The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Dental Association recommend having your child’s first dental checkup by age 1 or when the first teeth erupt.

The first visit is designed for you and your child to get to know us, and for us to get to know your child. We begin the first visit by introducing the office environment and the staff. We prepare your child for the visit by showing and telling what a dental visit is like beforehand. The first visit allows us an opportunity to provide you with information on the dental care of your child, as well as answer any questions you might have. We will also provide guidance on dental and oral development, oral habits, oral hygiene, and nutrition.

We invite and encourage you to stay with your child during the initial examination. This allows us to get to know your child’s medical, dental, and social history thoroughly. After the first visit, we suggest you allow your child to accompany our staff through the dental experience so that we can develop rapport with your child. Our purpose is to gain your child's confidence and put your child in the driver’s seat through hands-on learning and navigating his or her own journey toward optimal health. However, if you choose, you may come with your child to the exam room. For the safety and privacy of all patients, other children who are not being treated should remain in the reception room with a supervising adult. For treatment visits, allowing us to focus primarily on the child will enable us to gain the child’s trust and provide the best treatment in “kids-time.”

We treat one patient at a time. Unlike other offices, our chair and the doctor are exclusively reserved for you only at the time of the appointment. It is just like an airplane seat or a hotel reservation.

Since appointed times are reserved exclusively for each patient we ask that you please notify our office 48 hours in advance of your scheduled appointment time if you are unable to keep your appointment.  Another patient who needs our care, could be scheduled if we have sufficient time to notify them.

We realize that unexpected things can happen, but we ask for your assistance in this regard. Which is why after the first missed appointment, you will be charged $100 for each  missed appointment, and this money will be donated to the non-profit organization, Grateful Hearts, which cares for children who are not able to afford medical or dental care.

Payment for professional services is due at the time dental treatment is provided. Every effort will be made to provide a treatment plan which fits your timetable and budget and gives your child the best possible care. We accept cash, personal checks, debit cards and most major credit cards. We also work with Care-Credit (ask us about it if you don’t know what this is).

Our office is a “Fee for Service”, which means you are responsible for the treatment cost at the time of your receiving it. We treat you as an individual, not a number in the system. We will provide support to ensure you will get the maximum benefit from your insurance as much as possible.

If we have received all of your insurance information on the day of the appointment, we will be happy to file your claim for you. You must be familiar with your insurance benefits, and we will help you to understand what your insurance benefits are structured. No Insurance pays the same.  By law your insurance company is required to pay each claim within 30 days of receipt. We file all insurance electronically, so your insurance company will receive each claim within days of the treatment.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND that we file dental insurance as a courtesy to our patients. We do not have a contract with your insurance company, only you do. We are not responsible for how your insurance company handles its claims or for what benefits they pay on a claim. We can only assist you in estimating your portion of the cost of treatment. We at no time guarantee what your insurance will or will not do with each claim. We also cannot be responsible for any errors in filing your insurance. Once again, we file claims as a courtesy to you.

Fact 1 – NO INSURANCE PAYS 100% OF ALL PROCEDURES

Dental insurance is meant to be an aid in receiving dental care. Many patients think that their insurance pays 90%-100% of all dental fees. This is not true! Most plans only pay between 50%-80% of the average total fee. Some pay more, some pay less. The percentage paid is usually determined by how much you or your employer has paid for coverage, or the type of contract your employer has set up with the insurance company.

Fact 2 – BENEFITS ARE NOT DETERMINED BY OUR OFFICE

You may have noticed that sometimes your dental insurer reimburses you or the dentist at a lower rate than the dentist’s actual fee. Frequently, insurance companies state that the reimbursement was reduced because your dentist’s fee has exceeded the usual, customary, or reasonable fee (“UCR”) used by the company. A statement such as this gives the impression that any fee greater than the amount paid by the insurance company is unreasonable, or well above what most dentists in the area charge for a certain service. This can be very misleading and simply is not accurate. Insurance companies set their own schedules, and each company uses a different set of fees they consider allowable. These allowable fees may vary widely, because each company collects fee information from claims it processes. The insurance company then takes this data and arbitrarily chooses a level they call the “allowable” UCR Fee. Frequently, this data can be five to ten years old and these “allowable” fees are set by the insurance company so they can make a net 20%-30% profit. Unfortunately, insurance companies imply that your dentist is “overcharging”, rather than say that they are “underpaying”, or that their benefits are low. In general, the less expensive insurance policy will use a lower usual, customary, or reasonable (UCR) figure.

Fact 3 – DEDUCTIBLES & CO-PAYMENTS MUST BE CONSIDERED

When estimating dental benefits, deductibles and percentages must be considered. To illustrate, assume the fee for service is $150.00. Assuming that the insurance company allows $150.00 as its usual and customary (UCR) fee, we can figure out what benefits will be paid. First a deductible (paid by you), on average $50, is subtracted, leaving $100.00. The plan then pays 80% for this particular procedure. The insurance company will then pay 80% of $100.00, or $80.00. Out of a $150.00 fee they will pay an estimated $80.00 leaving a remaining portion of $70.00 (to be paid by the patient). Of course, if the UCR is less than $150.00 or your plan pays only at 50% then the insurance benefits will also be significantly less.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep us informed of any insurance changes such as policy name, insurance company address, or a change of employment.