Patient Information

   appointments

We would like you to understand the goals that drive our appointment system. Orthodontic force systems must be adjusted and monitored every few weeks for treatment to proceed as planned. Many of the office visits will inevitably conflict with work or school. In order to balance the need to minimize missed school and work hours we have designed our office schedule to accomplish the following:

• We want to see each patient at the time of the scheduled appointment. Your time is valuable-it should not be wasted sitting in our reception room.
  
• We want to have enough time at each appointment to do the necessary adjustment, plan the next visit, discuss treatment progress and answer questions.

Orthodontic treatment proceeds in stages. At some points what is needed is a nudge here and there, requiring a relatively short appointment. At other times, major changes are required in the appliance, requiring a long appointment. With this in mind:
We will schedule longer appointments during school and work hours and shorter appointments before and after school and work. In this way we do not reserve an entire afternoon for one or two patients, but rather see as many patients as possible with short appointments. One consequence of a schedule arranged in this fashion is that the office is quieter in the middle of the day and busier in the early morning and late afternoon.

Because the schedule is carefully crafted, arriving late or missing your appointment can pose a problem. In fairness to the other scheduled appointments we will not jam a late arrival into the schedule. We will probably have to reschedule the appointment unless there is an opening in the schedule we had not expected. All failed or late appointments should he rescheduled as soon as possible Since the after school and work hours appointments are scheduled several weeks in advance, it will be necessary to reschedule the missed appointment during the middle of the day.

Orthodontic appliances are fairly tough, but wires can bend, brackets can come loose, retainers, can break. It is important to correct these problems promptly, and it will usually require a special appointment.

If you need an emergency appointment, we will bring you in as soon as possible to correct the problem.