Refer a patient

Information for practitioners referring a patient to Victorian Dental Group for general dental care.

How to refer

Complete the referral form on this page, which can be signed and submitted online through Adobe Acrobat Sign, with the option to attach files.

Download the referral form

Completed referrals can also be emailed to clinic@victoriandentalgroup.com.au.

For anything urgent, please call (03) 9088 5808 rather than emailing, so we can triage it and arrange an appointment while you are on the line.

What to include

The more of this you can provide, the fewer appointments the patient needs:

• Patient details and contact number
• Reason for referral, and the specific question you would like answered
• Relevant medical history — particularly anticoagulants, bisphosphonates or denosumab, diabetes, immunosuppression, cardiac conditions, prosthetic joints, and known allergies
• Current medications
• Recent radiographs, where you have them. We can request records with the patient's consent if it is easier.
• Urgency, and whether the patient is currently in pain or has active infection
• Whether you would like the patient returned to you for ongoing care

The two lines that make the most difference

A specific clinical question — "is the pain in the upper left of dental origin?", "is this patient dentally fit before denosumab starts on [date]?" — is far more useful than "please assess and treat", because it tells us what you need back.

And a deadline, where one exists. A clearance needed before surgery in three weeks is sequenced entirely differently from one with no date attached.

Where to send the patient

What we provide

Victorian Dental Group is a general dental practice. Our team comprises registered dentists and oral health therapists, including an oral health therapist practising within an Advanced Scope of Clinical Practice.

We accept referrals for:

• General examination, diagnosis and treatment planning
• Preventive and periodontal care, including scaling and root planing and maintenance
• Restorative dentistry — direct restorations, crowns, bridges and onlays
• Root canal treatment within general practice scope
• Routine and surgical extractions within general practice scope
• Removable and implant-retained prosthetics
• Occlusal splints for bruxism and TMD, and custom sports mouthguards
• Paediatric examinations, preventive care, sealants and restorations
• Imaging, including on-site OPG

What we do not provide

We would rather be explicit about this than have a patient arrive for something we cannot deliver.

We hold no specialist registration. We refer rather than attempt:

• Orthodontic treatment — to a registered orthodontist
• Surgical periodontal treatment and grafting — to a registered periodontist
• Complex endodontics, retreatment and surgical endodontics — to a registered endodontist
• Corrective jaw surgery, complex dentoalveolar surgery, pathology and facial trauma — to an oral and maxillofacial surgeon
• Deeply impacted third molars with close proximity to the inferior alveolar canal
• Complex implant cases requiring grafting or sinus augmentation
• Treatment under general anaesthetic, which is carried out in hospital

If the patient you have in mind needs one of the above, referring directly to the appropriate specialist will usually be faster for them than routing through us.

Medical and allied health referrals

We welcome referrals from GPs, physiotherapists, speech pathologists, maternal and child health nurses, and other practitioners. Common reasons include:

• Dental clearance before cardiac surgery, transplantation, joint replacement, or the commencement of bisphosphonates or denosumab — please state the deadline and the reason, as it changes how we sequence treatment
• Oral assessment before or during oncology treatment
• Suspected odontogenic infection presenting to a GP
• Orofacial pain where a dental cause needs excluding
• Dry mouth secondary to medication, with its associated caries risk
• Erosion where reflux or an eating disorder is suspected
• Bruxism identified alongside sleep or stress presentations
• Tongue or lip tie assessment in infants and children

Where a referral asks for a clearance against a deadline, say so on the form. We will prioritise accordingly and write back with what was found and what was done.

Dental clearance referrals — what helps

These are the referrals where the detail matters most, and where a week of back-and-forth is most easily avoided.

Tell us: the procedure or medication being planned, the intended start date, the current and planned medications, relevant bloods where they affect management, and who to write back to.

We will return: what was found, what was treated, what was left and why, the healing time required before the planned intervention, and — where we cannot deliver the timeline you need — that fact, promptly, rather than at the deadline.

Where extractions are needed before a bone-modifying agent or radiotherapy, healing time is the constraint. The earlier the referral, the more options there are.

Urgent referrals

Ring (03) 9088 5808 during clinic hours, Monday to Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm. We hold capacity for urgent presentations.

Do not refer to us a patient with spreading facial swelling, trismus, difficulty swallowing or breathing, systemic sepsis, or uncontrolled haemorrhage. Those are hospital presentations and should go directly to an emergency department. Our face and cheek swelling page sets out the escalation criteria we use.

We do not operate an after-hours service.

What happens next

1. We contact the patient to arrange an appointment, usually within a few business days
2. The patient is examined and, where imaging is indicated, it is taken on site
3. A written treatment plan with itemised costs is provided to the patient before treatment begins
4. We write back to you with findings, what was done, and any recommendations — and we return the patient to your care where you have asked us to

If we conclude the case is outside our scope, we will tell you and the patient promptly rather than sitting on it, and will suggest the appropriate specialty.

For the patient being referred

Worth knowing if you have been handed this address by your GP or another practitioner.

• A referral is not required to be seen here. Anyone can book directly
• It is useful anyway, because it tells us what your other practitioner is concerned about
• Bring it with you, along with your medication list and your health fund and Medicare cards
• Fees are yours, and are quoted in writing before treatment begins. A referral does not change what treatment costs
• We will write back to whoever referred you, unless you ask us not to

Second opinions

We see patients who want a second opinion on a plan from elsewhere, and we treat that as an ordinary and reasonable request. What helps is bringing the written plan and any radiographs — see transfer of records.

We will give an honest view of the findings and the options, including when we agree with the original plan, and including when the honest answer is that both approaches are defensible and it comes down to preference.

Handling of referral information

Referrals and any attachments are health information and are handled under our privacy policy. They are stored in the patient's clinical record and are not disclosed further without consent, other than where the law requires it.

Email is not a secure channel. If a referral contains information a patient would not want sent that way, ring us and we will arrange another route.

Practical notes

• Fees are the patient's responsibility and are quoted in writing before treatment. HICAPS on-the-spot health fund claiming, Afterpay and Zip are available
• Eligible children may be covered under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule
• Records can be requested from a previous practice with the patient's consent — see transfer of records
• Registration of every practitioner here is verifiable on the public AHPRA register at ahpra.gov.au
• Accreditation against the NSQHS Standards is held through QIP — see accredited dental practice

Contact

Victorian Dental Group — 291 Wattletree Road, Malvern East VIC 3145

Phone (03) 9088 5808 · clinic@victoriandentalgroup.com.au · Monday to Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm

See also our team, our clinic and our accreditation.

This page is general information for referring practitioners and does not replace clinical judgement about an individual patient. Please see our Disclaimer.