First Visit

Emergency Visit.  If you are in pain or are looking for a second opinion regarding an urgent issue, please give us a call right away and we’ll get you in as soon as possible (many times the same day or next day). 

Initial complementary consultation. This is usually scheduled for about 30 minutes and is a wonderful way for us to sit down outside of a traditional dental setting, get to know each other a little bit and see if we are a good fit for each other. This also gives us time to be able to determine the best option for your next appointment with us.

Initial Hygiene Appointment. This typically works great if you have been a routine patient at another dental office and aren’t aware of any dental problems. Dr. Schaus will sit down with you to briefly review your medical & dental history along with any goals you’d like to discuss. Then, we will complete an evaluation of your current state of health. Some situations allow us to complete your hygiene appointment same day, but this isn’t always the case as we always want to make sure everything we do has your long-term health in mind. 

The New Patient Experience – a process in Co-discovery. As each person is different in their values, goals and challenges, this is our way of beginning a relationship with someone who is ready to truly take control of their oral health. This process is a great option for anyone, but is especially effective for those patients that have had a lifetime of frustration with dentistry or those who seem to have one problem after another.  

The New Patient Experience involves two separate appointments

First Appointment

This first appointment begins in a relaxing and comfortable area (not in the dental chair), where we ask questions to uncover your concerns, your perception of your current state, past experiences, fears and goals. Many people have deep-seated fears toward dentistry and I want to be here to listen in a truly non-judgmental way. Others haven’t had a negative experience with dentistry but are looking for an integrative, functional or holistically-inclined approach to creating and maintaining oral (and systemic) health.

After this initial interview, I share and discuss our model of health and general philosophy to achieving optimal oral health. We then move to the dental chair to perform a thorough evaluation of the patient’s current state. Clinical observation, x-rays, an intraoral scan and photographs are generally part of the records that we gather.

Second Appointment

After all these records have been collected, Dr. Schaus spends time outside office hours to review all the information that has been collected from the interview to the clinical examination. He uses this to create a customized Review of Findings presentation.

This presentation is the focus of the second New Patient Experience appointment. This time is used for you and Dr. Schaus to discuss your current state, factors contributing to this state and possible paths to address these factors. We can also begin the discussion of time and financial considerations involved with each different path. We want you to know that the entire purpose of the New Patient Experience is simply to educate so you can make the best decisions for you. We are here to help you achieve the level of health consistent with your own values and goals.