Beyond a referral a lot of dentists don’t realize how helpful a patient’s primary care provider can be their treatment and insurance coverage. A primary care provider can give you a great deal of supporting documentation and history though to assist in your patient’s care. Of...
People could enroll into High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) for cheaper premiums, but higher deductibles (Caldwell and Cautero 2019). People who “are healthy, don’t visit the doctor often, or don’t have a large family,” and “have a lot of liquid savings” can benefit from HDHP’s...
It’s something we are familiar with in dentistry, coordination of benefits between carriers. Often times when you have a primary and a secondary dental carrier the secondary will not duplicate benefits paid by the primary. Legally you should only be collecting up to your usual...
For treatments that do not have any corresponding CDT codes, dentists could record the “‘unspecified …procedure by report’ CDT Code” on the dental claim, along with any “documentation that explains the service provided” (“Frequent General Questions Regarding Dental Procedure Codes”). For instance, dentists can record...
Many practices have an aversion to outsourcing any part of their practice. There are ideas about the cost, quality of work and concerns over patient security. In many instances it isn’t a problem to keep things in-house because competent, motivated employees can be found to...
Adults can undergo orthodontic treatments for cosmetic and medical reasons. Unfortunately, braces can be expensive for some people, but “Prices depend on where you [the patients] live – orthodontists in more rural areas are often less expensive than ones in larger cities - and may...
There are some things you do automatically in your dental practice. Industry traditions that have proven “tried and true” and you wouldn’t imagine not implementing. Appointment confirmations, collecting copays, paperless charting, insurance verification, etc. Think about it – how many patients do you check insurance...
Education is important for patients and can be vital in those with both treated and untreated sleep apnea. Patients are usually resistant to trying other forms of sleep apnea treatment when they have had a negative experience with CPAP or other treatment methods. It is...
Some people need to undergo bone grafting, a regenerative surgery that involves a periodontist, an oral surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, and an anesthesiologist (“Bone Graft: Materials, Cost and Procedure” 2018; “Dental Bone Graft Cost”). This procedure addresses issues related to the gradual deterioration of “the...
Some babies and children have ankyloglossia, which refers to tongue-tie, “a condition that restricts the tongue’s range of motion. With tongue-tie, short, thick or tight band of tissue (lingual frenulum) holds the bottom of the tongue’s tip to the floor of the mouth” (“Frenotomy Frenulotomy...
