Cancelations / No show policy for your dental appointments

 

We understand that there are times when you can’t keep your dental appointment due to emergencies or obligations for work or family. Those situations will be taken into consideration on an individual basis. However, when you do not cancel an appointment with proper notice, you may be preventing another person from receiving much needed treatment. I would like to compare this to a situation that may arise if you are in urgent need of dental care. We may not be able to give you an appointment because our schedule appears full. In reality, someone else may have failed to show up for their appointment or forgot to cancel and by then, it is too late to give you that appointment time.

• Because of an alarming increase of last-minute cancelations and missed appointments, we have established the following policy and we hope you will understand why this has become necessary.

• When an appointment is booked, the time is reserved exclusively for you. If an appointment is not canceled at least 24 hours in advance, the patient will be charged a $35 fee. This fee is not covered by insurance.
• If a patient arrives over 10 minutes past their scheduled time we will in most cases, have to reschedule the appointment.
• We also reserve the right to cancel an appointment that has not been confirmed
• If the appointment requires a large block of time (like multiple fillings or crowns) and the patient does not cancel at least 24 hours prior to the appointment or fails to show up, a fee of $50 will be charged to the account. A deposit will also be required prior to rescheduling amounting to half of the cost of the co-pay or half of the service cost if paying by cash. The $50 fee is not covered by insurance, but the deposit will be applied to the payment when the service is completed.
  
  • Lastly, if there have been multiple instances of failing to show up for appointments or a history of last-minute cancelations has been documented, we may have to release the patient and their family from the practice.

The vast majority of our patients remember and keep their appointments and if it needs to be rescheduled, we are thoughtfully given at least 24 hours’ notice.

As a courtesy, we send multiple reminders via text and email starting 2 weeks before your appointment. We respectfully ask you respond to those reminders and let us know you are confirming your appointment. Adding the date to your calendar would help you remember also.

Your time is valuable and we appreciate you as our patient. We are very thankful that you understand that the time we have reserved for you and others is also very valuable.