Terms

What this website is, and what it is not

This site is general information for parents, guardians and carers about paediatric dentistry, and a demonstration of a design system. It describes how a practice of this kind works, what a first visit involves, and what the words a dentist uses actually mean.

It is not any of the following, and it should not be used as though it were:

• A diagnosis of anything your child has.
• A treatment plan, or a reason to start, stop or change any treatment or medicine.
• A record of your child's care, or a way to send anything to a clinician.
• A confirmed appointment. Nothing you do on this site books, moves or cancels anything.
• A quotation. Every figure discussed on this site is illustrative.

By using the site you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please stop using it.

No medical or dental advice, and no patient relationship

Nothing on this website is medical or dental advice for your child specifically, and reading it does not make anyone here your child's dentist. No dentist–patient relationship is created by reading this site, by filling in a demonstration form, or by sending a message to any address shown on it. A relationship of that kind starts when a practice registers a patient, takes a history and examines them.

Dental information is also general by nature, and your child is not general. Guidance moves, and what is right for a six-year-old with a repaired heart defect is not what is right for a healthy twelve-year-old. Always speak to your own dentist, doctor or consultant about your own child before acting on anything written here, and never delay seeking care because of something you read on a website.

If something is happening right now

Appointments and cancellations

Appointments are made by telephone or through the practice, not by this website. When one is made, a practice of this kind would expect the following, and we set it out here so nothing is a surprise.

• Tell us in advance if you cannot come. Two working days is the usual courtesy and it lets a child on the waiting list have the slot. Ring us even if it is the same morning — that is far better than nobody arriving.
• Long appointments are held for you. Sedation, treatment lists and desensitising visits use a room and two or three members of staff for an hour or more, so late cancellations are more costly to other families than they look.
• Arrive a little early for a first visit so the paperwork happens outside the appointment rather than inside it.
• A child must be brought by an adult with authority to consent to their treatment, or with written authority from one.
• Repeated missed appointments may mean we ask to speak to you before booking a long slot again. Nobody is discharged for one bad morning, and nobody is discharged for a child who could not manage the visit.

Estimates, insurance and Medicaid

Any figure quoted before treatment is an estimate. It is prepared honestly from what we can see and expect, and it can change if what we find changes — a tooth that turns out to need a crown rather than a filling is the ordinary example. Where that happens we stop and tell you before going further, not afterwards.

Cover is determined by your plan, not by us. We can check eligibility, submit a pre-treatment estimate and tell you what the plan has said, but the plan decides what it pays, and benefit limits, waiting periods, annual maximums and frequency rules are theirs. An eligibility check is a statement about that moment; cover can be changed or ended by the plan.

The same applies to Ohio Medicaid and CHIP. We are glad to take them and we say so on the insurance and Medicaid page, but eligibility and covered benefits are set by the programme and its managed care plans.

Licensing and regulation

Dentists practising in Ohio are licensed and regulated by the Ohio State Dental Board. The licence number shown in the footer of every page of this site — DEMO-00000 — is a placeholder for a fictional practice, and it is labelled as such wherever it appears. It is not a real licence, it identifies no real clinician, and it must not be relied on or reproduced as though it were.

Intellectual property

The text, illustrations, mascot, icon set, photography treatment, layout and code of this site are the property of their authors and are protected by copyright. You are welcome to read it, print a page for your own use, and link to it. You may not republish it as your own, use it to represent a real dental practice, or copy its clinical copy onto another site.

Insurance carriers named on the site are named for identification only; the marks belong to their owners and the site deliberately does not redraw them.

Links to other websites

Where we link to another organisation — a professional body, a hospital, a state programme — we do so because it is useful. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement of everything on the other end of it. Read their own terms and privacy notices when you get there.

Limitation of liability

This website is provided as it is. We take care over what is written here and we correct mistakes when we find them, but we do not warrant that every page is complete, current or free of error, or that the site is always available.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss or damage arising from your use of this site or from reliance on its general information. Nothing in these terms limits any liability which cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud — and nothing here limits the professional responsibilities a dentist owes a patient in their care, which are matters of clinical duty rather than website terms.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site changes. The version on this page is the one that applies, and continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated version. Material changes to a real practice's terms would also be raised with patients directly rather than left on a page for you to find.

Governing law

These terms, and any dispute arising from them or from your use of this site, are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio and the applicable federal laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The courts of Franklin County, Ohio are the intended forum for any such dispute.

The site is aimed at families in and around Columbus, Ohio. If you use it from somewhere else, you do so on your own initiative and you are responsible for your own local law.

How to contact us

A demonstration address, phone number and mailbox for a fictional practice. They reach nobody. Our privacy policy sets out what this site does with information, which is nothing.