Scheduling Guidelines
We recognize that most of our patients have obligations during the day, usually involving work and/or school. When orthodontic treatment begins, some of your appointments may conflict with work or school schedules. One of our goals is to have as few of these inconveniences as possible. To help us achieve our goal, we have devoted considerable time and effort to establishing the following scheduling guidelines.
Shorter Appointments
You may be amazed at how quickly wire adjustments can be made. These quick appointments can be scheduled at various times during the day. As you can imagine, after school appointments are booked very heavily so that as few patients as possible miss work or school. If you prefer a quieter time, please ask to schedule a morning or mid-day appointment. The after school appointments are in such a high demand that it may be necessary to schedule some appointments during school hours. We are happy to provide you with a written medical excuse slip to avoid an unexcused absence from work or school. We also ask that parents/guardians do not leave their children at the office to run errands during appointments.
Longer Appointments
Longer appointments are scheduled during school and work hours. In this way, an entire afternoon is not committed to one or two patients. Instead, we are able to accommodate as many families as possible.
Late Arrival & Rescheduled Appointments
We realize that once in awhile, unforeseen circumstances arise which may cause you to change or overlook your appointment. We will do our best to reschedule your visit as soon as possible. Because our schedule is carefully designed, arriving late for your appointment can create a problem. Each procedure in our office is allotted a certain amount of time. Late arrival or a series of rescheduled visits may not allow us to complete the necessary procedure. This may result in a delay of your treatment and possible extension of the total treatment time. If it appears that you will be running late or need to change your appointment, kindly call our office to let us know. We will gladly reschedule your visit. Please keep in mind that missed appointments without 24 hour advance notice may have to be rescheduled to a morning.
Emergency Appointments
Emergency appointments are available each day so that we may schedule you as soon as possible during normal hours. Please understand that although we keep a variety of times available, we may not be able to offer you your “ideal” time for a discomfort appointment. Our goal is to accommodate you as soon as possible based on the urgency of the situation. If you have a problem with your appliances, please call the office before you come in. This will allow us to assess the problem and determine the appropriate amount of time needed for your visit. If you arrive with broken appliances without advance notices, you may need to be rescheduled. We ask for your understanding if a return visit is required to make necessary repairs so that we respect the valuable time of all of our scheduled patients. Should you have any discomfort after hours on weekends, our 24 hour answering service can be reached by calling the office phone number.
