What happens at your first visit.

Before you come in

No clipboard in the waiting room. Once the appointment is set, the paperwork comes to you online, which is what protects the ninety minutes from turning into an hour of forms.

When you schedule as a new patient, your intake forms include the two validated sleep screeners clinicians use: the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and STOP-BANG. You fill them out online before you arrive, we score them, and we go through the results with you at your visit.

If online forms are difficult

If filling out forms online is difficult, or you would simply rather use paper, tell us when you call and we will email them to you to print and bring with you. Technology should not be the thing standing between you and an appointment.

What to bring

Photo ID, your insurance card, a list of your medications, and your nightguard or retainer if you wear one. Ideally your insurance details reach us with the online paperwork beforehand, but bring the card either way.

If you have had x-rays somewhere else

Send them over, or tell us where you were seen and we'll request them. If they were taken in the last six months we'll review them as part of your visit. We'll still take our own if they aren't of diagnostic quality or don't give us the full picture.

Is this visit a cleaning?

Not at this visit. The first appointment is a full evaluation, and we want the whole picture before booking your hygiene visit, because what your gums need depends on what we find. Your cleaning gets scheduled once we have it.

If you are nervous, or bringing someone who is

Gently. Just tell us when you call: a slower pace, extra time, and nitrous oxide comfort are all available. Patients with special needs are welcome at their own pace.

We see all ages, from kids to grandparents. If the visit needs to be shaped around someone in particular, the phone is the best place to start, because a real person answers it. There is more on how we approach this on our special needs dentistry page.

Insurance and payment

We accept all PPO plans. No insurance? Club BU membership starts at $1.50 a day and includes 20% off treatment, and flexible financing is available through Cherry.

What the visit costs depends on your insurance. That is the other reason the paperwork matters: when your details reach us ahead of the appointment, our front desk has time to review your plan, so the estimate you get in the office is an accurate one rather than a guess.

See membership and financing

What happens after

At the interval your biology actually needs, not a default six months. Your bacterial profile and gum health set the rhythm, and we'll recommend yours after your first visit.

If what we see under the microscope suggests it is warranted, we can go further with comprehensive salivary pathogen testing. That is explained on the bacterial and salivary testing page, along with what the microscope can and cannot establish on its own.

If you were sent to us by a physician or another clinician, we report what we find back to them with your consent. That side of the practice is described on our page for physicians and providers.

Why this much time

The mouth is one of the few places where chronic inflammation can be found, looked at directly, and treated. That is the reason the first visit is built around understanding rather than a quick check, and it is the thread running through everything else on this site.

Read about the mouth and body connections