We’ve all been through a lot over the last few months, and our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same—our commitment to your safety and health.
We’re closely monitoring the CDC, ADA, and OSHA. As they update their guidelines, we’ll update our safety practices in real time and reflect those here. Please contact us with any questions or concerns prior to your visit. Thank you for supporting our local practice—we value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming you to our office.
A safer visit starts before you come in. Prior to your reserved appointment:
We’ll get in touch to ask some new screening questions that help us understand if you can be seen at this time. If not, we’ll ask you to reschedule. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you arrive.
For safety, we ensure minimal appointment overlap. We’ll do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
Only parents, guardians, translators or interpreters, and other necessary support people should accompany patients to appointments, and only if their presence is required for treatment.
Changes when you arrive at our office:
We’ll take your temperature with a contactless thermometer or sterilized temporal artery thermometer. If you have a fever, we’ll ask you to reschedule.
We require masks or cloth face coverings to be worn in the office before and after your treatment. If you forgot to bring your own, we’ll provide you with one.
We’ll require everyone to maintain at least six feet of separation as they move through the office when possible.
For the time being, we’re limiting items that are difficult to clean and disinfect such as our beverage station, takeaway bags, brochures, and magazines in the waiting room.
We’ll ask that you take a moment to wash your hands or use provided hand sanitizer when you arrive.
A safe and friendly clinical experience:
You’ll see our staff using new forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) for their safety. We’re also monitoring the health of our staff daily with temperature checks and screening.
We’re providing new training for our staff and continuing to maintain our high cleaning and sanitization standards for our equipment and work spaces (including disinfection of dental chairs, clinical areas, and high-touch surfaces in the patient waiting room, restrooms, and front office).
Endodontists are dentists who specialize in maintaining teeth through various forms of endodontic (root canal) therapy. Their specialized training makes them especially qualified at diagnosing tooth pain and treating complex cases. For this reason, your dentist may refer you to a specialist. In many cases, a diseased tooth can be saved with endodontic treatment. Endodontists are experts trained to save your natural teeth!
Local anesthetic is used to completely numb the tooth from all sensation. What you will feel, if at all, is mostly pressure and vibration.
No! It’s common to learn you need a root canal from your general dentist, but you can go to any endodontist you choose. We see patients with NO referrals every day and would be happy to treat your dental pain with the most comfortable root canal you’ll ever experience.
Dental Antibiotic Prophylaxis, commonly known as premedication, is when you take a large single dose of antibiotics prior to all dental appointments as recommended by your physician. This is usually for patients with heart and other medical conditions. The most common conditions are heart valve defects and joint replacements.
You are usually being asked to take one of the following doses 1 hour prior to your dental appointment:
And YES, you need to take your premedication before your consultation and your procedure.
We are an endodontic specialist, which means we specialize in root canal therapy. We recommend your general dentist or another specialist for the extraction of any teeth.
We place a gutta percha in the canal space of a tooth, which is a rubber-like material used for root canals. Gutta percha is a permanent root canal filling. A temporary filling is placed over the gutta percha after a root canal is completed. Your general dentist will place your permanent filling or a crown.
Yes, we encourage you to eat before coming into the office to start treatment.
Yes, we encourage you to follow the post-operative instructions we provide to you once treatment is done. You should wait until you are no longer numb to eat after treatment. Please refrain from eating hard, crunchy, sticky, chewy, or high temperature foods due to possible tooth fracture. The risk of tooth fracture greatly decreases after your general dentist places a permanent restoration on the tooth.
Typically, discomfort can last and peak up to the fourth or fifth day, then start to taper off with each passing day after. The length and levels of discomfort differ from person to person pending on the condition of the tooth. As a rule of thumb, when you wait until you are in pain, you will experience discomfort for a few days after the treatment.
Typically, discomfort does start after the anesthetics have worn off, so we will provide any prescriptions needed for post-operative discomfort.
No, but we will schedule you for follow-ups after treatment pending the condition of the tooth prior to treatment or findings during treatment.
Each endodontic case is different and fees vary accordingly. An estimate will be provided after your examination and consultation with the doctor.
No, we are root canal specialists and our fees and services are separate from your general dentist.
Typically, it takes between 1-2 hours pending the condition of the tooth before treatment or findings during treatment.
If you are having anxiety about your root canal treatment, we can offer two sedation options: oral sedation and nitrous oxide.
Oral Sedation:
Oral sedation uses a pill-based sedative, usually Halcion (similar to Valium). Like IV sedation, this pill will reduce your level of consciousness, and you may fall asleep or “forget” the procedure entirely.
Oral Sedation will require more than 1 visit and a driver to bring you to and from your appointment.
Nitrus Oxide Sedation:
Nitrous oxide is a gas and is commonly known as happy gas or laughing gas. This type of dental anesthesia produces a giddy “light-headed” sensation and is most commonly used on people who have mild dental anxiety.
One of the benefits of laughing gas is that its effects are quickly reversed. You can drive home after your appointment
Please disclose your anxiety at your consultation. We can determine which technique will provide the best results. Please note IV sedation is not used at our office for treatment at this time.
No, you would only need a driver if you are taking a prescription for oral sedation.
If you have already started the antibiotics and you are not experiencing any side effects, you should continue the course as prescribed until finished. Otherwise, you do not have to start the antibiotics if there is no pain or swelling present.