Dental Care

Locala Dental Care is a unique service that provides specialist led NHS dental care and treatment for children and adult special care patients living in Calderdale and Kirklees.

Our service user groups include adults who have:

moderate/severe and profound multiple learning disabilities;
moderate/severe physical and/or communication impairment;
moderate/severe chronic mental health conditions including dementia;
complex medical conditions;
People who require bariatric facilities (body mass index over 40);
For those people with a BMI between 30 and 40 there should be an additional health need, with the additional health need being the primary reason for referral.

We also provide specialist led paediatric dental services for children with:

moderate/severe and profound multiple learning disabilities;
moderate/severe physical and/or communication impairment;
moderate or severe behavioural problems;
severe dental anxiety or dental phobias;
children in need and with child protection plans, with additional or complex needs;
looked after children with additional or complex needs or complex social problems
other additional needs such as substance misuse;
clefts, abnormalities of dental development or dental trauma of increased complexity;
other complex dental conditions.

We also provide the following services:

Inhalation sedation in central clinics
Home visits for housebound patients

We visit patients who are housebound - what is meant by Housebound?

A patient is classed as housebound if they cannot leave their home at all, or if they require significant assistance to leave the house. A person who is housebound would be unable to receive their healthcare in a GP practice or clinic. A patient is not housebound if they are able to leave their home with minimal assistance and can attend their GP practice or clinic to receive their healthcare. This includes: the ability to use a wheelchair with no or minimal support; access to transport via relatives/friends; or the ability to use a taxi or community transport.

All of our premises are fully accessible for patients with disabilities and two of our clinics have specialist bariatric equipment, and equipment to support patients in wheelchairs.

When a person is assessed as no longer requiring care with Locala Dental Care they they MAY be discharged from our service. Circumstances will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Further information about finding an NHS dentist is available on this page.

Locala Dental Care operate out of six clinics in Calderdale and Kirklees and can be contacted via telephone on: 030 3330 9750. This phone line is manned from 8:30am to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday. There is a voicemail function outside of these hours.

Kirklees	Calderdale
Holme Valley Memorial Hospital	St Johns Health Centre
Princess Royal Community Health Centre	Todmorden Health Centre
Cleckheaton Health Centre
Batley Health Centre

Out of Hours Dental Care

If you require out of hours dental care, please see the information below.

Emergency Dental Service

NHS 111 Service

If you are experiencing a dental emergency are not registered with; a general dental practice, with Locala or if you are experiencing problems outside of normal dental hours, please ring NHS 111 for emergency advice and appointments. You can find out more about the NHS 111 service here.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide treatment to adults and children who can be seen in a general dental practice.

How to find an NHS dentist

Click here to see which dental practices are taking on patients in your area

If you are having trouble finding an NHS dentist, please visit the NHS website here and enter your home post code to find your nearest dental practice, along with their contact details so you can get in touch with them to find out if they are taking on new patients.

If after contacting several dental surgeries you still cannot find a dentist accepting NHS patients, you can call NHS England's Customer Contact Centre on 0300 311 2233.

NHS England commissions dental services in England and is required to meet the needs of their local population for both urgent and routine dental care.

Your local Healthwatch also may be able to give you information about services in your area. Please visit the Healthwatch to find the contact details of your local Healthwatch here.

What Our Patients Say

Patients are regularly asked about their experience. Locala respects the privacy of our patients and their carers and is committed to listening to a diverse population. Therefore our surveys are anonymous and include equality and diversity questions for monitoring purposes only.

Children and young people who responded to the survey left the following comments:

“The dentist lady was really nice and was really good.”

“Best guys, you helped me save my teeth.”

97% of patients who completed a Friends and Family Test response, said they were ‘Extremely likely’ or ‘Likely’ to recommend the Locala Dental Care to a friend of family member if they needed similar care or treatment.

Locala Dental Care also introduced the following improvements as a result of feedback:

Young people from the Locala Young People’s Network designed a questionnaire and word search and promoted a coloring competition, after children fed back that the waiting rooms were lacking entertainment activities, whilst waiting for appointments.
Feedback also said that the waiting room lights were too bright for children with sensory issues, so the light was changed to one that was less bright.

Click here to read Emma's Easy Read patient story.

Meet the Team

We are a team of over 50 colleagues including dentists, dental therapists/hygienists, dental nurses and administrators.

Some people find it very helpful to come and visit us before their first appointment.

If you feel this would help we would be delighted to see you and show you around.

Locala Dental Care also use Microsoft Teams and would be happy to have a chat over the phone, or by video call if you would find that helpful.

Please call the number above to arrange an appointment to come and meet us or to speak to us over the phone.

Get Involved with

At Locala Health and Wellbeing we are committed to our patients, and the wider community, is at the heart of all that we do. We want to hear what our patients and communities are saying, and involve you in how our community healthcare services are delivered. There are different ways you can get involved including:

Becoming a member - be better informed about Locala and our services, and receive invitations to complete surveys, attend events, be a mystery shopper, look at patient feedback and join in discussions - you can be involved as much, or as little, as you like.

Volunteering to work directly with our services - you can use your skills and experiences to support our services and benefit our patients.

Visit our 'Tell Us What You Think' - let us know what you think about the services you have used. We do listen and do make changes based on the feedback we get.

FAQs

Resources

To provide feedback on our service, please full in our Dental Patient Experience Survey here.