Privacy notice

Who we are

Chingford Smile & Orthodontic Studio, 66 Station Road, Chingford, London, E4 7BA, is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice. You can contact us on 020 8529 1298 or at info@chingfordsmile.co.uk.

This notice covers your use of our website (chingfordsmile.co.uk) and is written in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and, where it applies, the EU GDPR.

Our practice is notified with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Our data controller can be contacted at the practice address or by telephone with any questions about the protection of your personal data.

Patient records

Our practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Details of our registration can be seen at www.cqc.org.uk. We comply with CQC requirements for patient records, both offline and online.

Definitions

Personal data: any information that can identify an individual, on its own or combined with other data — for example name, contact details, health information, online identifiers or IP addresses.

Data controller: the person or organisation that decides why and how personal data is processed. Data processor: an organisation that processes personal data on the controller's behalf. Data subject: the person the data is about.

Processing: anything done with personal data, electronically or manually, including collecting, recording, storing, using, sharing and erasing it.

UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018: the UK laws governing how personal data is used. PECR: the UK regulations covering cookies and electronic marketing.

What we collect

Contact details you provide through our enquiry forms, by telephone or by email; clinical records including your medical history, examination findings, radiographs and clinical photographs; and appointment and payment records.

Details of any feedback you give us by phone, email, post or social media, and message history if you contact us on social media.

Website analytics data, where you have consented to analytics cookies. This is aggregated and does not identify you personally.

Why we use it

To provide safe and appropriate dental care, to contact you about appointments and treatment, to process payments and finance arrangements, and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations as a dental practice.

Clinical information is processed on the basis of the provision of health care; enquiry details are processed on the basis of your consent and our legitimate interest in responding to you.

Our legal basis for processing

Consent: where you have given clear consent for a specific purpose — for example analytics cookies, marketing or clinical photography.

Contract: where processing is needed to provide treatment you have asked for, or to take steps before entering an agreement with you.

Legal obligation: where we must process data to comply with the law, including healthcare record-keeping and financial regulations.

Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests, such as responding to enquiries and keeping our website secure, unless your interests override them.

Health information is special category data. We process it because it is necessary for the provision of health care (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h)).

How long we keep it

Adult dental records are retained for a minimum of eleven years after your last visit. Records for children are kept until their 25th birthday, or their 26th if they were seventeen at the last appointment. Enquiry details that don't lead to registration are deleted within twelve months.

Who we share it with

We never sell your information. We share it only where necessary — for example with dental laboratories, specialist colleagues to whom you're referred, or finance providers where you've applied for a payment plan — and always with appropriate safeguards in place.

We may also disclose information where required by law, a court order or a regulator, or to prevent or investigate crime. We check that any provider acting on our behalf handles your data in line with data protection law.

Our website may link to other websites run by trusted third parties. They have their own privacy notices, which we encourage you to read.

Clinical photography

Before-and-after photographs are only published on this website or on social media where you have given specific written consent. You can withdraw that consent at any time and we will remove the images from material we control.

Translation and third-party services

While you browse in English, this website loads no external scripts, fonts or tracking from third parties — everything is served from our own site.

If you choose a language other than English from the language selector, the website loads Google's translation service (translate.google.com) to translate the page. This sends standard connection information, such as your IP address and the address of the page being viewed, to Google LLC, subject to Google's privacy policy, solely for the purpose of translation. Switching back to English stops this.

Marketing

Where you have given consent, or it is in our legitimate interests, we may send you information about our services by email or text message. You can unsubscribe at any time by contacting us, using the 'unsubscribe' link in emails, or replying 'STOP' to texts.

Your rights

You have the right to be informed about how we use your data; to access a copy of your records (a Subject Access Request); to have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected; to request erasure or restriction of processing; to data portability; to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing; and not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing.

Some rights are limited for health records — for example, we must keep dental records for the legal retention periods above, so they cannot be erased early.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact the practice. We will respond within one month, which may be extended by a further two months for complex requests; we will tell you if this applies.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113, and you may seek a judicial remedy.

Verifying your identity

To protect your information, we may ask you to confirm your identity before responding to a request. You may appoint an authorised representative to make a request on your behalf with signed written permission or a power of attorney.

Keeping your data secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information against loss, unauthorised access, misuse or alteration, including encrypted connections and restricted, password-protected staff access.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the bottom of this page shows when it was last updated, and significant changes will be highlighted on our website. Contact us if you would like a copy of the previous version.

Do you need extra help?

If you would like this notice in another format, such as audio, large print or braille, please contact us on 020 8529 1298 or at info@chingfordsmile.co.uk.

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