Current as of: November 2023

This privacy policy provides information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our dental practitioners and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible dental care. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will generally seek additional consent from you to do this, unless obtaining your consent  is not practical or reasonable, and an exception under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies.  

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide dental services to you. Our main purpose  for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your dental health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).

The information we will collect about you includes your: 

• name/s, date of birth, address/es, contact details (e.g. telephone, email), family contact information
• details of your oral health condition and the treatment/s and service/s you have received
• details of your general health (e.g. medications, allergies, medical conditions) and medical history that  may impact the dental treatment you receive
• private health insurance information
• Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
• information regarding other funding sources, where relevant (e.g. Child Dental Benefits Schedule,  Department of Veterans’ Affairs)
• information on workers’ compensation, motor vehicle and other accident claims, where relevant
• healthcare identifiers, where relevant.

You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways. 

1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal information on new  patient form.
2. During the course of providing dental services, we may collect further personal information.
3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS,  telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
4. In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is  because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:

• your guardian or responsible person
• other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists and diagnostic imaging services
• your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).

We sometimes share your personal information: 

• with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as information technology  providers – these third parties are required to comply with APPs
• with other healthcare providers
• when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
• when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public  health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
• to assist in locating a missing person
• to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
• for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
• when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require  mandatory notification)

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing  dental services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with  any third party without your consent.

We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional  circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you  without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying  our practice in writing.

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms: 

Paper Records, Electronic Records, Visual Records (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos) and audio  recordings  

Our practice stores all personal information securely.  

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their dental records. We ask that you put this  request in writing to info@cosmetiquedental.com.au and our practice will respond within 7 business days. 

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not  accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our  practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and to assist  us with attending to your request we would prefer you to make such requests in writing to  info@cosmetiquedental.com.au 

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you  may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve your issue/s in accordance with our resolution procedure.  Please forward your concern to our management team at info@cosmetiquedental.com.au 

You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC may decide  not to investigate your complaint if you have not raised it with the practice first. If you have lodged a complaint  with us, and we have not responded within 30 business days or you are dissatisfied with our response, you  may then take your complaint to the OAIC. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on  1300 363 992.

We respect the privacy of our online visitors. We may collect information on or through this website that can  personally identify you. For example, we collect personally identifiable information which you volunteer to us to  respond to visitor questions and comments about us and our products and services, and to mail e-newsletters  (“Personal Data”).

We will use reasonable means to protect the confidentiality of your Personal Data while in our possession or  control. We will not knowingly share any of your Personal Data with any third party other than our service  providers who assist us in providing the information and/or services we are providing to you. To the extent that  we do share your personal information with a service provider, we would only do so if that party has agreed to  comply with our privacy standards as described in this privacy policy.

Any non-personal information, communications and material you send to this website or to us by email, or  which we obtain from third parties without promises of confidentiality, may be kept, used and disclosed by us  on a non-confidential basis. We are free to use and reproduce any such information freely, and for any purpose  whatsoever. Specifically, we will be free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in such  information for any purpose, including developing, manufacturing or marketing products.

We use Google and/or other third-party service providers to serve ads on our behalf across the Internet and  sometimes on this website. They may collect anonymous information about your visits to our website (not  including your name, address, email address or telephone number), and your interaction with our products and  services. They may also use information about your visits to this and other websites to target advertisements  for goods and services in order to provide more relevant advertisements about goods and services of interest  to you.

This policy is reviewed annually. All patients are welcome to visit our website for updated information