getting started
Your first step in improving your smile, your bite, and your overall health and well-being is to schedule an appointment for a complimentary and comprehensive initial examination. Just call or text us at 423-531-4533.
Once you are scheduled, we will push our intake forms to you through our patient portal, which you can complete in advance.
At your examination appointment, we may take a 3-D x-ray of your jaws, digital scans of your teeth, and photographs of your smile. These will allow Dr. Marie to see what's going on "under the hood," so to speak. She will review your diagnostic images and thoroughly examine your bite, oral tissues, and smile.
Then Dr. Farrar will share with you:
what needs to be corrected
why it is affecting you
how she proposes to address your concerns
when to start treatment
Then she will answer the two most common questions: “How long will my orthodontic treatment be?” and “How much will my orthodontic treatment cost?” She and our treatment coordinator will answer any other questions you may have and explain the risks and benefits of your treatment.
Our treatment coordinator will send your starting paperwork to you digitally, and once you are ready to proceed we will schedule your appointment to get your appliance(s) seated. Some appliances can be ready in 2 weeks and others take up to 6 weeks. But, thankfully, separators, bands, and impressions are things of the past! While many orthodontists push for "same-day starts," we will never pressure you into getting started before you are fully informed and ready to proceed.
Once your treatment has started, we will use Dental Monitoring to determine when you need to come back in for an adjustment. This app will give you feedback on your home care, your progress, and can even notify us if something is broken! Before you know it, you'll be sporting your brand new fabulous smile, especially if you do your part by coming to all your scheduled appointments, wearing your rubber bands, brushing your teeth, and being careful not to lose or break your appliances!
How can I afford braces?
Well, it's a whole lot less expensive than you might think. Especially when you consider the value of a lifetime of healthy, confident smiles!
Our office offers loyalty discounts for multiple family members, discounts for full payment at the start of treatment, and flexible payment plans using a monthly automatic draft service. Within certain parameters, you get to choose your downpayment and your monthly payments to fit your budget. Your monthly charges can be paid from a checking or savings account, or they can be charged to your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Some patients are able to charge their monthly payments directly to their health savings accounts.
Maximizing your insurance benefit
Our office is happy to file your insurance claims and help you receive the maximum allowable benefit. We regret that we do not participate with any HMO insurance plans because of the steep reduction in fees that they require. We are not able to provide the high quality of care and service our patients are accustomed to if we have to reduce our fees significantly.
If you have a PPO plan, we may not show up on your list of "in-network" providers. However, we can file your insurance, and your insurance benefit will be exactly the same as if you seek treatment in-network. It's a little understood fact that most orthodontic fees are not limited by a PPO plan because orthodontic insurance uses a lifetime maximum.
We take your privacy seriously
Here's what you should know about our privacy practices. We will never, ever sell patient lists to anyone else for marketing purposes. Patients have the opportunity to opt out of our electronic communications. We share with insurance companies and other doctors and dentists only what is necessary for patient care. We don't collect any more private information than we need, we shred any documents with patients' personal information, and our communications containing patient information are all fully encrypted and/or HIPAA compliant. All software and third-party vendors we use are HIPAA compliant. And we always ask your permission to use your smiling face in any marketing or social media.
Click here to read our official "Notice of Privacy Practices".