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.

In February of 2008 Dr. Thompson and the staff at Grandview Dental Care (and their Spouses) took a week long cruise together.  We visited San Juan, St. Thomas, St. John, St Martin, Antigua, and Barbados.   We had a lot of fun and team building and look forward to our next trip together. 

SInce you typically only see us in scrubs, we thought we would share our “formal night” picture with you.  Do you recognize us without a mask on?

There are always going to be choices when you decide that it’s time to choose a Columbus Ohio dentist, what are you going to look for?  Before you make any significant purchasing decision everybody has a method of criteria that they are looking for with some factors being more important than others. 

Typically most people don’t choose to spend their hard earned dollars just because a company is on some other company’s list.  It may be a factor, but it’s not the only factor in the decision.  Why would choosing a dentist be any different?

First, you’re going to want to be sure that you are going to choose a Columbus Ohio dentist that’s personable, and with whom you can connect - that’s something that’s essential: a good relationship with you dentist. 

Then you’re going to want to focus on whether or not you feel comfortable with the Columbus Ohio dentist that you’re thinking about seeing. Part of that is about the relationship, part of it is about the office itself: it’s a great idea to choose a dentist who goes the extra mile to make you feel okay about being at the dentist.

You also want to make sure that the dentist’s staff makes you feel welcomed and comfortable and seems happy to be working there.  A good way to judge that is to asked them how long they’ve worked there.

Finally, if you’re looking for a Columbus Ohio dentist that will be able to provide certain cosmetic procedures, ask. Make sure that you’re choosing someone who can help you out and who has the experience to get the job done right.  In addition, make sure to ask them to see before and after pictures of other patients.

It seems basic and straightforward, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who don’t take these things into consideration when the choose a dentist; they often find themselves going through the process again. So why not just make the right choice the first time?

As some of you may know, 2008 marks my 30^th year as a dentist in Grandview.  Yes, I realize by my youthful appearance in my staff photo that it’s hard to believe I’ve been practicing that long… but I started when I was 10….

 In addition, I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my excellent staff, my family, and my patients.  It truly puts a bright spot in my day when a patient that has been with me since the early days is on the schedule or when any one of my patients gives me a heartfelt “Thanks Doc!”  We all know that it makes a tough day that much more bearable when we are appreciated for what we do.

 So, to mark this occasion and show appreciation for our patient family be sure to mark your calendars for our Celebration Event this Fall on October 4^th.  We are planning a tailgate/cookout with activities for the whole family including balloon sculptures, face painting, and college football.  Make sure we have your email address so that we can keep you posted on the details and/or let us know what type of activities you would enjoy!  Thank you for being a part of our patient family!