For Our Referring Doctors
Working With Your Office As A Team
While your patient is in our office, we are pleased to reinforce your entire treatment plan. Part of our commitment to the team approach to dentistry is to work closely with your office and assist you in any way we can.
Whether your patient has a single visit or is receiving ongoing care in our office, you will be kept informed of the care that your patient receives in our office. If there is any other information about your patients that you would like to receive, we will be happy to accommodate you.
At the completion of treatment, we may schedule a post-operative visit, giving us an opportunity to review the results and reinforce the need for restorative care as recommended by you. We will make an appointment for the patient with your office to ensure that the patient recognizes the importance of the restorative visit and continuing care.
We offer patients Same Day Emergency treatment, and make a practice of calling you the Next Day for a consultation.
First Things First....
The Initial Phone Call
When your patients call to schedule an initial examination, we will schedule their appointment at a convenient time. All true emergency patients are seen the same day. We perform whatever treatment is necessary to alleviate the patient's discomfort at the emergency appointment.
When necessary, some patients must return for completion of treatment at a later date. During the initial phone call, we ask patients for their dental insurance information and medical information so that we can determine their insurance benefits for endodontic care before their appointment. This minimizes the time the patient spends in our office.
The Initial Evaluation and Consultation
After having the patient complete a medical history, we review the data with them in detail and discuss any health concerns they may have. This also helps us specialize our treatment for diabetics or patients with heart murmurs, as well as others who may need to be pre-medicated. At this time, the appropriate radiographs are taken if the patient does not have recent films. A report will be sent to your office with a final radiograph and any recommendations Dr. Tao may have.
During the initial consultation, Dr. Tao will meet with the patient in a comfortable consulting room. She examines the patient and thoroughly explains her findings and discusses the procedures for the recommended treatment. It is explained that the patient will need to return to their general dentist for a permanent restoration.
We feel that the key to long term success with a patient is to take the "unknown" out of endodontic care by providing information and education. It is our goal to give the patient a full understanding of the benefits of good dental care. We achieve this goal by discussing whatever additional treatment the patient may need to take care of the problem.
We also discuss any alternative treatment, as well as the potential risks and complications associated with their treatment. We explain these parameters through the use of educational materials.
Customer Service
Keeping patients relaxed throughout treatment is one of our primary goals. For their comfort and convenience, we offer the following amenities:
- Blankets in the treatment rooms
- Back, neck and leg pillows
- Walkman radios and headphones
- Recent release movies to choose from
Dr. Tao also personally calls each of our patients after their treatment to be sure they are progressing well and comfortably.
Referrals
Communication
Communication between your practice and our endodontic practice is important for the success of every patients treatment plan. Working closely with your office as part of your patients' dental care team allows us to provide the finest care for your patients. As we explain to patients, the treatment that they receive in our office is simply part of the bigger picture of optimal oral health. The role that our office plays in ensuring the success of treatment is directly influenced by the compliance of patients both in our office and in yours.
Referral Pads
We've developed several methods to make working together most efficient. In our office, we rely primarily on written communication from your offices to ensure that we are providing the care that has been recommended. Referral pads allow our referring offices to provide written confirmation of recommended treatment to avoid miscommunication. We have designed our referral pads to be easy to use and require minimal amount of writing. If you don't have any of our referral pads on hand, we'll be happy to deliver some to you.
To download our Referral Pads Click Here
Other methods that we like to use to ensure high quality care for your patients is telephone communication, e-mail (rootcanaldrtao@gmail.com) or fax 727.799.6854. If we are uncertain about a treatment request, we'll call you. We would rather confirm the information with you over the phone than make a mistake. By keeping in close contact with your office, we can prevent unnecessary problems and provide specific care for your patients.
American Association of Endodontists - national organization representing the specialty of endodontics or root canal treatment.
American Association of Women Dentists - dedicated to enhancing and promoting participation and leadership for women in organized dentistry.
American Dental Association - ADA Online - access to news, publications, and products and services related to dental health.
American Independent Dentist's Association - dedicated to the survival of the concept of optimal care in dentistry. working to re-engineer organized dentistry and bring new tools to the education of patients.
American Medical Association - another useful site with links to consumer health information, vast AIDS information center, searchable database of more than 650,000 physicians.
Association of Managed Care Dentists - a non-profit organization dedicated to the education of dentists and related professionals about the emerging managed care delivery systems.
EndoWeb - provides the most up-to-date information of endodontic interest.
MedicineNet - Content-rich commercial site includes interactive groups, ask-the-doctor feature, medical dictionary, comprehensive drug information, medical news, disease-specific information, and links.
Medscape - Searchable commercial collection of full-text articles from such useful sources as the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ParentsPlace.com - Not health-only, but this commercial site contains many pages of sophisticated, reader friendly information on children's health issues.
Medical Matrix - Physician maintained commercial database of annotated health links. Oriented toward medical professionals, but accessible to an educated lay person. A keyword search gets you to a subject index, from which you navigate to the links you want.
WebDental - American based dental database
2753 State Road 580, Ste. 108
Clearwater, FL 33761
Phone: 727-799-6995
Fax: 727-799-6854