Being well-prepared for your appointment will ensure that the doctor has all of the needed information to provide the best possible care for you. It also will help relieve any unnecessary anxiety you may be feeling. New patients can expect to fill out a patient history form as well as our Notice of Privacy Practices form. The information on these forms is necessary to provide the best dental care for you.

Please print off the following forms and fill out for your first visit to North Liberty Dental.

New Patient HIPPA Form
Patient Paperwork

Except for emergency visits, the initial visit is spent conducting a thorough examination which includes:

• A complete medical history to protect your health.
• Clinical exam of head and neck, including teeth and all soft tissues.
• Oral cancer screening.
• Create a baseline of existing restorations
• X-rays to detect decay and to determine the condition of the supporting bone.
• Addressing questions and/or concerns pertaining to your oral health

As a result of this careful examination, we can determine a practical treatment plan for you. This plan will tell you what treatment is needed, why it is needed, how much it will cost, and an estimate of how much insurance will cover (when applicable). If there is more than one case of treatment to be considered, each one will be discussed.

At North Liberty Dental, we make every attempt to make dentistry care affordable. We realize and recognize that our high-quality dentistry is not inexpensive, but we want to give every one of our patients an opportunity to say “yes to the best”, so we have set up several options to make comprehensive treatment more affordable for you!

• Cash, Check
• MasterCard, Visa, Discover Card and American Express
• Insurance Assignment (as a courtesy, we will file your insurance claims for you)
• Payment Plans

Please note that here at North Liberty Dental we collect payment for treatment the day of service. If you have dental insurance we will estimate your co-payment based on the information supplied by your insurance company. If there is a balance after insurance has paid their portion, we will bill you for the remainder, you are responsible for that amount, not your insurance company.

Dental insurance is a highly complex area that creates confusion for many dental patients. The complexities of dental insurance and the lack of sufficient information provided by some insurance companies make it almost impossible for some patients to properly understand their benefits. Even more confusing is understanding how to properly work with your dental insurance company to achieve the highest level of benefits to which you are entitled.

Dental insurance even if it for cosmetic dentistry procedure is a contract between your employer and a dental insurance company. The benefits that you will receive are based on the terms of the contract that were negotiated between your employer and the dental insurance company and not your dental office. The goal of most dental insurance policies is to provide only basic care for specific dental services. The services selected are based on the cost of the policy to your employer and the negotiated arrangements with the dental insurance company.

Because the benefits you currently have are decided between your employer and the insurance company, many services are not covered. The selection of non-covered services is not based on what you need or want, but is based strictly on the contract with the insurance company.

Unfortunately, some of the services like services for better teeth that you may need or want will not be covered by your dental insurer. Our goal is to help you achieve and maintain optimal dental care, which is not necessarily the goal of your dental insurance company. The goal of the insurance company is to provide only the negotiated benefits for the specifically selected service.

The reimbursement mechanism from your dental insurance company is merely a mathematical formula as to which benefits you will receive and the percentage of the dentist’s office fee that will be paid. We do not want to compromise your care based on restraints placed by an insurance company.

Another fact that most dental patients do not realize is that each dental insurance plan has a dollar amount limitation (maximum) each year. Once this limit is reached, no other services will be covered by your dental insurance company regardless how essential the service may be to your dental health.

Some services are typically not covered by dental insurance companies. These include: cosmetic dentistry, implants, occlusion or bite redesign, and other services. Although these are important dental services that can greatly enhance the quality of life of our patients, dental insurance companies do not feel that they should have to pay for these services. That is why these services are rarely included in contracts with your employer. Although, we are seeing more insurance plans starting to include implant coverage as part of the covered services.

Any time you have a question about your dental insurance, please feel free to ask us. We recognize that dental insurance is becoming more complex and more difficult to understand everyday. This is often due to the quest by dental insurance companies to reduce costs through continual changes. Keep in mind that the dental insurance companies are not concerned about coverage for optimal dental care, but provide coverage for only a limited number of basic services.

Our office remains dedicated to providing optimal care for every patient and working with you to achieve that goal. We pride ourselves on helping you in any way and in continuing to provide the quality of care to which you have become accustomed.