Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 26, 2026

Guelph Lakes Dental respects your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information, both in our clinic and on this website. As a dental practice in Ontario, we are a health information custodian under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA). We also follow the standards of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO).

Our Privacy Officer

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for how we handle personal information and for answering your questions or concerns.

Information we collect in the clinic

To provide safe dental care, we collect personal health information such as:

• Your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email
• Your medical and dental history, medications and allergies
• Examination notes, X-rays, photographs and treatment records
• Insurance details, including the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), and billing and payment information
• Emergency contact information

How we use it

• To diagnose, plan and provide your dental care
• To book appointments and send reminders
• To bill you, your insurer or a government program on your behalf
• To communicate with other health care providers involved in your care, such as specialists or labs
• To meet our legal and professional obligations, including RCDSO record-keeping requirements

We collect, use and share only the information we need for these purposes.

Consent

When you give us information for your care, we rely on your implied consent to use and share it with others in your circle of care. We ask for your express consent before sharing your information for any other purpose, such as with a family member who is not your substitute decision-maker. You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal limits, and we will explain how that may affect your care.

Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only when needed for your care, with your consent, or when the law requires or allows it. This may include:

• Other health care providers involved in your care
• Insurance companies and government programs, when you ask us to bill them
• Service providers that help us run the clinic, such as our practice management and online booking software, who must protect your information and use it only for our purposes
• The RCDSO or other authorities, when required by law

Information collected through this website

Contact form. When you use our contact form, we receive your name, email, phone number and message. Our website host, Netlify, stores these submissions. Please don't include health details in the form. Call us instead for anything about your treatment.

Online booking. Our "Book" buttons take you to Dental4me, our online booking provider. Information you enter there goes into our appointment system and is handled under this policy and Dental4me's own privacy terms.

Cookies and analytics. Like most websites, our site and our hosting provider record basic technical information such as your browser type, device and pages visited. We may use Google Analytics and Google Ads to understand how visitors find and use our site and to measure our advertising. These services use cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

Google reviews. Our Testimonials page shows recent reviews of our clinic from Google Maps. Reviewer names and photos are shown as published on Google, and reviewer photos load directly from Google's servers.

Links to other sites. Our site links to services such as Google Maps, Google reviews and Dental4me. Their own privacy policies apply when you use them.

Some of these service providers may store information outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be subject to the laws of that country.

How we protect it

We protect personal information with physical, administrative and technical safeguards. These include locked storage, password-protected systems, access limited to staff who need it, and staff confidentiality training. If your personal health information is lost, stolen or accessed without authorization, we will notify you and, where required, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

How long we keep it

We keep dental records for the period required by the RCDSO, generally at least ten years after your last visit, or ten years after a patient's 18th birthday for children, whichever is later. We then destroy them securely. We keep website form submissions only as long as needed to respond to you.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Ask for access to, or a copy of, your dental records. We may charge a reasonable fee for copies, as permitted by law.
• Ask us to correct information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete
• Ask how your information has been used or shared
• Withdraw your consent, subject to legal limits

To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer. We will respond within the time limits set out in PHIPA.

Questions or complaints

Please contact our Privacy Officer first. We take every concern seriously. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario:

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.