours’ notice), failure to attend and arriving late to your appointment which will mean we cannot see you.

This may sound strict but as a small business this is a massive inconvenience to us and other patients who could have benefited from that appointment slot.   We will always try and be sensitive to personal circumstances in the event of late cancellations. 

Text messages and emails are sent out to help remind you of your appointments please do not rely upon these. It is your responsibility to remember the appointments you have made.

As a result of this the following situations are now where deposits will be taken:

1. All New patient examinations, consultations and hygiene appointments.
2. Dental treatment over an hour will require a minimum of £100 deposit
3. All specialist services like implant, oral surgery and periodontal consultations will be paid in full.
4. All specialist treatment up to half the cost of the proposed treatment will need to be paid. 

Any members of our practice plans will not need to pay a deposit for routine appointments with us or the hygienist included within your plan.