Author: Tiwari Watson Dental Care

A big Happy Mothers day to all the amazing mums out there today! My own mum is thankfully safely isolating/social distancing at the moment and there are worse places to do so than her beach front caravan in County Down. Would love to be there but glad she is well and Facetime does the trick for now!

As for Raashi – the wonderful mum to our now 3 beautiful children (and we can’t forget about the dog Fergie), we’ll be doing our best to spoil her today about the house, maybe enjoying some of this sunshine in the garden! 😎

When the kids were asleep yesterday I took the opportunity to make the most of the sunshine myself and make a #stayathomechallenge:

So for a bit of fun/something to do while isolating I challenge our patients/friends/family to beat that – or of course tempt me to any other #stayathomechallenge !

As for our work/practice you may have noticed our updates regarding the coronavirus during the week. Following government guidance we have decided to go to an emergency service only, operating from 9-1pm Monday – Friday. Dentistry is mainly ‘aerosol generating’ and we have been rightly advised not to carry out such procedures. So until further notice please bear with us while we work through our list of appointments and let everyone know what needs to be rescheduled. As a reminder we are also offering a free WhatsApp video call with our dentists for advice only so please make use of this if required: 07469764766.

Tonight one of our friends Stuart is organising a group zoom call for an inaugural social distancing quiz which i’m really looking forward to 😆. Team Sherlockdown Homes and Dr’s Watson are ready and primed 🕵️‍♂️

It does seem inevitable that we will follow Europe and go into lockdown at some point, which is a scary thought. So I hope everyone stays safe and well, and let’s hear more of the social distancing ideas or #stayathomechallenge to keep all our spirits up and help protect our NHS!

With all the retired doctors, nurses, medical students and companies capable of making ventilators being drafted in it’s clear the threat to our health service is severe. It’s heartbreaking and deeply concerning to see the situation in Italy at the moment too. So we all need to do our part to help each other out. There is talk that dental teams might be asked to help out in the wider NHS where possible in the coming weeks – team TWDC are ready💪🏼!

Please Stay home where possible and stay safe all ❤️

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

Firstly, with everything going on just now; I would like to clarify that until any further changes from a government level, we are still open and operating as normal for our patients. All dental practices have very strict infection control procedures including disinfection of all surfaces between patients, using mostly single use equipment which is disposed of in a clinical waste bin and then incinerated, and any re-usable instruments are sterilised on site in special vacuum autoclaves at 134 degrees.

We are however taking some further precautions and making arrangements given the seriousness of the spread of coronavirus. Namely:

1. Following the health secretary comments about self isolation for over 70’s this morning, all patients in this age bracket will be offered to reschedule their appointments in the coming weeks. We can however work with you to arrange a suitable appointment when no other patients are around if required, helping to minimise the risk of transmission.
   
2. We are removing every second chair in our waiting area so that there is an increased social distance between patients. We will also be seeing less patients at the moment but in event that all the seats are taken we will kindly invite some people to wait outside/in their car until their appointment time. It would also be helpful if you can come alone to your appointment where possible.
   
3. As we will be seeing less patients in the next few weeks, for any of those who are self isolating but have no way of getting supplies in, please give us a call and if we can help with that in any way we’d be happy to.
   
4. All books, magazines and newsletters have been removed from our waiting room.
   
5. Regarding payment we would kindly ask if you can use contactless or card where possible as this avoids cash handling for patients and staff alike.
   
6. In the event that we do need to close in the coming weeks we have preemptively teamed up with 3 other local dental practices so that any patients requiring emergency dental treatment will still have access to a dentist. In this event, you would still contact us first as normal and we would organise the referral.
   
7. With that being said we are also making it easier for our patients to get in touch with us and are now on WhatsApp. If you need to make or reschedule an appointment you can contact us using the normal pathways and also now by WhatsApp on 07469764766.
   
8. For patients who are self isolating and require any dental advice this means we can now arrange for a video call with one of our dentists where possible.

This final point can be mainly for advice only, to chat about treatment options with our treatment co-ordinator Danielle, and even to review progress with some of our Invisalign (invisible braces) patients.

On that note I actually just had my own ones fitted during the week with our dentist Laura:

So to summarise we are still here for our patients and and will aim to carry on as normal as we can until as a whole we are through this thing.

And we will get through it. Be careful and be safe.

Best,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

Baby Ronan arrived on Monday in the early hours safe and sound and mum is doing great too. Our dog Fergie and I were previously outnumbered with all the girls but thankfully now Ronan has evened the teams up! If we ever get a family game of football boys v girls I’d say the boys have it; provided of course Fergie doesn’t get too distracted in defence by running off and barking at the aeroplanes.

We got out of hospital the same day and I’ve got to say I was so impressed and grateful to the hospital staff and the NHS in general. The service is absolutely unreal and when I read about access to health care in other countries I realise how lucky we are here with our NHS.

I’m proud that our practice has it’s small role to play in that as although we offer all the private/cosmetic treatments too, we are first and foremost a family orientated NHS dental practice and will always be so.

I’m very grateful to our friends and family too as this week they have been providing us with so much free food and treats, we haven’t had to cook a thing yet. It’s actually got me thinking maybe we should have another one…😆

Apart from popping into work to finish a couple of things off i’ll be on paternity leave for the next 2 weeks which pretty much takes us to April. That will be a busy month as we move to our new premises in mid April.

Logistically it will be tricky as we need to go down to 1 surgery for a couple of days so please bear with us – we promise to keep the inconvenience to a minimum and trust me it’s all worth it as the new place is looking great!

So there’s a lot happening at once just now, but i’m sure baby Ronan would agree life is a rollercoaster and you just gotta ride it.

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

I finished up work yesterday for the next couple of weeks of paternity leave so hoping we’ve timed it right and our 3rd baby arrives this weekend! It was a busy last week with a bit of a delay in the new premises build, 1: due to the weather with storm season firmly upon us and secondly as we were thinking for a minute of extending the extension but had to abort the plans after the sewage pipes got in the way.

Back on track now for the move over by the end of April anyway.

Only a few days to go for Raashi so Nanny, auntie & uncle have kindly offered to baby and dog sit for us today so we can relax at home.

Couldn’t resist the urge to make a tik tok while they were all leaving:

So im off now to make the most of the kid free Sunday – probably our last one for a few Years.

Have a good week everyone and hopefully by next blog we’ll have one extra sprog. 🤞🏼

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

I’m a bit tired this morning as I set my alarm to get up at 4.45am for the Fury v Wilder boxing fight last night. Glad I did in the end though, so much respect for Tyson Fury for overcoming the serious mental health and weight issues to get to the very top of world heavyweight boxing. What a legend! I think they’ll make a good film out of that at some point. The ‘Rocky Balboa’ film isn’t far off the story – he’s like Fury;

Ivan Drago is the Vladimir Klitschko, Apollo Creed is Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury’s wife is of course ‘AdriiiiiaaaaAan’.

Talking of films, Raashi and I went to the cinema last night to see ‘Greed’ starring Steve Coogan. It was a bit of a rubbish film- especially after comparing it to ‘The Gentleman’ which we went to see two weeks ago. And yes we’re trying to make the most of the last couple of weeks of only having the two babies to look after so we roped in Raashi’s mum Manju for the babysitting duties again last night!

Raashi only has a couple of weeks to go now and ironically somehow I managed to convince her to do a ‘tick tock’ challenge this week. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a silly video/dance app that is a colossal waste of time – but quite addictive and a good laugh. We posted this little dance on Thursday night and so far we’ve reached over 121,000 views:

Now that’s probably at least 21,000 of us just watching it back ourselves but I’d say its the closest we’ve come to ‘going viral’ since that time both of our girls had the chicken pox at the same time.

Off now for a dog walk while we have 5 minutes of storm free weather by the looks of it….

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

This valentines day we gave away a prize for a stay at the old course hotel in St Andrews and after our live facebook draw on Friday the lucky winner was Emmy Ems. There were more than 600 valid entries so well done Emmy and we hope you enjoy your stay!

Raashi and I actually had a surprise valentines win of our own too in the form of an invite to Loch Lomond golf hotel courtesy of Mr Ali at the Scottish Centre for Excellence in Dentistry. We’ve never been before (as it can’t even be booked!) but if there’s 1 word to describe it, it is just ‘WOW’.

Firstly… the views – incredible! Loch Lomond is absolutely stunning. The food was delicious, the spa sublime, and the complimentary decanter of whiskey in the rooms wasn’t too bad either! It was such a nice thing to do with just a couple of weeks before our 3rd addition arrives.

Im not too much into art especially after that time a banana duct taped to a wall sold for £120,000 but I couldn’t help appreciate some of the hotels paintings:

The whole place actually had a no phone rule in the evening which was great as dinner time got me off the new app i’m addicted to called ‘tik tok’. Lots of funny silly videos on it so im allowing myself another week of procrastinating before that gets deleted!

Looking forward to this week coming as ill be getting my invisalign clear braces fitted by our dentist Laura (my bottom teeth are fighting each other for pole position). Laura is offering £500 off Invisalign for her first 10 patients and still has a couple of these left so get in touch soon if you’d like straight teeth with invisible braces!

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

Went out to check how the builders were getting on at our new premises today and as promised previously theres a sneak peak at our new signage:

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)