FAQ

Sometimes, parents ask if they should bring their teenage children to our office. We believe it is very important to continue seeing this age group since many dental and facial changes occur during the teenage years. A pediatric dentist is specifically trained to recognize and handle the unique dental needs and problems which can occur at this age. For example, during the middle school years, limited or comprehensive orthodontic treatment may be diagnosed to correct a poor bite or tooth alignment problem. Dr Moore has successfully treated thousands of children and young adults over the past twenty-five years in his pediatric dental practice.

Also, wisdom teeth are continually evaluated during the teenage years by annual digital dental x-rays. When the wisdom teeth are ready to be extracted, patients are referred to an oral surgeon for extraction of these teeth. Depending upon the individuals growth and development, many patients have their wisdom teeth extracted before they enter college. By extracting wisdom teeth at this age, many problems are avoided including intermittent pain and swelling, crowding of lower front teeth and bite changes. Also, the pain and discomfort of extracting these teeth at an early age is far less than if one waits until these are extracted.

Our office is open Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm. We are closed for lunch from 1 pm to 2 pm. If a dental emergency occurs after regular business hours, you can always reach Dr Moore at 901.277.3075.

If you call after business hours and need to leave a non-emergency message, please call the office at 901.683.3993 and leave a message on our answering machine. We will return your call as soon as we reopen the office.

We encourage parents to stay with their child during the first visit; subsequently, we permit one parent/adult to accompany your child to the treatment area as long as they desire. As your child becomes older, we find that most children feel comfortable seeing Dr Moore and staff without mom or dad in the treatment room. For the safety and privacy of all patients, we request only one adult family member accompany their child to the treatment area per appointment.

You may call 901.683.3993, or contact us by email at [email protected], or you can fax us at 901.683.8283 with an appointment request. Someone from our Front Desk staff will be happy to make an appointment or answer any questions you may have about our office.

It has been our experience that regular six month hygiene visits help to keep our patients’ teeth clean and cavity free. Children are growing and changing at a rapid rate during early childhood and teenage years. Regular hygiene appointments allow Dr Moore the opportunity to monitor the growth and development of primary and permanent teeth, the growth of both jaws, and the development of each child’s bite as they grow from toddlers to young adults.

Our hygiene appointments are always in demand. We encourage our parents to schedule their child’s hygiene appointment as far in advance as possible, especially during the school year when after-school appointments are in the highest demand. When parents schedule six months in advance, they are given first priority of appointments which best accommodates school or after-school activities.

If a six month hygiene appointment has been scheduled, our office sends out written or emailed notices of your child’s appointment about 2 weeks in advance of that appointment. Additionally, our office will call parents to remind them of any scheduled appointments. At each Hygiene appointment, we ask that you update all medical and demographic information including all pertinent phone numbers and email addresses so we always know the best way to reach you to confirm appointments or in case of an emergency. Although we try to reach all of our parents about upcoming appointments, the ultimate responsibility of remembering appointments remains with our parents.

In order to provide the highest level of dental care, it is important to maintain a respect for your time and our time. We work diligently to see our patients at their scheduled appointment times. Many times, we have a waiting list of patients wanting certain appointment times. Consequently, we request 24 hour notice if you need to change your child’s appointment for any reason. This enables us time to contact those patients on our waiting list and to schedule them for their needed dental treatment.

If your child fails to show up for their appointment without prior notice (“No Show”), then a broken appointment fee may be charged as follows: $35 for a missed hygiene visit and $50 for a missed restorative visit. If an appointment is cancelled without 24 hours notice and it is NOT due to illness or family emergency, we reserve the right to charge a broken appointment fee in the amount(s) listed above. In such cases, whether or not a broken appointment fee is charged depends, in large part, upon whether we can fill the cancelled appointment.

Broken appointments are NOT covered by your insurance. Three or more occasions of No Show appointments could result in your family’s dismissal and/or inability to schedule further appointments in advance.

Our front office works hard to accommodate the busy schedules of our patients and parents. The best way to avoid fees for broken appointments is to be sure to call us to reschedule as soon as you know there is a conflict. Remember, we would prefer NOT to charge any broken appointment fees.

Keeping your child’s dental appointments is in the best interest of your child’s health. We appreciate your cooperation in keeping all scheduled appointments.

For our last appointments of the morning and afternoon (12:20 and 4:20, respectively), if you are more than 10 minutes late, we will have to reschedule your child’s appointment.

For other appointment times, if you are more than 10 minutes late, we may have to reschedule, depending on time availability.

Please understand that if an appointment has to be rescheduled it is because the highest level of dental care can not be accomplished when Dr Moore and staff try to “rush” through the day’s remaining appointments in an effort to accommodate the late arrival of a patient.