Illumident Mount Gambier and Port Fairy recognise that your privacy is important, and we are committed to protecting your personal information. Within Australia, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles, which form part of the Privacy Act, govern the way in which we handle your personal information.
This privacy policy (Policy) sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage personal information (which includes your health information) about you, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties. We invite you to check our website regularly for any updates to this Policy, which was last updated on 24th September 2025.
Personal information means any information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
We will only use your personal information for the purposes described in this Policy or where otherwise required or authorised by law.
When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our dental practitioners and practice staff to access and use your personal information so that they can provide you with the best possible dental care. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will generally seek additional consent from you to do this, unless obtaining your consent is not practical or reasonable, and an exception under the Privacy Act applies.
Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide dental services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your dental health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).
The information we will collect about you includes your:
• name/s, date of birth, address/es, contact details (e.g. telephone, email), family contact information
• details of your oral health condition and the treatment/s and service/s you have received
• details of your general health (e.g. medications, allergies, medical conditions) and medical history that may impact the dental treatment you receive
• private health insurance information
• Healthcare Identifiers such as Medicare Card numbers, Department of Verterans Affairs file numbers for identification and claiming purposes
• information on workers’ compensation, motor vehicle and other accident claims, where relevant
You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.
Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.
• When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal information via your registration.
• During the course of providing dental services, we may collect further personal information.
• We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
• In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:
o your guardian or responsible person
o other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists and diagnostic imaging services
o your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).
If you access our website, we may collect information about your connection session in the form of your IP address and browser details. Our website may also use cookies from time to time. The primary purpose of cookies is to recognise returning users and provide a customised experience. You may disable cookies by adjusting your browser preferences, however this may impact certain features and functionality of our website. Server log files may be preserved and used at any time and in any way necessary to monitor for and prevent security breaches and to ensure the integrity of our operations.
Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of linked websites and linked websites are not subject to our privacy policies and procedures.
We sometimes share your personal information:
• with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles
• with other healthcare providers
• when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
• when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
• to assist in locating a missing person
• to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
• for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
• when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing dental services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, such as paper records, electronic records, or physical records.
Our practice stores all personal information securely. Patient electronic records are stored within our cloud-based practice management software, which has IP restrictions and requires 2FA (two factor authentication) to gain access via individual logins. All employees are required to complete confidentiality agreements prior to working within the practice.
Paper records are scanned and uploaded to practice management software, with original documentation disposed of securely. Physical records (such as models) are stored onsite under multiple levels of security.
You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information. We ask that you put this request in writing to smile@illumident.com.au, and our practice will respond within 30 days.
We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current.
We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve your issue/s in accordance with our resolution procedure. Please email smile@illumident.com.au and/or call
08 8725 2441.
You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC may decide not to investigate your complaint if you have not raised it with the practice first. If you have lodged a complaint with us, and we have not responded within 30 days or you are dissatisfied with our response, you may then take your complaint to the OAIC. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
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