Who We Are
Hills Denture Studio (ABN 96 141 469 169) is a registered dental prosthetist practice located at Unit 3/37 Princes Highway, Littlehampton SA 5250, operated by William Hodge, Registered Dental Prosthetist (AHPRA Registration DEN0001260049).
We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal and health information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and applicable South Australian legislation.
What Information We Collect
We may collect personal information including:
- Your name, date of birth, address, phone number, and email address
- Health information relevant to your dental prosthetic treatment, including dental and medical history, current medications, and clinical records
- Medicare, DVA, health fund, or concession card details where relevant to your treatment or claiming
- Payment and billing information
- Communications you send us via this website, email, phone, or in person
Where practical, we collect this information directly from you. In some cases we may receive information from a referring practitioner, your treating dentist, or a family member acting on your behalf.
How We Use Your Information
Personal and health information is used to:
- Provide dental prosthetist services, including assessment, fabrication, fitting, and adjustment of dentures
- Communicate with you about your treatment and respond to enquiries
- Send appointment reminders and recall notices
- Process payments and claims (Medicare, DVA, private health funds)
- Meet our legal, professional, and insurance obligations
- Send newsletter or practice communications, where you have consented (you may opt out at any time)
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with third parties for marketing purposes.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose your information to:
- Dental laboratories or technicians involved in fabricating your prosthesis. For chrome cobalt framework partial dentures, this includes RACE Dental Laboratory
- Your referring or treating dentist, specialist, or other healthcare provider involved in your care
- Medicare, DVA, or your private health fund for claiming purposes
- Our professional indemnity insurer or legal advisers, where necessary
- Regulatory bodies (AHPRA, the Dental Board of Australia) where required by law
We will not otherwise disclose your information without your consent, unless required or authorised by law.
If You Do Not Provide Information
You are not obliged to provide the information we request. However, if you choose not to provide certain information — particularly your medical history, current medications, and allergies — we may not be able to treat you safely, and may not be able to proceed with treatment.
Health Information and Record Retention
Health information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles, and applicable South Australian legislation.
Clinical records are retained for a minimum of 7 years from the date of last contact, or in the case of a patient who was a minor at the time of treatment, until they reach the age of 25 — in line with professional and legal obligations.
How We Protect Your Information
We take reasonable steps to protect your personal and health information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. These steps include:
- Clinical and patient records held in Dental4Web, a cloud-based practice management system provided by Centaur Software, with access controlled by individual login credentials and passwords
- Data encrypted in transit and at rest
- Physical records and appliances stored securely within the practice and not left unattended in public areas
- Secure disposal of records that are no longer required to be retained
- Access to patient information restricted to those who need it to provide your care
Where Your Information Is Stored
Your health and clinical information is stored in Australia. Dental4Web hosts all practice data within Amazon Web Services' Asia Pacific (Sydney) region, meaning your health information remains under Australian jurisdiction and subject to Australian privacy law. We do not disclose your health information to overseas recipients.
Separately, the analytics and tracking tools on our website (see below) transfer website usage data to Google and Meta, whose servers are located overseas including in the United States. This is website browsing data only and is not linked to your clinical records.
Website and Online Information
If you contact us through the enquiry or contact form on our website, we collect the information you choose to provide (such as your name, email address, phone number, and the content of your message) so that we can respond to you. We do not use this information for any other purpose without your consent.
Our website uses cookies and third-party tracking technologies:
- Google Analytics — collects anonymised information about how visitors use our site, such as pages visited, time spent on the site, and general location. We use this to understand and improve the site.
- Meta Pixel (Facebook) — collects information about your visit to our site and shares it with Meta Platforms. This may be used for advertising and audience measurement purposes.
These tools may set cookies on your device and may transfer information to servers located outside Australia, including in the United States, operated by Google and Meta respectively. This is separate from your health information, which remains stored in Australia (see above).
You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on. Some parts of the site may not function as intended if cookies are disabled.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access the personal and health information we hold about you
- Request correction of information that is inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete
- Request that we delete information, subject to our legal obligation to retain clinical records (see above)
- Withdraw consent for non-essential communications such as newsletters
To make a request, contact us at [email protected] or by phone. We will respond within a reasonable period, and may need to verify your identity before releasing information. A reasonable administrative fee may apply for providing copies of records.
Complaints
If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal or health information, please contact us first at [email protected] so we can try to resolve it directly. We take privacy complaints seriously and will respond promptly.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version, with its effective date, is available on request and on our website.
Effective date: 1 January 2026 | Last reviewed: 4 August 2026.