Your privacy, in plain English.

At Bayfield Dental (“we”, “us”, “our”), we’re committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of our patients and website visitors. As a dental practice in Ontario, Canada, we follow the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) for your health information, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) where it applies to commercial activity.

By using bayfielddental.com (the “Website”) or our services, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Under PHIPA, the principal dentist(s) at Bayfield Dental act as the Health Information Custodian (HIC). We’re responsible for the safe and lawful handling of all personal health information (PHI) collected while providing your dental care.

We collect information to provide your dental care and to run our Website. It falls into three groups.

A. Personal health information and patient data

Our Website is informational and does not use contact forms to collect health information. As a patient of our practice, we may collect:

• Identity and contact information (name, date of birth, address, email, phone number).
• Medical and dental history, insurance details and payment information.
• Radiographs (x-rays), clinical notes and treatment plans.

B. Online booking

When you book through our online booking tool, provided by our service provider RecallMax (MaxAssist), you share details such as your name, date of birth, phone number, email, address, the type of appointment you need and, if you choose, your insurance details and whether you’re covered by the Canadian Dental Care Plan. We use this only to schedule and confirm your visit, and it becomes part of your patient record.

C. Website and technical data

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect:

• Technical data: IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting and operating system.
• Usage data: pages viewed, how you move through the site, and how long you stay.

Our Website uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Analytics: we use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site, in aggregate. You can read Google’s privacy policy.
• Online booking: our booking tool may store a cookie and a browser storage entry to keep your booking session, and to remember which ad or link brought you to us (for up to 90 days).
• Fonts: our Website loads typefaces from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the fonts load. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site will still work, though online booking may ask you to start again.

We use your information only to:

• Provide, manage and coordinate your dental care and treatment.
• Communicate with you about appointments, reminders, follow-ups and billing.
• Process payments and submit claims to your dental insurer.
• Improve our Website’s functionality, security and marketing.
• Meet our legal and regulatory obligations to the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) and under Ontario law.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only under strict confidentiality with people and organizations who support your care or our practice:

• Your circle of care: other health professionals involved in your treatment, such as dental specialists and dental laboratories, based on your implied or express consent under PHIPA.
• Service providers: our website host and IT providers, our online booking provider (RecallMax), analytics, email and payment processors. Each gets access only to what it needs to do its job.

Our Website links to other sites, such as Google Maps for directions and our online booking page. Those sites have their own privacy practices, and Bayfield Dental isn’t responsible for them.

The location map on our Website is drawn from OpenStreetMap data and served from our own site, and our videos are hosted on our own site. Neither loads third-party tracking.

• Patient records: as required by the RCDSO, we keep clinical and financial records, including radiographs, for at least ten (10) years after the last entry in your record or, for a minor, at least ten (10) years after the day the patient turns 18.
• Website data: analytics data is kept only as long as we need it for the purposes above, then deleted.

We use physical, administrative and technical safeguards:

• Encryption: our Website uses HTTPS (TLS), so data sent to and from the site is encrypted.
• Access control: only team members and partners who need personal health information to do their jobs can access it, and all staff are bound by confidentiality agreements.
• System security: no clinical patient records are stored on our Website. We keep the site and its services up to date and watch for security issues. No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure. We take reasonable steps to protect your information, but we can’t promise absolute security.

If a privacy breach ever involves your personal health information, Bayfield Dental follows PHIPA’s mandatory reporting rules. We will:

1. Contain the breach and secure our systems.
2. Notify affected individuals at the first reasonable opportunity.
3. Report the breach to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) and the relevant regulatory college, as the law requires.

Under Ontario privacy law, you have the right to:

• Access: ask for a copy of the personal information or health records we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct information that’s inaccurate or incomplete.
• Withdraw consent: ask us to delete your website data or stop certain communications. We can’t delete health records we’re legally required to keep.
• Complain: if you’re not satisfied with how we handle your information, you can contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario at ipc.on.ca or 1-800-387-0073.

Questions about this policy, a request to see your records, or a privacy concern? Contact our Privacy Officer:

Bayfield Dental
331 Bayfield Street, Suite 202 (in the Jeff Walters building)
Barrie, Ontario L4M 3C2, Canada
Email: reception@bayfielddental.com
Phone: 705-728-2601