Appointment Policies

We would like you to understand the goals we seek to achieve by our appointment system.  Orthodontic force systems must be adjusted and monitored every 5-7 weeks for treatment to proceed as planned.  Some of the office visits will inevitably conflict with work or school.  In order to balance the need for regular appointments with the need to minimize missed school and work hours we have designed our office schedule to accomplish the following:

We would like to see each patient at the time of his or her scheduled appointment.  Your time is valuable- it should not be wasted sitting in our reception area.

We would like 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 small adjustment here and there, requiring a relatively short appointment.  At other times, major changes are required, requiring a long appointment.

With this in mind we will schedule longer appointments during school and work hours and shorter appointments before or 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 way 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 planned, arriving late or missing your appointment can cause difficulties.  In fairness to the other scheduled patients we often cannot fit a late arrival into the schedule.  We will probably have to reschedule the appointment unless there is an opening in the schedule that we had not expected.  All failed or late appointments should be rescheduled as soon as possible.  Since the after school and work hours apppointments are scheduled 5-7 weeks in advance, it will often be necessary to reschedule the missed appointment during the middle of the day.

If you need an emergency appointment, or notice a loose brace or broken wire, we will appoint you as soon as possible to correct the problem.  We will most likely need to appoint you between 9AM and 12PM.

If you need to reschedule an appointment, please call our office so that we can better accommodate your situation. 

Please be aware that repeated missed or cancelled appointments along with excessive breakage of the braces or appliances can add significantly to treatment time.