Your privacy, in plain English.

Orthodontics Canberra is the specialist orthodontic practice of Dr Thomas Ethell, at Unit 11/12, Level 1, 48 Corinna Street, Phillip ACT 2606. Orthodontics Canberra is a business name of The Trustee for Canberra Orthodontics Unit Trust (ABN 59 909 846 209).

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles, and by the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 (ACT). Health information is sensitive information under these laws, and we treat it that way.

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

• your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email
• the name and contact details of a parent, guardian or other responsible person
• your medical and dental history, and what you would like to change about your teeth or bite
• clinical photographs, x-rays, scans and models of your teeth
• your treatment plan, progress notes and correspondence about your care
• referral letters and records from your dentist or other health practitioners
• billing and payment plan details
• information about how you use our website (see "Our website, cookies and advertising" below)

We use your information to:

• assess, plan and provide your orthodontic treatment
• make and confirm appointments, and remind you about them
• communicate with you, and with your dentist or other practitioners involved in your care
• issue accounts and receipts, and manage payment plans
• meet our legal, professional and insurance obligations
• understand how our website is used, and measure whether our advertising works

We do not sell your personal information.

We share your information only where it is needed for your care or for running the practice, or where the law allows or requires it. This can include:

• your referring dentist, your regular dentist and other health practitioners involved in your treatment
• dental laboratories and the manufacturers who make your braces, aligners or retainers
• the providers of our online booking, website, email and IT systems
• our professional advisers and insurers, and government bodies where the law requires it

These providers may use your information only to provide their service to us.

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies from:

• Google Analytics, to understand which pages are visited and how people find us
• Google Ads, to measure whether our ads lead to enquiries. If you arrive from a Google ad, the website may show a Google forwarding number so Google can tell us a call came from the ad. The call still comes straight to our practice. Google records the call's time, length and the caller's area code, not the conversation.
• Meta Pixel, to measure and improve our advertising on Facebook and Instagram

These tools record things like the pages you visit, your device and browser, your approximate location, and actions such as tapping our phone number or completing a booking. We do not send your name, contact details or health information to Google or Meta through these tools. Google and Meta may combine this data with information they already hold about you, under their own privacy policies.

You can opt out:

• block or delete cookies in your browser settings
• install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on
• change your Google ad settings
• change your Facebook and Instagram ad preferences

• Booking calendar. Consultations booked online are made through Calendly. The details you enter go to Calendly and then to us.
• Callback requests. If you ask us to call you back, your name, phone number, email (if you give one) and the treatment you are interested in are emailed to our reception team.
• Dentist referrals. When a dentist refers a patient through our website, the patient's name, date of birth, contact details, referral notes and any files (such as x-rays or photos) are stored in a password-protected system and emailed to our reception team. The referring practice confirms it has the patient's consent before sending.

We keep paper and electronic records securely and take reasonable steps to protect them from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, change or disclosure. Access is limited to people who need it to do their job.

Some of our providers store or process information outside Australia:

• Calendly, Google, Meta, our email delivery service (Resend) and our website host (Vercel) operate mainly from the United States
• referral details and files sent through our website are stored with Supabase, in a data centre in South Korea
• the manufacturers of aligners and other appliances may process your scans and records overseas

We take reasonable steps to make sure these providers protect your information in a way that is consistent with Australian privacy law.

We keep health records for as long as the law requires, including under the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 (ACT), and then destroy them or remove identifying details securely.

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

Contact our Privacy Officer:

• Phone: (02) 6282 3055
• Email: ocreception@ortho.net.au
• Post: Privacy Officer, Orthodontics Canberra, Unit 11/12, Level 1, 48 Corinna Street, Phillip ACT 2606

We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to resolve it within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or, for health records, the ACT Human Rights Commission.