Thanks for referring a friend to our office.  We strive to exceed your expectations and appreciate your trust in referring friends and family to our office.

We have created a New Patient Referral e-newsletter that you can send to a friend to introduce them to our office.

We take your privacy and your friend’s privacy very seriously and won’t sell, trade, abuse, the use of their email address.  We also have an opt-out at the bottom of each newsletter we send.

If you would prefer not to give us your friend’s email address you can always just send them the link to our e-newsletter via your own email. Or copy and paste this into your email, http://www.grandviewdentalcare.com/e_newsletter/referral-e-newsletter-Sept2009.htm

It’s a simple statement.  It’s a true statement.  Yet about 50% of the US population doesn’t have a dentist. 

For you dental regulars…. I realize you are probably gasping in disbelief but it’s true.  Do your own survey amongst your co-workers and see what the response is.

So why do I think Everybody Needs a Dentist?  Ok, I am the wife of a dentist but everybody starts out early in life with teeth, right?  And guess what, those that don’t have teeth now and have to suffer with dentures or missing multiple teeth probably didn’t visit the dentist very often.

So, if you haven’t been to the dentist in while, even if “everything feels fine”, make an appointment with one today to get things checked out.  Don’t be embarrased by how long it’s been, we’ve seen it all before and we don’t care what your reasons are.  They were valid to you at the time.  We are just happy to see you taking charge of your dental health and paying a dentist a visit.

I have been out of the office for a few days this week attending my annual update on dental products, procedures, techniques, what’s hot and what’s not in dentistry.  It is presented by an independent research group made up of dentists, microbiologists, and other geeky scientist types. We all get ‘geeked out’ about things in life and this is one of mine.  

I love dentistry because of all the new things that are happening in the field.  It makes my job that much more exciting when I can solve a problem for my patient with a better technique or material which is faster, more comfortable, better yet more economical for my patient! And… most of it is just plain cool.

It’s great when you get to learn something new everyday!

New patients to our office fill out a health history questionaire before their first appointment. 

The last two questions are:

How long do you plan to keep your teeth?  and

How do you feel about dentures?

The answer to the first question is typically “forever” and to the second question “yikes” or similar response. 

We ask this question to get people to think about what it takes to keep your mouth healthy and free of gum disease.  The most successful method of keeping your teeth for a lifetime is to take care of them.  And the alternative to keeping your teeth for a lifetime is dentures or limited teeth in your mouth. 

• If you have gum disease, do something about it. 
• If it’s been a while since you’ve seen the dentist, ask friends and family for a recommendation, and go see one. 
• If you are missing one or more teeth, go see a dentist and see what your options are.  Dental technology is constantly improving and you more have options on how to take care of small problem instead of waiting until they become big dental problems.
• If you’ve put off going to the dentist, don’t panic.  It may not be as bad as you think.  Every mouth is different.
• If you think dentures are your only option, look into mini-dental implants.  A skilled dentist and dental lab can make very natural looking and comfortable set of dentures and mini-dental implants can insure the dentures stays in your mouth.

We’ve been posting to our Blog since August of 2008.  It’s a quick way for anyone on the staff to publish an update to our website.  For example, we’ve had to close our office because of bad weather in the past, a quick post to our blog and our patients with appointments would know we were closed. 

The best way to understand what a blog is, is to view some of the articles.  We invite you to choose some of the keywords or topics in the left hand margin to explore our blog.  You can also type in a search topic in the “search box” at the top right.

We want our patient community to be involved with our blog! 

We welcome your comments to our posts as well as suggestions for blog post ideas.  For example our Halloween Candy Alternatives or Helping your children brush posts are just waiting for patient input!  You can share your input to our Blog in 3 ways

• Login as a guest user (user name and password is “guest”, pretty tricky eh?
• Create your own Login
• Send us and email with the comment you would like to post 

We are always looking for good Blog content and Link Sharing

Do you have a Blog or know someone that has a blog on a related topic? 

Do you like to write articles on health, diet, fitness, interesting things about Columbus, or some other topic you think is relevant?  Send Becky an email or give her a call at 614-486-7378.  Perhaps you could be our next guest blogger.

If you are a small business or have a blog we would like to link share.  You link to our site, we’ll link to yours in a blog post or other relevant area of the website.  Contact Becky to discuss.

So what have we been up to this year?  Check out these Blog posts for staff pictures and other interesting blog posts.

• Pictures from our Community Tailgate on 10/4/2008
• A “formal” picture of the staff from our trip in February 2008
• Meet Baby Ava Capuano (ok she’s almost 6 months old now)
• How we help our patients be as comfortable as possible
• Dr. Thompson provides Invisalign Teen.  Is it right for your teen?
• The Staff celebrates Dr. T’s 30 years in dentistry

It’s a contract between your Employer and the Insurance Company

Your dental insurance is based upon a contract made between your employer and an insurance company. This contract determines:

• What your employer pays for the dental benefit which in turn effects what you pay
• What sort of dental procedures your plan will cover.  Many plans don’t cover procedures that have been the standard of care for over a decade.  (tooth colored fillings, dental implants, etc)
• The fee schedule or how much money will be paid for particular procedures and how much you the patient will have to pay
• How much coverage you have each year in dental benefits
• Whether or not you can choose any dentist or have to pick a dentist from a list

We don’t have the insurance company magic phone number

Believe it or not we don’t have a magic phone number or a designated contact at the insurance company.  We submit claims to 100s of different insurance companies.  Multiply that by the number of employers with different flavors of policies with those same insurance companies and it becomes challenging to get the definitive answers to our patients questions.  

We will make reasonable attempts to contact the insurance company to get things resolved but patients must play a role also to be successful. 

We don’t know exactly what your insurance company will pay until we receive the claim back

We will always be able to tell you what our fee is for a particular dental procedure and we can usually estimate what your insurance will pay.  But until we get the claim back we don’t know for sure what your insurance company will pay. 

We understand that this makes it very difficult for you to budget on bigger procedures and offer a variety of payment options so that you can get the dental care you need.

Dental insurance benefits are different than health insurance

Dental insurance benefits differ greatly from general health insurance benefits, in both coverage and price.  Do you know what you pay for your dental insurance?   Check your pay stub and compare it to the cost of your medical coverage.  Big, difference, eh?

Knowing that dental insurance isn’t really insurance (coverage for a chatostophic loss) it’s more of resource for payment.  Know that the big stuff is still going to have some out of pocket cost and that there is a maximum you can use each year. 

But also realize that the big stuff doesn’t happen year after year.  You may have a year with a root canal and a crown(big stuff) but then have “ok” check-up appointments for the next 5.  And remember, that small filling the dentist found today will eventually turn into something bigger and more expensive if you don’t get it taken care of.  The decay doesn’t go away…. it just gets bigger.

Dental Benefits have not ever increased  

In 1971, your dental insurance benefits were approximately $1000 per year. Some 35 years later, you will note that your benefits are still approximately $1000 per year. Figuring a 6% rate of inflation per year, you should be receiving over $5000 per year in dental benefits. Your premiums have increased, but your benefits have not. Therefore, dental insurance is never a pay-all; it is only an aid.