How we handle your information

Who is responsible for your information

Anxious Dentist is the data controller for personal information collected through this website, for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our registered details and postal address are available on request by email.

If you go on to become a patient, the dental practice providing your care is the controller for your clinical records and will give you its own privacy notice. That notice, not this one, governs your dental records.

What this website collects by itself

Nothing that identifies you. Specifically:

• No cookies. The site sets none, so there is no cookie banner to click through.
• No analytics. We do not use Google Analytics or any equivalent, and we do not track which pages you read.
• No advertising or social tracking pixels. None at all.
• No form submissions to us. The enquiry form runs entirely in your browser and opens a draft in your own email application. If you close it without sending, we never see it.

Our hosting provider, Vercel, processes standard server request logs (including IP addresses) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse. Typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads. Neither is used by us to identify or profile you.

What we collect when you contact us

Only what you choose to put in your message. Typically your name, your email address or phone number, how you would like to be contacted, and what you have told us about your concerns.

We ask you not to include detailed medical information or medication in an email, because email is not a secure channel. If you do, we will handle it as set out below rather than ignore it.

Health information

Information about dental anxiety or your dental history is special category data — health data — and gets extra protection under UK GDPR. Where you send it to us before becoming a patient, we rely on Article 9(2)(a): your explicit consent, given by choosing to tell us. You can withdraw that consent at any time by asking us to delete your enquiry.

Once you are a patient, health information is handled by the practice under Article 9(2)(h) — the provision of health care — and is subject to the same duty of confidentiality as any other dental record.

Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• To reply to you — legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): you contacted us and expect an answer.
• To arrange an appointment, if you want one — steps prior to a contract (Article 6(1)(b)).
• To keep a record of correspondence — legitimate interests, so you do not have to explain yourself twice.

We do not use your details for marketing, we do not add you to a mailing list, and we do not sell or share them with anyone for their own purposes.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not lead to an appointment are deleted within twelve months. If you ask us to delete yours sooner, we will do so and confirm it.

Clinical records are kept far longer, because dental practices are required to retain them — the practice treating you will tell you its retention period in its own notice.

Who else sees it

Our email provider processes messages in order to deliver them, under a contract that restricts them to that purpose. Beyond that, correspondence is seen only by the people who need to read it in order to help you.

We will disclose information without your consent only where the law requires it, or in the rare circumstances where there is a serious risk to someone’s safety.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
• correct anything inaccurate;
• delete it, where we have no continuing reason to keep it;
• restrict or object to how we use it;
• withdraw consent you previously gave, at any time.

Email hello@anxiousdentist.co.uk and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we have a chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

If this notice changes materially we will update the date at the top. Earlier versions are available on request.