Here at Robert C. Clay, Jr, DDS, Ltd., our mission is to provide you with the best and most comprehensive dental care available. Dental treatment is an excellent investment in your overall health, and we try to keep financial considerations from being an obstacle to you getting the best treatment available. To help make optimal treatment possible, we offer several payment options.
Of course, cash, check, and credit card payments are always accepted in our office. In addition, we also accept online payments through our secure online payment portals. You can make a payment using your credit card, or you can make a payment through PayPal. Both of these online options are secured through the PayPal servers and are excellent options to save time and make sure your payment gets to us on time. Click here if you would like to make an online payment.
Third Party Lending Sources
We completely understand that the costs for dental treatment may discourage patients from following through with recommended treatments. To help patients have options to pay for treatment, we have partnered with both CareCredit and Lending Club to offer no interest as well as interest-bearing financing options. Their rates and promotions vary, so check out CareCredit and LendingClub to see what will fit your budget, or you can just ask us to check into it for you when we go over your treatment plan.
Dental Insurance
For patients with dental insurance, we will do everything to maximize your dental benefits. We will submit claims and directly bill your insurance for your treatment. Patients are responsible for amounts not covered by insurance.
We accept most PPO insurance, and we will happily submit the claim forms to your insurance company for you. While we accept payment from most PPO policies, we would be considered out-of-network for all companies except for the Delta Dental Premier network. While having insurance is always a desirable thing, we have chosen not to let insurance company PPO payment agreements dictate what services and materials we will use on our patients. We always use the best dental materials, top American labs, and take the time necessary to do things right. Therefore, we have not entered the “preferred provider” agreements with any companies, aside from the Delta Premier network.
Although most PPO networks allow you to go out of network for treatment, some have different pay schedules or coverage limits for out of network dentists. In addition, some PPO plans are now denying out of network coverages. While we will always try to answer your questions, the best way to be sure you will have coverage is to check with your insurance provider or Human Resources department so there will be no surprises.
Unfortunately, HMO or DMO types of insurance are not accepted in our office at this time.
Please contact us if you have any questions about payment options, insurance, or third-party financing. We will be glad to try to assist you.
Are dental amalgams, also known as “silver fillings” safe? There has been a lot of debate through the years on the safety of amalgams due to their high mercury content within the material. Mercury is a metal that is naturally formed in the earth. There have been several health related problems associated with high dose or chronic exposure to mercury. However, certain forms of mercury are more dangerous than others. In fact, elemental and methylmercury are the two main forms that are associated with the dangers. Other forms of mercury, such as ethylmercury or mercury in its alloy state are thought to be not as problematic.
While I could present a lot of science behind the findings, I will save you the boredom and say that the following groups have found dental amalgams to be safe based on available scientific studies: Alzheimer’s Association, International Journal of Dentistry, the Lupus Foundation of America, the Mayo Clinic, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Council Against Health Fraud, The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the New England Journal of Medicine, the U.S Food and Drug Administration, and ( everyone’s favorite web source to self diagnose) WebMD. You can get more information here from the American Dental Association website by clicking HERE.
On a side note, one of the most prevalent ways to be exposed to the dangerous mercury is by eating seafood. Fish filter mercury in the water and it is incorporated into the fish we may eat....and this is in the Methylated form that is dangerous.
Should we have the old fillings removed anyways? This is always a debate as well. Cutting on the fillings produces heat, which results in mercury vapor, which is one of the more toxic forms of mercury. Therefore, some think removing them could be riskier than leaving them, while others worry about long term low level leakage of mercury from the fillings. Again, science says they are safe to use and removal when needed poses little risk as well.
Our thoughts: we feel confident that it is a safe material to use for dental restorations and do use it on occasion when we feel it is the best, or sometimes only material that will work. However, we also feel it is good to limit potential exposures to mercury if there are other safer materials to use. The removal of mercury fillings has long been linked to the increase in mercury levels in our waterways, so reducing the use of amalgam fillings is still probably a good idea overall.
It is always a good question to ask whether your child should see a pediatric dentist or whether a general dentist, like Dr. Clay would be a good fit. As with adults, one of our biggest goals is to make every dental experience be as pleasant as possible. When it comes to children, we don’t want to make too broad of a recommendation without knowing the child and their needs. While some kids are eager to come to the dentist, others are very fearful. While some kids need little to no dental work, others may need more extensive or specialty restorative treatments. We always leave the option up to the parents to decide whether to start with our office, or to start with a pediatric office. If they choose to come to us first, then we will evaluate the child and their needs, and decide whether it would be best suited for treatment in our office, or if they would benefit by going to a pediatric dentist. Pediatric dentists have advanced training on treating children and can offer more extensive treatment options as well as various options for sedation when necessary. In the end, we want every experience to be a positive one.
Through the years, one of the questions that I have been asked the most is whether you should brush first or floss first. I was always happy when people would ask that question because it made me realize that some people actually do floss at home. However, I never really had a good answer for that question. I would always say that if you flossed first, the spaces between the teeth would be cleaner for the fluoride toothpaste to penetrate between the teeth. But then I would say that if you brushed first, you would have the fluoride toothpaste in your mouth from brushing and the floss would pull the fluoride toothpaste between the teeth where a brush can't reach. And then I would sum it up by saying that there are probably benefits either way and it probably doesn’t matter that much which is done first. I would always say that I was just happy that patients were attempting to floss.
However, in May 2018 there was a research article published in the Journal of Periodontology, the publication that focuses on the treatment of gum disease and the tissues around teeth. The focus of this research article was to determine whether there was an advantage to brushing first or flossing first. The research concentrated on the reduction of plaque bacteria, the cause of gum disease and tooth decay, as well as fluoride retention on the tooth surfaces after either brushing first or flossing first.
What they found was that flossing before you brush resulted in a statistically significant reduction of plaque bacteria between teeth when compared to flossing after brushing. So, that meant that flossing first did a better job of cleaning teeth in the research. In addition, flossing first also resulted in a statically significant increase in the amount of fluoride retained on the surfaces between teeth when compared to flossing after brushing. So, again, it is better to floss first because the teeth are left with more fluoride on them to help fight decay. Here is a link to a summary of the article https://www.perio.org/consumer/brush-or-floss-first
So now we have an answer based on science.
It is better to floss BEFORE you brush your teeth.
The simple answer is “YES!” Your oral health is very important to your overall health, and this still holds true with pregnancy. In fact, there are some problems that can worsen due to the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy. A healthy mouth will help keep both you and your unborn baby as healthy as possible. It is always a good idea to stay ahead of problems whether you are pregnant or not. Make sure to tell your dentist that you are pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. The dental team will want to know so they can be sure to protect your unborn baby.
Before you get the answer, you should know the history. This is a recommendation that changed back in 2014. Prior to 2014, it was not recommended to use fluoride toothpaste in children under the age of 2. Because small children don’t know how to spit out toothpaste, the fear was that they would ingest the fluoride, which would possibly lead to fluorosis. Fluorosis is a discoloration in the teeth due to too much fluoride being deposited in the tooth crystals as teeth form. They recommended brushing with water, or one of the training toothpastes that have no fluoride. Then from 2 to 6 years old, a pea sized application of fluoride toothpaste was recommended, and children should spit out excess paste as soon as they are capable.
But in 2014, clinical research prompted changes to these recommendations. Yes fluorosis was still a concern, but so was the higher rates of decay when fluoride was not used. The research found that using a small smear of fluoride toothpaste, about the size of a grain of rice, would be enough to help prevent decay, yet not so much that it would result in fluorosis in most cases, even when swallowed. Then from the ages of 3 to 6, a pea sized application of fluoride toothpaste should be used because children at that age are more capable of spitting out the extra paste.
So, the answer is, you should use a rice sized smear of fluoride toothpaste from the time the first tooth erupts until age three, and then from three to six, a pea sized application is recommended.