Your First Visit

Your initial appointment will be devoted to a detailed analysis of your general health as well as your personal dental care and appearance objectives. We believe getting to know you on a personal basis as well as on the technical level allows us to provide you the best possible care.

Please allow plenty of time. We strongly encourage a comprehensive and thorough dental examination, probably more than you've been used to in the past. It's also a good idea to bring along all the bottles of your current medications so we can review them. We also will request the names of any physicians treating you, along with their addresses and phone numbers.

We usually send a detailed medical history home, or you can fill it out at the office--allow plenty of time!

We will take only the most necessary x-rays to ensure that our decisions for your care are based on the best and most current information available. We are also one of the first offices to employ digital x-rays in our area. This permits the absolutely lowest exposure and significantly expands diagnostic capabilities.

A careful review of your medical history and detailed analysis of your goals precedes the actual examination.

We also were one of the first offices in the country to use the DiagnoDent micro laser scanner to peer down into areas of the teeth not visible by conventional x-rays in order to reveal decay in its early stages rather than waiting for crippling tooth damage.

If you are having a dental emergency, we may begin treatment immediately on your first visit.  Sometimes we hold off on complete analysis of your dental condition until acute problems are under control.

Thorough, detailed photography is sometimes even more revealing than x-rays during your exam.

Difoti Technology

Our office is one of the very few in the country using the Difoti technology that can look into teeth without x-ray exposure.

Difoti system looks inside teeth

A Dofoti image shows decay and leakage around an old filling.

We recognize that your time is very valuable, so we will try to provide our diagnosis and treatment suggestions on your initial visit, when possible. However, please understand that sometimes your case may be complex. Thorough analysis takes time. In this case we will invite you, your spouse or a trusted friend to join us for a relaxed, detailed consultation visit.  We will comfortably sit down together and explore your options and objectives for care, now and in the future.

Remember that the health of your mouth can have profound effects on the rest of the body as well as self-esteem, comfort, ultimate personal success and life satisfaction.  We take our responsibilities very seriously.

It is our goal to help you find a way to achieve your highest dental aspirations. It doesn't always happen over night! But that's what makes our profession so exciting and satisfying.

Many of our smile makeovers have literally changed people's lives!

Getting the Most out of Exams

Exams at our office are pretty thorough and comprehensive.  We like to know how your entire body is working.  We like to learn of other factors in your lives that contribute to your health. You can help us do the very best examination if you bring in bottles from any medications you are taking or have been prescribed. We also like to hear from your physicians and love to receive copies of your lab tests and reports. Having your physician's name and address also lets us communicate with them more easily if we find things going on orally that could contribute to your overall health.

Those Goofy Tooth Numbers

"2-O, 3-MO,12-DO..."  That's sometimes what a dental exam sounds like.  What is all the gibberish?  Tooth numbers and surfaces.

In the US we number adult teeth starting from the upper right going to the upper left.  That's 1 to 16.  Then we drop down and go from the lower left to the lower right.

17 to 32.

Surfaces: O stands for occlusal, the biting surface. M = mesial-the part of the tooth pointing toward the center of the dental arch of teeth.  In the back of the mouth on the molars, mesial is toward the chin.  But, as you get to the front, teeth, the mesial surface is toward the middle of the head.

Confuuuuusing?  Try being a dental student...

D is distal, the opposite of mesial.   F is facial--toward the face side, L is lingual--toward the tongue side.

Just to complicate matters even further, B stands for buccal, toward the cheek.

In Europe, incidentally, they use a much smarter system of two digits for each tooth.

The upper right is the 1 section, the upper left is the 2 section.  The front tooth in the center always ends in 1.   The last molar, the wisdom tooth, always ends in 8.

So the upper right front tooth would be tooth 11.

Don't expect us to get sensible tooth numbers in the US any time soon.  The insurance industry controls these numbers and will never accept a change that will complicate insurance form submission.

HOURS

We will gladly attempt to accommodate your scheduling needs. Our usual appointment hours are:...

Monday 8:00 AM -- 6:00 PM
Tuesday 8:00 AM -- 5:00 PM
Wednesday 8:00 AM -- 6:00 PM
Thursday 8:00 AM -- 5:00 PM

 Infectious Smiles-

Smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today,

I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner,
and someone saw my grin.

When he smiled I realized,
I'd passed it to him.
I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.

A single smile just like mine,
could travel the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected.

Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!