Office Policies & Procedures

Thank you for becoming a new patient to our practice.  We’d like to welcome you to our office.  We realize that a new office may bring new questions and we hope that the following information can make your transition into our practice as easy and enjoyable as possible.  Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

MISSION STATEMENT: 

• To become lifetime partners in the health care of our valued patients helping them achieve the highest level of dental health and well-being
• To meet our patients' needs with a sense of caring, comfort and kindness, enhancing each and every visit with the highest level of personal service
• To strive for excellence in our personal and professional service
• To achieve and maintain the highest standard of diagnostic, preventive, restorative and prosthodontic dental care, while respecting your unique and individual needs and desires.

OFFICE HOURS: Our regularly scheduled office hours are 8:00am to 5:00pm (closed for lunch from 12-1) Monday through Thursday. 

SCHEDULING:  We strictly adhere to our appointment schedule.  Because we like to focus entirely on you, we reserve each appointment solely for you.  Dr. Eddleman likes to give you his undivided attention, and for this reason we do not double book our appointments.  We try to keep our patients from ever having to wait.  Because we respect your time so much, we ask that you respect ours.  Please call at least 48 hours in advance to cancel or reschedule an appointment so that we may give that valuable time to another patient in need, and we aren’t left wondering what happened to you. 

PEDIATRIC and MINOR PATIENTS:  While we encourage that a parent or their legal guardian accompany a child to each dental visit, we require that you do on their first visit.  A parent or legal guardian must arrange for payment to be made at the time of service at secondary visits you they plan to be absent.

EMERGENCIES:  We are very prompt in handling emergencies and will take care of you.  We discourage “walk-ins” and ask that you call first so we can be better prepared to help you deal with your emergency dental concerns.  For after-hours emergencies, please call the office and leave a message or call Dr. Eddleman at home.  If you are unable to reach us or a dentist on call for us, please go to emergency room.

INSURANCE:  At Dr. Eddleman's Office, we believe that you deserve the best care!  That's why we always present you with the best dental solutions possible to treat your personal situation.  Each year we provide outstanding dental care to hundreds of patients, some with dental insurance and some without.  If you have dental benefits, congratulations! You are very fortunate, and it can be a big help. Here are some important things you should know...... We are not a provider for any insurance plan.  Being a "provider" means that the insurance company and a doctor have signed a business agreement to accept discounted fees in exchange for more patients, but obligates the doctor to treat that patient according to what the insurance company dictates.  We are not a provider because we don't know how to discount our best effort, thought, and skill.  To provide high quality dental care with the best materials on the market through state-of-the art techniques, we can only accept 100% of our fee.  We never want to be compromised in what options we may give a patient.  We believe that the best health care is through an uninterrupted relationship between a patient and his/her doctor.  Occasionally one may receive notification from their insurance company that dental fees are "above usual and customary." An insurance company determines their reimbursement level by surveying a geographical area (including discounted dental clinics, Medicaid, and high-volume managed care facilities, which have contractually reduced dental fees), then calculating the average fee to determine what is customary.  Any doctor in private practice will have some fees that insurance companies define as "higher than usual and customary."  Please let us know if you have any concerns in this matter.

TREATMENT PLAN ESTIMATES:  Because we provide comprehensive dental care and like to be thorough by letting our patients know the details of the treatment they are candidates for, we provide Treatment Plan Estimates.  Contracts between your employer and insurance companies change often; therefore, it is impossible to give you a guaranteed quote prior to or at the time of service.  We estimate your portion based on the most up-to-date information we have, but it is ONLY AN ESTIMATE.  If you would like to know a more accurate estimate of your insurance benefit, you should call the number on the back of your card and take notes on what they tell you.

FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS & PAYMENT:  We do a very thorough job of explaining the cost of treatment options before you accept them.  Please ask if you are unclear about fees.  Payment is due at the time of service.  This may mean deductibles, patients’ portions not covered by insurance, or payment in full if no insurance.  We file your insurance claim as a courtesy at no cost to you.  If insurance does not pay within 90 days or denies your claim, our office reserves the right to request payment in full for services from you and assist you in collecting from your insurance company the reimbursement that is due to you.  It is important that you recognize that the dental insurance you have is a legal contract between YOU, your EMPLOYER, and your INSURANCE COMPANY.  Our office is not a part of that legal contract.  We accept cash, checks (from patients with a well-established payment history), VISA, MasterCard, and Debit cards.  We also offer excellent financing through CareCredit.  Should you need special arrangements, please speak with our financial coordinator prior to scheduling your appointment.  Because we are so clear about terms before our patients accept treatment, we hope to avoid bad accounts.

NO CELL PHONES:  We ask that everyone silence their cell phones and pagers when entering the office and that they turn off their cell phone when they are invited back to a treatment room.

NO FOOD OR PETS:  We do not allow food or pets in the office due to health considerations of our other patients.

RESTROOM:  Patients are welcome to use our restroom and should not wait until you are invited back as this causes delays.  Please ask a staff member when you arrive and they will guide you to the restroom.

We welcome you to our family and look forward to helping you get the healthy, beautiful smile you've always wanted. If there is anything we can do to make your visits here more pleasant, please don't hesitate to ask one of our staff members.