FAQ

For brushing, just remember the number 2.  You should brush 2 times a day, 2 minutes each time.  The ideal times would be in the morning after you wake up to eliminate all the anaerobic bacteria that have been accumulating in your mouth over-night.  The other ideal time would be in the evening right before bedtime to clean out all of the food that you’ve been eating all day.  Letting that food sit on your teeth and gums all night is a quick way to develop cavities and gum disease!  2 minutes each brushing session is needed to allow the fluoride in your tooth paste to sink in and begin the remineralization process.

Flossing should be done every night before bedtime.  The toothbrush is unable to clean in between the teeth where they touch.  Flossing between the teeth, and then wrapping it around the teeth into the gums is the most efficient way to eliminate plaque.  Soft plaque that is not removed daily, will eventually harden and turn into calculus (tartar).  Our gums will identify tartar as something foreign and begin the inflammation process (gingivitis), thus the bleeding you see when you haven’t flossed in a while.  Not to worry though, daily flossing for a couple weeks will start the healing process and the bleeding will subside once the gums are healthy again!

Based on a patient’s history of dental decay and/or gum disease will determine how often a patient needs radiographs completed.  Simply put, a dentist can not diagnose dental decay, gum disease or even oral cancer without the use the dental radiographs.  It may seem frightening when you see our dental staff put on a lead apron and step out of the room when taking the radiograph.  Fortunately for all of us, the advancements in digital radiology has made taking dental x-rays extremely safe.   Many people don’t realize that just being outside for a day, flying on an airplane, or having a smart phone in your pocket day exposes you to far more radiation than having a few dental radiographs taken.  Here is a graphic to help illustrate the small amount of radiation you’re exposed to at the dental office.

As a courtesy, we are happy to look up your dental benefits and coverage amounts.  Our staff sets time aside to do this for every visit!  However, every plan has different % coverage amounts for each different category of procedure, frequency limitations, procedure downgrades as well as annual benefit maximums amounts to be tracked.  For any service treatment planned, we do our best to estimatethe patient portion.  In some cases, a patient’s insurance will cover a lesser amount than we had expected, in this case the patient is still responsible to pick up the difference.  For patients that would like to get an exact amount of what they will owe, we will submit pre-determinations to hopefully get a more accurate number.  Patients also can call their insurance themselves to find out exactly how much their insurance would cover for a particular service.

We work with all PPO Dental insurances.  As long as your insurance is a PPO, you will have some coverage.  For regular checkup and cleanings, most insurances will provide close to 100% coverage.  For anything beyond the regular checkup and cleaning, coverage will vary depending on your individual plan.

Every individual dental plan is different, but we find that most insurances will still cover a regular cleaning even if you have maxed out your benefits for the year.