In order to provide dental care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, the reason why we hold it and what we do with it.
About us
We, Garvey’s Tower Dental, are operating at 1 Tower Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22. Those within the practice who have access to your information include dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment, as well as the reception staff responsible for the management and administration of the practice. We do our best to ensure that the practice complies with data protection requirements to ensure that we collect, use, store and dispose of your information responsibly.
Information that we hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the law. If we want to keep and use information about your health, we can only do so in particular circumstances. Below, we describe the information we hold and why, and the lawful basis for collecting and using it.
Contact details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, Personal Public Service (PPS) number, Medical Card number (if any), address, telephone number and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our contract with you to provide appointments. We will also use the information to send you reminders and recall appointments as we have a legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you aware of our services.
Dental records
We hold information about your dental and general health, including:
- Clinical records made by dental professionals involved with your care and treatment
- X-rays, clinical photographs (if any), digital scans of your mouth and teeth, as well as study models (if any)
- Medical and dental history
- Treatment plans and possibly consent
- Notes of conversations with you about your care
- Dates of your appointments
- Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
- Correspondence with you and other health professionals or institutions.
We collect and use this information to allow us to fulfil our contract with you, to discuss your treatment options and provide dental care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment we provide.
Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment details. This information is part of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows us to meet legal financial requirements.
Where your dental care is provided under the terms of the HSE or PRSI, we are required to complete statutory forms to allow payments to be processed. These are requirements of the HSE and the Department of Social Welfare.
How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you.
We will share your information with the HSE and/or the Department of Social Welfare in connection with your dental treatment.
We may contact you to conduct patient surveys or to find out if you are happy with the treatment you received for quality control purposes.
We will seek your preference for how we contact you about your dental care. Our usual methods are telephone, email or automated texts.
We may use your contact details to inform you of products and services available at our Practice (with your consent)
Sharing information
Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances where we need to share it – for example, with:
- Your doctor
- The hospital or community dental services or other health professionals caring for you
- Specialist dental or medical services to which we may refer you
- HSE or Department of Social Welfare payment authorities
- Dental laboratories
- Private dental schemes of which you are a member.
We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we share to the minimum necessary. We will let you know in advance if we send your medical information to another medical provider and we will give you the details of that provider at that time.
Keeping your information safe
We store your personal information securely on our practice computer system and in a manual filing system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those working at the practice have access to your information and they understand their legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this.
We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers.
We use high quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely.
Access to your information and other rights
You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. We do not usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons.
You can also request us to
- Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If we have disclosed that information to a third party, we will let them know about the change.
- Erase some of the information we hold. For legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your dental treatment). However, we can, if you ask us to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
- Stop using your information – for example, sending you reminders for appointments or information about our service. Even if you have given us consent to send you marketing information, you may withdraw that consent at any time.
- Stop using information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your information illegally.
- Supply your information electronically to another dentist.
If we are relying on your consent to use your personal information for a particular purpose, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop using your information for that purpose.
If you do not agree
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with your dentist. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your dental care.
