Happy Easter 🐣

Because it’s Easter Sunday today I decided I would put on some proper clothes and give the joggies and pyjamas a day off. After getting dressed, day 21 of lockdown for us started with an Easter egg for breakfast for the whole family. You might be surprised to hear that from a family of dentists but to be honest I would confidently bet that all dental professionals have the sweetest tooth of any other line of work. For any dentists or dental nurses reading this – tell me I’m wrong and there’s no secret stash of goodies in the staff room??

Im actually glad we’ve restocked up on the home treats after Raashi and I demolished the chocolate caramel coconut cake from our staff bake off last week. That was good fun and this week I’m looking forward to the ‘Ready steady cook’ challenge. We’ll be inviting patients to join us on that one so watch this space for details.

We’re blessed to have a nice garden at home so it’s been great having the nice weather to enjoy. Certainly makes the lockdown much easier being able to ‘chill’ outside in the fresh air. One thing I’ve realised during the past 3 weeks though is that my 3 year old in fact has no chill. Her friend Jack taught her the game of saying…’Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy’……….then when I respond she replies………’nothing’…and runs off. That seems to be her go to game when all else is quiet at the minute. 🤦🏻‍♂️

She seems to be weaning off her afternoon naps at the moment too so I’ve had to resort to the following measures to catch up on some sleep during our Disney films:

‘Daddy no closing your eyes’ …………’Ok’

p.s. these walls were not drawn on while I was napping!😆 We’re stripping it next week so let the girls explore their artistic flair

We tried a game today of playing ‘Sandstorm’ on the piano and I had visions of our Easter concert going viral but in reality here’s how it went down:

Seems we have some more rehearsing to do.

This week coming we were due to open up our new dental practice but obviously all that has ground to a halt. The builders have been able to go in 1 by 1 to get some things finished off though so hopefully when we get the go ahead there won’t be too much left to do. It gives us more time to make it that bit extra special too!

Have a lovely Easter Weekend all and stay safe,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

The lowdown on lockdown

I’ve been writing this blog for almost a year and a half now once a week on a Sunday. I think last week though was the first time I’ve ever forgotten about it. Is it just me or do all the days seem to be the same under lockdown? I’m sure it was Tuesday before I realised we’d passed Sunday last week.

We’ve been trying to mix it up as much as we can at home in terms of different things for the kids to do, from baking to scavenger hunts, painting, hide and seek, and of course a good chunk of Disney films. To be fair they seem to be alright about not leaving the house much, so I guess we’re lucky with how young they are. It must be harder for parents with older children to keep them entertained, and hats off especially to those who are homeschooling!

I was actually due to come back to work from paternity leave when lockdown started so for me on the one hand it’s been really nice to extend that and spend more proper quality time with the family. On the other hand I do miss working and realise what a privilege it is to have a job that I really enjoy.

A lot of people have of course been able to continue to work from home and I wonder will that become much more common now after the pandemic is over? Obviously that can’t really be done for the dental profession which is a shame as I’ve got a good few ‘helpers’ when I’ve been trying to get some work done:

‘Working’ from home

Our dentists have been taking it in turns to answer the phones remotely during our normal working hours and now at the weekends too, so that’s actually been quite nice get to talk to some of our patients as normally it’s our reception staff who answer all the calls.

We’re missing seeing our staff every day too so really looking forward to our virtual staff bake off this week which will have to be judged purely on presentation only. I think this might work in my favour as for our last bake off my reduced sugar chocolate brownies all looked half decent but sadly ended up in the bin after the all important taste test. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Other quarantine activities for us include wallpaper stripping, zoom quizzes with friends and planting new veg in the garden (managed to harvest some spring onions that we first planted last year – again not too great on the taste test though, they might even just be some form of grass 🤷🏻‍♂️😳.)

So I’d love to hear how our patients are spending their lockdowns too especially if there’s any good activities/suggestions/challenges to share!

Give us a call on our normal number 01415573488 or the practice Whatsapp 07469764766 if we can be of any help at the moment.

Take care all, stay safe and let’s hear how you’re spending your lockdowns!

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

Happy Mother's Day

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! 😎

Story time for all 3

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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

Coronavirus- TWDC practice update

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:

Braces on believe it or not ….Thank you 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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

It’s a Boy!

Family complete now…☺️

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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

The final countdown..

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:

ps we’re up to over a quarter of a million views now on our dancing tik tok ☺️🤣

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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

Going viral..

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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

On the bonny bonny banks…

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.

The highlights

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:

‘Toe’tally in awe…

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)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

Video tour of our latest building works…

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:

Carpark looking fab
Thanks to our head nurse Danielle’s BF Gary for the helmet – came in handy in the end!

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk

You know the drill..

Currently en route back to Glasgow on the train from a trip to Manchester to see the (not so) mighty Reds:

My dad and I in what used to be known as the ‘theatre of dreams’ . Theatre of bad dreams these days.

Went with my dad and two friends Jamie and Rory. The match itself was terrible, a boring 0-0, no shots affair. We made up for that with some shots of our own later on which was good fun but we are paying for it now with the sore heads on the train! Looking forward to getting home to a possible Chinese takeaway tonight.

My parents and grandparents are over visiting (and babysitting while I was away) this weekend so it’s been nice to have them over. My grandad was also in for an implant yesterday. Being a joiner I remember him teaching me how to use a drill when I was younger so I guess in some ways that training has paid off now.

I was keen to hear his thoughts on how the new premises build is going too. I got the nod of approval so it must be going well, Raashi was out sorting out the paint colours and decoration this week:

Raashi, our PM Sharon and builder Tommy (this is just after Raashi, 36 weeks pregnant, was climbing the ladder to the top floor! – Sharon and Tommy did try to hold her back to be fair)

In our current premises the sun-bed shop next door to us are actually doing building work of their own just now too and it’s been a little bit noisy so if you are hearing power tools in the waiting room please rest assured it’s definitely not coming from our drills. I think most of the noisy stuff is already done anyway.

Last week we asked for feedback and had a good idea from Gina Gina on our facebook page to install a water supply in the new waiting room so thank you to Gina for that – it’s now literally in the pipeline.

Still keen to hear any other good ideas like this one, really looking forward to welcoming everyone to the new place quite soon now.

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

Joseph Watson BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)

http://www.tiwariwatsondentalcare.co.uk