General Information
What to expect when you visit our office.
In Preparation
Please complete our New Patient Paperwork prior to arriving for your first appointment.
This paperwork includes a detailed Medical History, Medications, Supplement Use Questionnaire, our Privacy Policy, and Insurance Information (if applicable).
To help in the diagnosis and development of your treatment plan, please bring with you any recent radiographs (x-rays), a list of all current medications and any dental insurance information you may have.
Our waiting room is open. Please come in and enjoy a tea or coffee!
Masks are now optional in our clinic. Clinic staff continue to wear masks and we have medical masks available for those who choose to wear them.
At Your Consultation
Our clinical team will perform a comprehensive examination to determine the nature and extent of your periodontal condition. Dr. Fritz or Dr. Schuldt will then discuss treatment options with you and plan the best course of action for your individual case.
This appointment generally takes between 45 minutes and an 1 hour and 30 minutes. During this time you should experience little, if any, discomfort.
Our treatment coordinators will work with you to fit the treatment into your busy life as seamlessly as possible.
With your permission, we will send a digital report of your visit with us to your general dentist and/or physician to keep your records complete.
After Your Appointment
Dr. Fritz and Dr. Schuldt always leave ample time to answer questions you may have, but in the event that questions arise after you’ve gone home, you will always leave our office with a digital information package with answers to commonly asked questions and the direct contact information of Dr. Fritz and/or Dr. Schuldt.
Our website and Blog are a useful archive of information. Our blog will also link you to several informational videos and publications.
If you begin to experience any symptoms of COVID-19, including dry cough, shortness of breath, general aches and fatigue, fever, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, etc., please contact our office immediately to report these symptoms.
Cancellations and Re-Scheduling
Our goal is to provide exceptional and timely service to all of our patients. If you must make a change to your appointment, we encourage you to let us know at least two (2) business days (Monday-Friday) prior to your scheduled appointment to avoid a cancellation or re-scheduling penalty.
If you must make a change to your appointment that requires sedation, we encourage you to let us know at least one (1) week prior to your scheduled appointment with one of our Registered Nurses to avoid a penalty.
Should you need to re-schedule your upcoming appointment within a 2 business day window (1 week for appointments requiring sedation), we will ask that you pre-pay for your next appointment.
Should you need to cancel your upcoming appointment within a 2 business day window (1 week for appointments requiring sedation), you will be subject to a $400 cancellation fee in addition to needing to pre-pay for your next appointment.
Finances
Fees
Our goal is to provide you with the very best treatment at a reasonable cost. Our fees are often set below what is recommended by the current Ontario Dental Association Fee Guide for Periodontists.
All of our fees are openly explained in detail before any treatment is initiated. We do not accept assignment of your insurance benefits from your insurance provider. This simply means that while we submit all claims to your insurance company for you, our policy is to receive payment of fees from you at the time of your visit and your insurance payment will be sent directly to you.
Dental Insurance
Our treatment coordination team will be glad to help you to submit your dental insurance claim. We are also happy to assist with insurance questionnairs and forms of all kinds.
Our treatment coordinators are experts in dental insurance and are available at any time to answer your specific questions.
Financing Your Treatment
We understand and are sympathetic to financial pressures, and so our treatment recommendations are always made to be conservative, whenever possible. We provide a number of financial options because we feel that finances should never be an obstacle to periodontal health.
We offer financial arrangements, including post-dated charges to your credit card, interest-free.
We accept Visa, MasterCard, debit, e-transfer, and cash. We do not accept cheques or American Express.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are three ways to become a patient with us:
- Your dentist, hygienist or family doctor can refer you directly.
- You can refer yourself. A referral from your family dentist is not required.
- Some of our best patients come from our best patients! We welcome and encourage referrals from our loyal patients who have visited us in the past.
There is ample free parking directly in front of our office. The office is completely barrier free (wheelchair accessible).
We get asked this question a lot. So much so, that we performed a study to provide an evidence-based response to the question “Is this going to hurt?”. Results of the study, which were published in the Dentistry Journal, showed a positive correlation between anticipated pain and actual pain. The factors that influenced the amount of pain our patients felt after surgery were things like:
- anticipated pain (I think it’s going to hurt, therefore it is vs. I don’t think this will hurt so bad, therefore it isn’t)
- age (older individuals reported experiencing less pain)
- sedation during surgery (patients under sedation during their treatment reported less pain during recovery)
- the number of pain pills used during the recovery period (more pain pills, more pain, as expected).
To make your experience with us as comfortable as possible, we use a combination of topical and local anesthetics as well as intravenous sedation with one of our registered nurses, should you be interested in this avenue.
The decision to pursue periodontal treatment and wellness is an important one and should be treated as such. Therefore, when deciding who to entrust your oral health care to, we have generated a series of questions that you should ask your dentist, periodontist or oral surgeon in advance of your treatment.
- How many of these procedures have you done before?
- What is your success rate of this procedure?
- What are the possible complications? And what will you do for me if these complications occur?
- What brand of implants do you use? Does the brand of implant matter?
- How long do you anticipate my healing time will be after this surgery?
- How will this procedure help me in the long term?
Most of my major life decisions were made on canoe trips. Things like, the choice to go to dental school, to open my own practice, to grow my hair out… While on a canoe trip to Temagami in 2002, I was inspired to design the office you see now in Fonthill. I figured that you could choose to decorate a dental office with pictures of diseased gums, or canoes. I chose canoes! I hope the theme resonates with you. See how many you can spot on your next trip to our office.
