Dental Access Centre

About

Dental Access Centre in Hereford forms part of Wye Valley NHS Trust’s dental access centres, providing urgent support in line with national guidelines for dentistry. The service is currently operating to offer dental pain relief when required for urgent treatment, alongside urgent advice via clinic contact details. For people needing advice, weekday evening advice clinics run from Monday to Thursday, 5.30pm to 8pm, and telephone lines open at 5pm. At peak times, patients are triaged according to clinical need, with the most urgent cases prioritised, and the reception team completes Covid-19 screening questions over the telephone. The centre also explains NHS charges: care delivered through a Dental Access Centre is the same as that offered with a local NHS dentist, with patients asked to pay the same NHS charges and supported if they are exempt. For out-of-hours urgent dental advice, the guidance directs patients to call 111, while true dental emergencies such as uncontrollable bleeding after extraction or rapidly increasing swelling affecting swallowing or breathing should be treated as an emergency, with advice to call 999 or attend the nearest A&E.