Appointment Policy
Because mutual understanding is the basis for good relationships, it is important for you to understand the nature of our office policies related to appointments. These are detailed below.
1. New and Potential Patients
2. Appointments
3. Emergencies
4. Reminder Calls
5. Broken Appointments
6. Priority List
7. Multiple Appointments for Family Members
8. Inadequate Time to Complete Treatment
9. Specialist Referrals
10. Guests in Treatment Areas
11. Making Appointments for Others
Thank you for your understanding of these important issues. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding these policies, please contact us as soon as possible so that your concerns may be heard and addressed.
- Selecting a dentist can be difficult. At House Family Dentistry, we want to be your dental practice for life – for you and all your family and friends. We believe that regular check-ups and prompt treatment ensures you will maintain good oral health throughout your life. We want all our patients to be happy with their smile and the care we provide.
- Our website, www.haughtondentist.com, offers an overview of our practice and information about our staff. We also offer complimentary office tours and the opportunity to meet and greet our dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants. A personal tour gives you an opportunity to see if our office is a good fit to serve you and your family.
- Most children do not require a pediatric dentist for their care, and should begin seeing a dentist once their first teeth erupt. Many of our pediatric patients will come for a tour before scheduling their first check-up.
- Many children associate going to the doctor with unpleasant experiences, and this is not them impression we would like to make with your child. We use simple terms and explanations to alleviate fear and anxiety. To help parents, we offer a complimentary book to help teach children about what to expect at their dental visit. Pick one up during a tour or call and request one to be sent to your mailing address.
2. Appointments
- Except in the case of emergencies, appointments are required for all treatment. Walk-in patients will be seen as time allows, not necessarily on a first-come, first-served basis, and shall not infringe on care for patients with scheduled appointments. Every effort is made by the dental staff to see patients in a timely manner and inform patients if there is a need to change or adjust their appointment time.
3. Emergencies
- If you have what you believe to be a dental emergency, please contact us as soon as possible, preferably by telephone, so that we may properly assign an appointment time to handle your problem. Please be aware that we may have several emergencies at the same time. If we are unable to see you immediately, it is because proper triage and scheduling prevents it. If we are unable to see you in a timely manner, we will refer you to a colleague, specialist, or emergency medical center.
4. Reminder Calls
- We have implemented an automated texting service to help patients reserve their appointments in their calendars. If opted in, when you make an appointment, you will get a text confirming your appointment time.
- The automated text service will also notify you of upcoming appointments. To confirm those appointments, simply follow the instructions. This usually means replying "C". Please keep in mind that if you do not reply "C", or reply with another message, the automated system will not register it as a confirmation, and may send you another text to ensure that you remember your reserved appointment.
- Because we know you are busy and our patients keep their commitments, we do not disturb you with multiple reminder calls. If we do not receive a reply through the automated texting service, we will attempt to contact you once, one business day prior to your appointment, at a telephone number you designate. Please be sure to give us a number where you can be reached or that has an answering machine or voicemail so that we may leave a message if you are unable to answer. If the line is busy or otherwise unavailable, we regret that we do not have enough staff to repetitively attempt to contact you. For this reason, do not rely on a reminder call from our office staff.
5. Broken Appointments
- We do not over-book our schedule. This means your appointment time is reserved especially for you. If you do not come, not only is your own care delayed, but no one else is able to be treated during that time. When appointments are not kept, dental costs increase for everyone and emergency patients that may have been treated must needlessly wait.
- If you absolutely must reschedule, please give at least 24 hours notice (before 9 am Friday for Monday appointments) to avoid possible broken appointment fees. In some cases, especially for large appointment space, you may be asked to give greater notice. There is generally no charge for the first missed appointment without 24 hours notice. To discourage repetitive broken appointments, we may asses a broken appointment charge for the second and each subsequent occurrence. The charges are dependent on how much time was reserved for you and your need.
- Occasionally we may ask you to reserve your appointment with a deposit toward your treatment, especially for longer appointments. This allows us to exclusively reserve your appointment time as well as helps patients spread out the expense of treatment over several visits if necessary. This deposit is fully refundable if the cancellation policy of 48 hours notice is maintained by our patients. If you fail to attend their appointment or give notice that they need to reschedule, the broken appointment fee will be assessed and some or all of the deposit will be lost, and you will need to make another deposit to make another appointment for that amount of time.
- If you would not like to place a deposit to reserve your appointment, we may be able to place you on a Priority List, as described below.
- We realize there is always a good reason for not keeping a scheduled appointment. It is not our intent to “punish” anyone for failing to come for treatment. We have found, however, that it is best to be open and honest about what is expected, so that we may provide the highest quality dental treatment at the most reasonable cost possible. Some practices charge hidden fees or higher prices to cover lost time due to broken appointments, and some schedule more patients than are able to be treated in a day. This results in rescheduling patients, incomplete treatment, and / or excessive patient wait time. We do not resort to any of these tactics to cover our costs for broken appointment times. In return, we ask our patients to honor their commitment to an appointment scheduled.
6. Priority List
- Some patients, due to the nature of their job, health, etc., just cannot know until the last minute if they will be able to keep their appointment. If you are in this category, we maintain a list of patients that can come on short notice when time becomes available. Please advise the staff if you would like to be on this list. If you are contacted when a short-notice appointment is available, you may accept the appointment or decline. If you decline, we will try again at a later date.
7. Multiple Appointments for Family Members
- Occasionally, patients request appointments to have several family members seen on the same day in concurrent or successive time slots. It is our pleasure to honor this request when possible. Please be aware, however, that for each family member that is unable to keep his or her appointment (without advance notification as noted under the Broken Appointment heading above), charges will be assessed after the first occurrence. If broken appointments continue in a family, we reserve the right to schedule members separately or refer to another practice.
8. Inadequate Time to Complete Treatment
- At times, due to treatment complications or discovery of additional treatment needs, adequate time may not be available to complete the necessary procedures. Please be aware that every effort is made to schedule the appropriate amount of time for your needs. However, we ask for your understanding if all the treatment you require is not completed at once. Needs vary with every patient and proper care requires adequate time for each procedure. We will do our best to address your dental needs in a timely fashion.
9. Specialist Referrals
- Most dental procedures can be successfully treated at our office. However, we reserve the right to refer you to a dental specialist for treatment if it is our option that a specialist is required. We refer only to specialists that we believe will render excellent patient care. Whether or not a specialist is in a certain dental insurance network, or whether or not treatment costs will be higher, are not factors in deciding if referral is necessary. Referrals are based solely on your dental needs and particular case. We can not determine whether or not there is a specialist that participates in your dental plan or what your costs may be at another practice.
10. Guests in Treatment Areas
- While you are always welcome to accompany your child during their dental visit, please be aware that many items in the operatories are sterile, fragile, and / or potentially dangerous. You should not touch or allow anyone else to tamper with anything in the treatment rooms in order to prevent cross contamination, damage, or personal injury. Because the size of our treatment areas are not expansive, only one guest or relative will be allowed in the treatment areas in addition to the patient. We are unable to provide childcare during your visit, so please make appropriate arrangements for your child’s supervision, or supervise them personally.
- If a patient is accompanied by a parent or friend, we ask that the patient be allowed to interact with the staff directly. While comments directed to the patients by guests are usually intended to be helpful, they can be a source of confusion and fear in the dental setting, especially for young patients. Comments or questions directed to pediatric patients are designed to distract and calm, not necessarily to elicit important information. If you accompany a patient into the treatment area, please respond only to questions specifically directed to you. It is not generally helpful for siblings to be guests during treatment.
- During sedation appointments, due to the increased amount of equipment and staff required, our operatories are too small to accommodate guests. For those appointments, we require guests to wait in the waiting room. This allows for a safer treatment environment for the patient that is sedated.
11. Making Appointments for Others
- Occasionally, an appointment will wish to be made for a spouse, older child, elderly relative, etc. We prefer that patients make their own appointments to prevent any miscommunication regarding date, time, or treatment to be provided. We will accept these appointments, but they are subject to all the other rules and expectations of appointments made personally. Please be sure that the patient(s) for whom you are making the appointment(s) understand they must keep the commitment you are making for them.
Thank you for your understanding of these important issues. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding these policies, please contact us as soon as possible so that your concerns may be heard and addressed.