FAQ

A pediatric dentist spends an additional two to three years after dental school specializing in the treatment of children, teenagers, and young adults. They have also been trained in behavior guidance to help children with dental anxiety complete their dental care successfully.

• Form: Primary (“baby”) teeth help preserve and shape the path by which permanent teeth eventually erupt into the mouth. 
• Function: Primary teeth are important for chewing and breaking down food into small pieces that can be easily digested. They also help in the development of certain speech sounds.
• Esthetics: The presence of teeth—especially the front ones—is important to the self-esteem of a growing child. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry both recommend that a child visit a dentist by his or her first birthday. 

We welcome you to accompany your child during the dental visit, especially if it is a first time visit or if your child is very young. After the first visit, we highly recommend you wait in the reception area and allow your child to complete subsequent visits with the help of our dental team. We’ve found that this type of independence guides children to approach future dental visits with increased confidence.

Children are little sponges! This means they will absorb anything around them—including a parent’s feelings toward the dental appointment. If you show anxiety about the appointment, it’s likely this anxiety will transfer to your child. Please use words of encouragement when describing your child’s upcoming dental visit and remind them how excited you are for them to see the dentist.

We understand you may have concerns about your child missing school. However, regular dental care helps prevent dental issues long term and actually leads to an overall reduction in the number of dental-related school absences. Dental appointments are an excused absence and we’ll happily provide a school note for your child.

Since we reserve our appointments individually for each patient, we ask that you please inform us if you need to change your child’s appointment time at least 48 hours in advance. This will allow our office to reach out to another patient in need of care and schedule them for that time. We greatly appreciate your cooperation and consideration.

We accept personal checks, most major credit cards, and Care Credit. For your convenience, we also have Apple Pay.

We accept all dental insurances that allow you to see your provider of choice. As a courtesy, we’ll be happy to file your insurance claim for you if we have received all of your insurance information on the day of the appointment. The uncovered portion is due at the time of service. For this reason, we highly recommend you understand your insurance benefits, including any deductibles and copays.

Please keep in mind that we do not dictate insurance policies and therefore do not choose which of our services are covered by your insurance. We always make an effort to work with your insurance company to provide you with maximum benefits. However, when making treatment recommendations, we do so based on your child’s needs—not based on what insurance covers.