Frequent Questions
We are providers for roughly 15 insurance plans which are listed under the insurance section of our website. If you do not see your plan listed there, and you would like to become a patient in our practice, we may be able to craft a special plan for you. In that event, please call and give your insurance information, name, and telephone number to the front desk, and we will review your plan to see how we may best accommodate you.
Our practice does not utilize sedation because we are able to accomplish all procedures painlessly without putting a patient to sleep or altering their consciousness in any way. There are rare cases where a patient is unable to cooperate and arrangements for a referral to another facility will be made. Of the 5,000 patient visits in our office annually, these referrals are necessary for less than 10 patients per year.
Yes! In almost all instances children can be seen in our practice for everything from their first checkup and cleaning right to adulthood. We even have a staff orthodontist who can handle their braces if they are indicated. We are a family practice through and through.
Your teeth have 5 surfaces: the biting surface, the cheek side, the tongue side, and 2 surfaces in between the teeth. 3 of those 5 surfaces can be visualized rather clearly with an intraoral examination. The 2 surfaces in between your teeth however, often cannot. We rely on images to indicate if decay or fracture is present in those areas. Before x-rays in dentistry, patients had a LOT of teeth extracted, because decay in those areas can develop painlessly and were not caught until the patient had pain or infection. We do recommend you occasionally have x-rays to visualize these areas during your checkups. X-rays can also check for gum and bone pathology. We have heard of practices dismissing patients that do not want x-rays for any reason. We are not totalitarian in that mindset, depending on the situation we will likely allow you to be treated anyway with the understanding that x-rays will be needed for an ideal result. We have taken measures to install a new state of the art digital imaging system that utilizes incredibly tiny amounts of radiation to capture diagnostic images. For more about our new imaging system, see the imaging tab out on the main page.
Many patients have been told by their doctors in the past to take a dose of antibiotics before having their teeth cleaned or dental work done. The list of reasons why that would be necessary has shrunk dramatically over the years with the latest round of updates to the ADA recommendations having been out since 2012. It is still best to ask your physician if you need antibiotics. Coronary stents, total joint replacements, heart murmurs, and metal implants in bones have been some of the reasons in the past. Please follow your family physician’s recommendations for these conditions.
Probably not! We are a team of dentists of all specialties from General Restorative Dentistry to Orthodontics (braces for children and adults) to Endodontics (root canals) to Periodontics (gum and oral surgery). Almost all patients have their treatments completed entirely in our Chester, NY office.