Downloadable Forms || Office location and directions || Office hours and Scheduling || Insurance and Payment Plans
Treatment Philosophy and Approaches

• Patient Information Form for patients under 18 years of age
• Patient Information Form for patients over 18 years of age
• HIPAA Policy
• HIPAA Acknowledgement that you received our HIPAA policy

• Retainer Instructions (for the retainers that are made out of hard plastic and attaches to your teeth with wires)
• Aligner Instructions (for Invisalign and clear slip on retainers)
• Elastics Instructions (for the elastics that you put on yourself and come in bags that we give you)

* We are open three Saturdays per month from September to June. Two of the three Saturdays are reserved for New Patients and taking Records (x-rays, photos, etc.), one Saturday is for regular adjustments.

During July and August, we are closed on Friday afternoons and Saturdays.

Whenever a case involves coordination of the treatment plan between myself and your general dentist or another dental specialist, I like to meet with them before seeing you for a case presentation. In general, we leave an hour and a half for lunch time to allow me to meet with dentists to ensure that everyone that needs to have input in these types of cases can do so.

New Patients:

During your first visit we will discuss your orthodontic concerns. We will also check your teeth and your jaws and how they fit together (your bite), and discuss how they affect your overall dental health and facial appearance. We will also discuss possible options for treatment or observation, if it is necessary.

We schedule our New Patient visits either during weekday mornings, Monday after 5:00 PM, Friday after 5:00 PM, or on Saturday mornings as noted above.

Records:

Should you be ready to go ahead with treatment, the next step is for us to take diagnostic records. This visit involves taking photographs, x-rays, and impressions of your teeth, and the visit takes approximately 45 minutes long. Records appointments are scheduled either during weekday mornings, or on Saturday mornings as noted above.

Longer appointments for having the braces put on, or for delivering an appliance that takes more than 1/2 hour to adjust, are scheduled during weekday mornings. In order to see as many patients as possible after school hours, we schedule adjustment appointments during the afternoons. If you will be getting braces, for example, we usually only need to see you during the morning for two appointments: putting the braces on and taking them off.

We accept most insurance plans as partial payment. I participate in several PPO Insurance plans, including MetLife, Delta Dental, and Cigna. I do not participate in any insurance plans that provide 100% coverage. With these plans, the insurance company promises volume in exchange for a very low fee.. The only way for me to stay profitable under these plans is to cut corners. I am not willing to practice like this. Here is what you get for your money.

If you are shopping around for the best price, or looking to do only what your insurance plan will pay for, you should be aware that "braces" are not a product. It's not like shopping for a TV. The result you will get from your orthodontic treatment has everything to do with the skill, judgment and knowledge of the treating orthodontist.

We will contact your insurance company to pre determine your benefits. Just fill out your portion of the form, and we will take care of the rest. We ask that you bring in the form specific for your dental plan, since the companies will not accept a medical insurance form for your dental coverage. Since the companies require your signature on the form itself, we cannot just make a photocopy of your insurance card. Please remember that if you lose your insurance coverage for any reason, you are responsible for the unpaid balance of the insurance coverage.

We will be happy to work with you regarding your flexible benefits. Please talk to our Business Manager if you have any questions.

Since we are sensitive to the fact that people have different needs in fulfilling their financial obligations, we provide several financing options. We will be happy to review these with you at your initial visit.

Divorce Situations

In the past, I have been very accommodating in these situations. Unfortunately, much more often than not, the non-custodial parent has not followed through with the financial agreement that they have made with me. Therefore, in divorce situations, either the custodial parent will need to sign a contract with me for the entire amount (other than expected insurance coverage) and they can go after the non-custodial parent for their portion, or I will need payment in full of the non-custodial parent's portion from them before treatment starts.

I assume the following when you bring your child to me:

1. You want the most conservative treatment methods.
2. You are placing your trust in me to obtain the best possible result for your child.
3. You and your child want to be informed about treatment options and treatment procedures as much as I do whenever I see a medical or dental professional.

Accordingly, the first thing I ask myself when I examine your child, is "What would I do if this were my child?"

I am very conservative in my treatment approaches. This means that:

1. I will let the teeth develop naturally as much as possible. I do not recommend the removal of baby teeth unless absolutely necessary.
2. If there is a chance that a problem will get better on its own, I will always give this a chance to happen. In many cases, growth can improve a problem, and I always take this into consideration when formulating a treatment plan.
3. I will use the least aggressive appliance possible to address a problem. If a problem can be corrected using a "retainer" type appliance, I will suggest this instead of braces.
4. If a problem can be caught before it becomes too severe, it can enable me to obtain a better result. I therefore will recommend early treatment when necessary to create enough room for all of the adult teeth, or head off bite problems before any damage is done to the teeth. Early treatment can minimize or eliminate the need for permanent tooth extractions.

My skill level is also such that I can treat many problems without the removal of permanent teeth.

You should also know that I do not take your trust lightly. I take more than the state requirement (40 hours every 2 years) of continuing education to keep current on the latest techniques and advances in orthodontics and dentistry.

At every visit, I re-evaluate your progress based upon your growth and how you are responding to treatment. I am very meticulous and treat every case with the utmost attention to detail.

I am careful to explain all treatment procedures before you experience them, so you know what to expect. I also try to be careful not to use dental terminology that you might not be familiar with.

Of course, if you are an adult, I take the same care in treating you as I do with my younger patients.

Some of the specific things that you will experience in my practice related to the quality of your care are:

1. I use "State of the art" wire materials that are as gentle as possible.
2. My brackets are from 3M. Their brackets cost more but they are of high quality.
3. All of the x-rays that I take are digital - this reduces the exposure to radiation over the older film technology. It also enables better communication with any other dental professionals that may be involved in your treatment. Any time someone needs to see an x-ray that I have taken on you, I can email them the x-ray or print out another original. With the older film technology, the films needed to be duplicated and the quality on the duplicate was not as good as the original. This reduced the diagnostic quality for the dentist receiving the duplicate.
4. I delegate very little to my staff. The way I see it, you are paying for my skill, my judgement, and my care, so that I what I provide. Some practices have their assistants put the braces on. I consider this to be the most important part of your treatment and I do not delegate this. Some practices have a technician put the braces on your model and then the braces are put on your teeth based upon a template that the technician generates. Again, bracket position is so important that I do not want to delegate this.
5. The braces are attached to your teeth by a composite material (I'll call it glue for simplicity's sake here). If there are gaps of no glue between the brace and your tooth, you can get a stain or cavity in this spot. If too much glue is left around the brace (flash), this can be a source of either irritation to your gum or a spot that will retain plaque more When putting the braces on, I take particular care in
6. I do all of the adjustments to your braces, including putting bends in the wires, changing your wires, any activating adjustments, etc. Some practices delegate this to their assistants. All of these things provide me with diagnostic information which I need to know to ensure the proper progression of your treatment.