Your information, handled with care.

Great Slave Dental is committed to protecting the privacy of our patients and website visitors. This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information in compliance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable territorial legislation.

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• Identity and contact information: name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address.
• Health information: medical and dental history, current medications, allergies, treatment records, radiographs, and clinical notes.
• Insurance and billing information: insurance plan details, employer information, billing and payment records.
• Website usage information: aggregated analytics and performance data collected through Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights. As well as page views, we record which of a small set of actions were taken — for example that a booking link, a phone number or a directions link was clicked, and whether an intake form was started or completed. These are counts of events, not records of who did them, and they are not linked to your identity or your patient file. We do not use tracking cookies for advertising and we do not sell or share this data with advertisers.
• Embedded Google Map: our contact page embeds a map from Google. Loading that page sends your IP address to Google and Google may set its own cookies, under Google’s privacy policy. We have no access to that data.
• Patient education videos: our patient education page loads a video library from Optio Publishing. Loading that page sends your IP address and browser details to Optio Publishing and to the providers it uses to deliver the videos, including the Mux video network and Google Fonts, each under their own privacy policies. We have no access to that data.

Three forms on this site send information to the clinic: the new-patient intake form, the careers application form, and the contact and short-notice-list form.

• How submissions reach us: when you press submit, your answers are sent over an encrypted connection and delivered to reception@gsdental.ca by email, using a third-party email delivery service (Resend). We do not store form submissions in a database on this website. Email is not a fully end-to-end encrypted medium, so if you would prefer not to send health information this way, please call reception and we will take your details over the phone or in person instead.
• Saved drafts on your device: as you fill in the intake form, your answers are saved in your own browser’s local storage so you don’t lose them if the page reloads. This draft stays on your device, is not sent anywhere until you submit, and is cleared automatically after 24 hours or as soon as you submit. If you are using a shared or family device, use the “Start over” button when you’re finished.
• Where the website runs: this site is hosted by Vercel and our email delivery provider operates outside Canada, so information submitted through these forms may be processed or stored outside Canada and may be subject to the laws of those countries. Your clinical record itself is held in our practice management system, not on this website.

Your personal information is used to:

• Provide dental care, treatment, and clinical follow-up.
• Process insurance claims, pre-authorisations, and billing on your behalf.
• Communicate with you about appointments, treatment plans, and recalls.
• Answer questions and short-notice-list requests you send us through this website.
• Comply with legal, regulatory, and professional obligations, including record-keeping requirements of the dental profession.
• Improve our services and patient experience.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your information for marketing without your explicit consent.

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information. Digital records are held in access-controlled systems. Physical records are stored in locked facilities. Only authorised staff members access patient information, and only as needed for your care or clinic operations.

Online form submissions are transmitted over encrypted connections (TLS). No safeguard is absolute, and we cannot guarantee the security of information sent to us over the internet or by email. If a breach creating a real risk of significant harm occurs, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required.

We may disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

• To your insurance provider for claims processing, with your consent.
• To specialist practitioners when a referral is necessary for your care.
• To other dental offices if you request a transfer of your records.
• As required by law, court order, or regulatory body (e.g., the dental licensing authority).

Under Canadian privacy law, you have the right to:

• Access and review the personal information we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Withdraw consent for non-essential uses of your information (note: withdrawing consent for essential treatment-related uses may affect our ability to provide care).
• File a complaint. For health information held by a clinic in the Northwest Territories, that is the NWT Information and Privacy Commissioner; for matters falling under federal private-sector law, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

We retain patient records for at least the period required under Northwest Territories legislation and professional record-keeping obligations — generally ten years from the date of last treatment, and for minors, ten years from the date they reach the age of majority. After the retention period, records are securely destroyed. Form submissions that do not become part of a patient record are kept only as long as needed to act on them.

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for this policy and for handling privacy requests. If you have questions about this policy, want to see or correct the information we hold about you, or wish to make a complaint, contact us and ask for the Privacy Officer: