Mission
We are here to serve: 

1. Our patients by providing excellence in the quality of our orthodontic treatment and compassion in rendering of that treatment;
2. Our patients’ families by offering a comfortable, pleasant and fun environment;
3. And our referring offices by communicating, corresponding and referring as appropriate.

We believe a well-trained and highly motivated TEAM best provides this level of superb service, and we are dedicated to creating an overall outstanding experience for those who entrust their orthodontic care to us.

Appointments

We try very hard to stay on schedule, starting and finishing your appointment on time. Our ability to do this depends on being as efficient as possible with our scheduling strategies and always trying to improve them.

When you make an appointment in our office, we reserve a time and place in our clinic schedule specifically for you. We understand that everyone is busy these days and that unexpected circumstances can arise that might require changing your appointment. When this happens, we request that you give us as much notice as possible, at least 24 hours in advance. This will provide us the best opportunity to reschedule your appointment to keep your treatment progressing as planned, and it also allows us the chance to offer your allotted time to another patient to help them as well.

We will continue our efforts to make our schedule work for you and for us. We respect the fact that your time is valuable, and we really appreciate it when our patients respect our time as well.

Almost all our scheduling strategies are designed to keep our clinic running on schedule. We use a computerized scheduling template to minimize the problem of Dr. Miller being needed in more than one place at a time. We use a computerized check-in system to let our clinical staff know exactly when you are scheduled and when you arrive. We use a flashing light communication system to let Dr. Miller know you have been seated and where he is needed next. All these technological innovations are a great help, but alone they are not enough. We have also developed a few guidelines that we try to follow to help us to serve you well.

Improvements in orthodontic appliances, materials and techniques have made it possible to schedule your regular adjustment appointments 8-10 weeks apart. When Dr. Miller started his practice in 1990, the typical appointment interval was 4 weeks. The obvious advantage to you, the orthodontic patient, is fewer times missing school, or work, or sports practice.

Despite this, since most orthodontic patients are students, after-school appointments are still “prime time” in all orthodontic practices. We understand this, and our scheduling template is designed to make the maximum use of this time of day for the benefit of as many of our patients as possible. Since longer appointments would take the place of several shorter ones, we schedule these earlier in the day. For example, we will put your braces on in the morning rather than later in the day. These earlier appointments have the added advantage of everyone (patient, staff and doctor) being better rested when the tedious process of placing the braces is performed.

Another type of appointment performed in the mornings is repair of broken appliances. If a patient is appointed during the busiest time of day and arrives with broken or missing brackets, chances are we will make him comfortable (clip wires, remove loose appliances, etc.) and reschedule the appointment for a morning when more time is available for the necessary repairs. We have learned that trying to perform an hour’s worth of repairs in a 30-minute adjustment appointment just doesn’t work! While we may repair the occasional loose bracket during the afternoon, we try very hard not to let one patient’s appointment run over and cause the next patient (and the next, and the next, etc.) to be seen late. We really want to be as fair as possible for everyone.

Another issue we have had to learn to address is that of what to do when a patient arrives late for an appointment. Let’s face it---we have all occasionally arrived late for an appointment, be it a doctor’s office, hair salon, business meeting or lunch date. It happens! If you are running late, please call us and let us know. Maybe we are also running late and you don’t need to rush. Maybe we have an opening in our schedule just a little later and we can move your appointment. Or maybe, if your appointment time is nearly over, it would be best to just reschedule your appointment for another day.

If a patient arrives late in our office for an appointment, we will try to still seat him in the clinic and at least check the appliance for problems. If there is enough time, we may change the elastic ties (“colors”) or elastic chain. At the very least, we will make sure that he is comfortable. However, we will also try to be considerate of our other patients and not let the “late patient domino effect” get started. Again, we want to be as fair as possible to everyone.

Patients who walk in without an appointment are usually here because they are having a problem of some sort. If you experience such a problem (something loose or broken, something poking or just a question to ask), it is almost always better to call the office first. If you do, we usually can find a place in our clinic schedule to evaluate the problem, and if there is time, correct it for you. We will always do what we can to make you comfortable; however, if you arrive without calling first, you might have to wait until we can fit you in between our other scheduled patients, or perhaps even until the end of the morning (if you come in the morning) or end of the day (if you come in the afternoon). We will see you as soon as we possibly can, but sometimes that might still mean a lengthy wait for you. You will be far less likely to waste your time waiting if you call us first.

Insurance

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