Regular Checkups

Don't brush off regular checkups to the dentist! Regular dental checkups are essential to maintaining good oral health. We encourage regular checkups at least every six months. Seeing the dentist twice a year is recommended because your dentist can:

• Check for problems that you might not see or feel
• Find early signs of decay
• Treat oral health problems early, while they are still manageable

Regular checkups include a thorough cleaning, polishing, and an oral exam by the doctor. During the oral exam, the doctor checks the health of your mouth, teeth, gums, cheeks, and tongue. At each visit, the doctor also checks old fillings and restorations because constant pressure from chewing, grinding, or clenching can cause them to wear away, chip, or crack.

Your First Visit

Your first visit to the doctor typically includes an x-ray that allows the doctor to view the structure of the jaw, the position of any teeth that have not yet erupted, malformed roots, and tooth decay.

The initial visit also involves getting your medical history. When you share your medical history with the doctor, be sure to provide complete, up-to-date information on your health. Inform your dentist if you have experienced recent hospitalization or surgery, or if you have recently been ill. Also tell the doctor the names, doses, and frequency of any medications you are taking – whether prescription or over-the-counter products – and the name of your physician. Inform the doctor of any changes in your health or medications. It is also important to bring up any fears you may have about dental treatment.

The information collected in your first visit will help the doctor select the safest and most effective method of treatment for you.

Regular Appointments

Regular checkup appointments typically take 20 to 40 minutes. Patients are seen by appointment only. We make every effort to be on time for our patients, and ask that you extend the same courtesy to us. If you cannot keep an appointment, please notify us immediately.

Financial Policies & Agreement

Payment/Insurance Policy

In an effort to keep dental costs down while maintaining a high level of professional care, our financial policy is payment due at time of service. We file insurance claims as a courtesy to our patients. Patients with insurance will be required to pay, at the time of service, 30% of your total bill for preventive services and 50% of your total bill for operative procedures. Please note that under most insurance plans, this amount would satisfy the patient's co-payment requirement. However, you are responsible for payment regardless of any insurance company's arbitrary determination of usual and customary rates. You are responsible for deductibles, co-payments, coinsurance and dispute resolution with your insurance company. Any accounts that are delinquent over 30 days will accrue charges.

Our office accepts cash, checks, Visa and MasterCard. Also, as an added benefit to you we offer monthly payment plans through CareCredit and American Financial Services. Please inquire at the front desk for information on our payment options. As a courtesy to our patients, we provide a 5% discount when the bill is paid in full at the time of service with payment by cash or check.

Oral Sedation Deposit

When scheduling an Oral Sedation, a deposit of $200.00 for Oral Sedations will be collected. This deposit will be refunded upon such time as scheduled procedure is performed, and account balance is clear and current. The patients expected portion of charges, (co-insurance and/or deductibles) will also be collected three weeks prior to the day of procedure.

Operative-Surgical Deposits

When scheduling an Operative-Surgical procedure, a deposit of $400.00 will be collected. This deposit will be refunded upon such time as the scheduled procedure is performed and account balance is clear and current. The patients expected portion of charges, (co-insurance and/or deductibles) will also be collected three weeks prior to the day of the procedure. Please note that these procedures are performed at a designated hospital, and that the dental procedure charges are completely separate from the medical charges due and payable to the designated hospital. Any questions or concerns regarding medical charges need to be addressed directly with designated hospital.

Missed Oral Sedation/Operative-Surgical Appointment Policy

Due to our high demand for oral sedation appointments, we have implemented a "Missed Oral Sedation/Operative-Surgical Appointment Policy" to encourage our patients to keep their scheduled appointments. If you cannot attend your scheduled appointment, you must call to cancel or reschedule a minimum of 48 hours in advance. If we do not have a 48-hour advance notice of cancellation, you will be charged a $400 non-refundable "Missed Sedation/Surgical Appointment Fee". We realize that sometimes illness can come on very quickly, and in this case we ask that you contact us immediately and schedule your child for a wellness evaluation prior to procedure.

Missed Appointment Policy

We work very diligently to be able to see all of our patients in a timely manner, and as such missed appointments leave us with a hole in providing care to the children in our community. Our practice strives to keep our pricing very competitive and missed appointments by some, hurt all of our patients, and the financial result on us can be significant. Therefore we have instituted a "Missed Appointment Policy" which states that appointments not cancelled with 24 hours minimum advanced notice will be charged a fee of $50.00.

Financial Agreement

Please take a minute to print and fill out the patient information form before your first appointment:

» Financial Agreement [PDF] | [DOC]

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