An increasing number of surgical procedures have been diverted from hospitals to "private day procedure centres" which act like "mini-hospitals". Many people use the terms “dental clinic” and “day procedure centre” interchangeably. The confusion is understandable, but please be minded that they are not exactly the same thing and we are going to introduce the features of "Dental Day Procedure Centre" in Hong Kong. Which setting you need depends on the problem, and how urgent dental problems are triaged explains the distinction.
Q: Is the standard equal to private hospitals?
Dental Day Procedure Centres in Hong Kong are regulated by law, and from 2020, they need to apply for a day procedure centre license from the Department of Health. According to the compliance guidelines issued by the Department of Health, the medical equipment and specifications of dental day procedure centres are close to or even equal to those of private hospitals.
Q: Do they include several types of dental specialties?
Some larger dental day procedure centres provide the same multi-specialty dental services as hospitals. Dental specialists of different disciplines are regularly in attendance to meet the different oral treatment needs of the patients and the most common specialists are set out below:
• Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons – Minor & invasive Oral Surgery Specialist
• Endodontist – The Root Canal & Dental Pulp Specialists
• Orthodontist – Tooth & Jaw Misalignment Experts
• Prosthodontist – The Restoration & Tooth Replacement Experts
• Pedodontics – Children & Adolescent Dental Specialists
• Periodontists – Gum Disease Experts
Q: Do they handle complex dental procedures?
Many people mistakenly believe that there is no difference between a dental day procedure centre and a general dental clinic where the latter only does certain simple dental treatments. In fact, most of the dental day procedure centres are like a "mini hospital". A small number of cases suit neither an ordinary clinic nor a day procedure centre, and when treatment belongs in a hospital explains which ones.
In addition to providing services that are usually provided in clinics, they can also handle complex dental issues, such as dental implant surgeries or complicated tooth extractions, broken jaw surgeries, monitored anesthesia care for adults or children with excessive stress, etc.
The following list summarizes the main differences between Day Procedure Centres and Dental Clinics.
Day Procedure Centre
- Provide different types of dental anesthesia services, including Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC), also known as conscious sedation or twilight sleep or local anesthetic injection, to meet the needs of children and some anxious patients.
- Can handle more complex dental procedures, such as implant or extraction of teeth close to the nerve line, repair surgery for broken jaws due to accidents, etc.
- Dental equipment and specifications are close to hospital standards.
- Some larger dental day procedure centres provide different types of dental specialties, and patients can receive treatments from different specialists in one location instead of going to multiple places for consultations.
- Holding a day procedure centre license and strictly complying with the license requirements.
Dental Clinic
- Offering local anesthesia service only.
- Most of the clinics can only provide general dental treatment or focus on just one to two areas of dentistry.
- Patients may need to bring along a referral letter to other specialist clinics or day procedure centres which offer services in the relevant fields of dentistry for consultation when necessary.
- Dental equipment and specifications may only meet the basic requirements of the law.
- Need to apply for a clinic license or being exempted from the license requirements in certain circumstances
