Your privacy is a top priority for us, and safeguarding your personal information is crucial to delivering excellent dental care. We recognize the significance of keeping your details secure and are committed to handling your personal information responsibly. Our goal is to be transparent and clear about how we collect, use, and share your information. Providing this service with integrity is important to us. Dr. Kanwar Singh serves as the Privacy Information Officer in our office.

Our team members who interact with your personal information understand its sensitivity and are trained in its proper use and protection. Along with this consent form, we have outlined the steps we take to ensure:

Here’s an overview of how our office collects, uses, and shares your information:

• We recognize the importance of safeguarding your personal information. To provide clarity, we’ve outlined how we handle and disclose your information. Our office will collect, use, and share your details for the following purposes

   

• To deliver safe and efficient patient care
• to identify and to ensure continuous high quality service
• to assess your health needs
• to provide health care and to advise you of treatment options
• to enable us to contact you 
• to offer and provide treatment, care and services in relationship to the oral and maxillofacial complex and dental care generally
• to communicate with other treating health-care providers, including specialists and general dentists who are the referring dentists and/or peripheral dentists
• to allow us to maintain communication and contact with you to distribute health-care information and to book and confirm appointments
• to allow us to efficiently follow-up for treatment, care and billing
• to complete and submit dental claims for third party adjudication and payment
• to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including the delivery of patients’
• charts and records to the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario in a timely fashion, when required, according to the provisions of the Regulated Health Professions Act 
• to comply with agreements/undertakings entered into voluntarily by the member with the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, including the delivery and/or review of patients’ charts and records to the College in a timely fashion for regulatory and monitoring purposes 
• to permit potential purchasers, practice brokers or advisors to evaluate the dental practice
• to allow potential purchasers, practice brokers or advisors to conduct an audit in preparation for a practice sale
• to deliver your charts and records to the dentist’s insurance carrier to enable the insurance company to assess liability and quantify damages, if any 
• to prepare materials for the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB) 
• to invoice for goods and services 
• to process credit card payments 
• to collect unpaid accounts 

By signing the consent section of the Patient Consent Form, you acknowledge that you have given your informed consent for the collection, use, and/or disclosure of your personal information for the purposes outlined. If any new purpose arises for the use or disclosure of your information, we will seek your approval beforehand.

Your information may be accessed by regulatory bodies as required under the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA) for the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario to fulfill its mandate under the RHPA, or for the defense of a legal matter.

Our office will never share your confidential medical history with your insurer without your explicit consent. If such a request is made, we will provide the information directly to you for review and obtain your specific consent.

For any unusual requests, we will contact you for permission before releasing your information. We will also advise you if we believe that such a release may not be appropriate.

You have the right to withdraw your consent for the use or disclosure of your personal information at any time. If you choose to do so, we will explain the consequences and the process involved.

Personal Data Protection

Dental records contain sensitive personal information collected to enable dentists and other dental care professionals to deliver treatment, ensure continuity of care, and maintain the highest standards of care. The original dental records created by a dentist are considered the legal property of the dentist.

Patients have a legal right to examine and copy their records and to control the use and dissemination of the information contained in their records. Dentists require patients to provide complete, accurate and intimate health details in order to provide safe and effective treatment. Therefore, ownership of original dental records obligate the security and confidentiality of this information contained therein which may be developed only with the permission of the patient except when otherwise required by law.

Patients have the right to control disclosure of their dental records to others. Release of information must be informed; must be specific and for a one time event; must afford the patient an opportunity to review that information requested and being released prior to the transfer and with an opportunity to withdraw prior consent; must not be used for any purpose other than the primary and specific use requested; and must be with the patient’s permission, preferably in writing.

Patients are entitled to receive dental care in a confidential setting free of third party intrusion. Release of patient information to third parties must adhere to the basic principles of confidentiality and patient rights outlined above with the intention of enabling patients to review any and all third party benefits to which they may be entitled.

Patients may be unaware of the information third parties may have access to under broad based consents to release dental records and the scope of this information may exceed the needs of third party to determine benefits. It becomes the responsibility of the dentist and other dental health care providers to protect the confidentiality and privacy of their patients.

Where a third party (e.g. government agency, Canada Revenue Agency, dental association or insurance company) has received patient permission to use information from the patient’s dental records for financial audits, all patient identity and unrelated information (e.g. health history, personal information) shall first be removed from the records. No third party can demand access to patient dental records (including financial records) except with specific patient consent in writing, by legal statute or by court order.