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Urgencies & Emergencies There For You Over the Holiday Season

Friday 21 December 2018, 2:10PM

By Beckie Wright

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There can be nothing more frightening than being faced with a dental emergency, knowing that most dentists will be closed, at least for the statutory holidays, if not for their well-deserved summer holiday. Urgencies & Emergencies is there to simplify and greatly speed up the way patients find and book a dentist. The service maps the location of practitioners in a given area and highlights those with available appointments.

“Our aim was to simplify the search process for patients with both urgent and non-urgent dental needs,” says Dr Azlan Daud. Azlan. “For someone in acute pain or just requiring a routine dental treatment, finding an available appointment on that particular day, is no easy task,” he says. “The fortunate ones will see a dental practitioner on the same day, but the majority of patients end up being attended to, on another day.”

Azlan, together with his technical co-founder Aydan Brown, said that they had to design the service to be as simple and easy to use as possible for patients. They also took suggestions from practitioners to ensure that the system would also work effectively for practices. “The moment you are on the website, patients will know how many dentists are available to help on that particular day. By the second click, patients will know both the identity and location of these practices,” he says.

The service initially focused on Christchurch-based dental practices, but Urgencies & Emergencies has recently expanded to Auckland and plans to approach practices in regions across the country this year. He also believes the simplicity of the platform may lend itself to other healthcare based professions.

“We started with Dentistry and our aim is to include practitioners from across the entire healthcare industry. I’ve started approaching medical practitioners, osteopaths, physiotherapists and audiologists. Their response was very positive. Perhaps we can eliminate the need to wait for any form of healthcare, by providing options to patients in general and especially for those with acute needs,” he says.

“Perhaps society will begin to embrace that with digital technology, searching for an available Healthcare Practitioner to manage their health needs - is just two clicks away.”

For more information on emergency dental care, 24-hour emergency dentists, dentists open on weekends and emergency tooth extractions please go to https://une.nz .