We strive to provide a comfortable environment where you'll feel confident in the level of dental care you receive.
When you arrive for your first visit, please be prepared to complete all insurance and health information forms that will allow us to begin your dental treatment. We will ask you to fill out several forms that will get you acquainted with our office.
Save time, take care of the paperwork now.
Click on the "New Patient Forms" button to print and fill out these forms to turn in at your first appointment. You can also request to be sent the form by mail. Please review our Notice of Privacy Practices and the Dental Materials Fact Sheet to the right.
We are committed to providing dental care that is both high quality and affordable.
Payment options include cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and CareCredit. We accept the credit cards pictured.
If you would like to extend payments over a longer period of time, we offer CareCredit. Click on the CareCredit logo for more information.
Dental insurance is a welcome employment benefit for many of our patients. Our practice is always happy to help you maximize your dental benefits, and as a convenience, we will submit your claim to your primary insurance company. Please understand, however, that no program will cover all dental treatments. Each plan is unique and the benefits provided are those purchased by your employer. We have no involvement other than assisting you in the processing of your claim.
We accept many indemnity and PPO plans. Unfortunately, we do not participate in HMO plans.
We ask that you pay your required co-pay and/or balance of your portion at time of treatment.
Dental insurance is a welcome employment benefit for many of our patients. Our practice is always happy to help you maximize your dental benefits, and as a convenience, we will submit your claim to your primary insurance company. Please understand, however, that no program will cover all dental treatments. Each plan is unique and the benefits provided are those purchased by your employer. We have no involvement other than assisting you in the processing of your claim.
For some reason, insurance companies, the media, employers, neighbors, friends and enemies have influenced people into thinking dental costs are prohibitive without dental coverage. This is not true. Period.
What is true are the big discounts large, "group" plans get. Employees covered by these plans may receive higher maximums and more coverage, but they still have out-of-pocket expenses insurance doesn't cover. "Individual" plans work similarly, but are much more restrictive and costly to the purchaser.
Let's do some simple math to see this more clearly.
Example: an "individual" dental plan may cost $50 per month, just to have it. This is called a monthly premium. After a year, that totals $600... just to have insurance.
What would $600 buy without insurance?
$600 will buy full-mouth digital x-rays, comprehensive exam, a good cleaning and two white fillings.
$600 will buy 2/3 of a crown.
$600 will buy six cleanings.
$600 will buy three fillings.
In addition to the premium costs, more disadvantages abound with "individual" plans: deductibles, waiting periods (a year or more to get a filling), downgrades (no white fillings allowed) and low maximums ($500 per year is common).
As you can see right away, paying $600 for $500 coverage is not economical. If you purchase an individual plan with a $50/month premium and a $1000 maximum, you may have to wait a year to get the filling you needed when you had purchased the plan. (If the tooth did not worsen into a crown and -horrors!- root canal therapy, you would be lucky.) The filling will be paid as a silver filling, which is cheaper than a white filling to place. With this "downgrade", 80% coverage will effectively become closer to 50% coverage.
Let's work this out with easy math: Mr. Smithers needs a filling on his back tooth. He likes to laugh and tell jokes a lot, and his back teeth show when he opens wide to guffaw. He wants a white filling placed, so observers won't be distracted by a dark silver patch in the back of his mouth. Mr. Smithers' "Individual" plan covers a white filling at 80%. The fee is $120. A silver (amalgam) filling is $76. Insurance pays 80% of the silver filling fee ($60.80). Insurance paid $60.80. You will pay $59.20. That's about 50%.
It gets better, er, worse, when we apply a deductible. If Mr. Smithers' plan has a $25 deductible, that cost will be applied to his first filling, as well. Using our above example, insurance will first deduct $25 from the silver filling fee, leaving $51. Insurance will pay 80% of $51, or, $40.80. Mr Smithers' out of pocket cost becomes $79.20, roughly 66% of the fee. In this way, after a year of coverage, you will have paid more for the dental care than the insurance did.
Now, it's up to you to earmark that $50/month for your future dental needs. If it takes a while to save, remember, that 's what the insurance companies are doing when they place waiting periods... they're saving your money until their risk is removed. Please call me with any questions about these examples.
