Office Policies
Scheduling Appointments
The office attempts to schedule at your convenience and when time is available, however our primary concern is your child’s well-being. We strive for the appointment time that will best suit your child’s dental needs.
- Preschool children will be scheduled in the morning when they are fresher and we can work more slowly with them.
- School children who need extensive work and some patients with special needs will also be scheduled in the morning for this reason.
- 1st Time Nitrous oxide candidates will be scheduled at a time when they can come in with little to no food in their stomachs.
- Typically we do not do restorative work at our initial exams or recall appointments (we schedule exactly the amount of time expected for your child’s check-up)- On occasion if the schedule allows or if we see an emergent need, we will discuss with you completing treatment same day for everyone’s convenience. This is not a guarantee.
Dental appointments are an excused absence. Missing school can be kept to a minimum when regular dental care is maintained.
Broken Appointments
Since appointment times are reserved exclusively for each patient, we ask that you please notify our office at least 24 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.
Because broken or missed appointments affect many people, we reserve the right to charge a $50 broken appointment fee after a broken/ missed appointments or a cancellation without 24 hours notice. We also reserve the right to dismiss your child from our practice after (3) such occurrences.
If you are late for your child’s visit, please understand that we may not be able to accommodate you. If you think you will be late please call as soon as possible so that we can advise you if you can be accommodated or if you will need to reschedule.
Please plan to arrive 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time to complete any paperwork necessary. If it is your first visit to our office, please allow 15-20 minutes for check in.
Do I stay with my child during the visit?
We allow you to stay with your child for any of his/her dental visits.
We do however ask for the safety and privacy of all patients that you remain in the parent seat and allow us to “walk” your child through the appointment as we are trained to do. Your role as a parent is to provide the comfort of your presence and to show your child that you have confidence in our abilities. If you have a positive outlook and expect your child to do well, chances are they will. We kindly ask that a maximum of one adult accompany each child to the treatment areas. Due to safety concerns and our need to concentrate on your child’s care, we do not allow siblings without appointments into the treatment areas.
General Policies
Cell Phone Usage
- Please no cell phone calls in our office- it’s disruptive to others and keeps us from speaking to you about your child’s dental health
- No videotaping
- We understand you wanting to take pictures of your child- please for other children’s privacy, make sure your child is the only one visible and ask before taking pictures that have staff members (we will do the same before taking/ sharing pictures that show your child)
No food-drink in treatment area
Legal Guardian Presence
A parent or legal guardian with proper documentation must be present at child’s initial visit to our office. If at subsequent visits, someone else will be bringing the child, written and signed consent must be sent with the representative with a phone number where the guardian may be reached. Payment and signed consent for treatment must be completed prior to an appointment in which a legal guardian cannot attend.
Vaccinations
We are a private healthcare facility that sees a large percentage of immunocompromised patients and patients with special health care needs. In order to keep all of our patients safe, we do require our patients stay up to date with childhood vaccinations. Exceptions will only be made with consult from children’s other health care providers.
At this time we are not mandating your child be COVID vaccinated to be seen in our office. We will update this policy as more data is received on the efficacy of this vaccination in childhood.
