At Tooth Smart Dental, we believe making an informed decision includes being informed about our Terms & Conditions of Treatment as well. We require our patients to understand and accept our terms & conditions before accepting any treatment. We are always open to answer any questions or concerns that you may have regarding our terms & conditions. If you would like to find out more information regarding our terms & conditions, please contact our friendly team on (07) 3399 6228.
Appointment Confirmation
When you book an appointment with us, we set aside that time specially for you to cater for your dental needs. This means that we will not offer that reserved time to any other patient unless you notify us otherwise. While we remind our patients about their scheduled appointment, it is a courtesy reminder. The responsibility to remember the appointment time, day and length of the appointment remains with the patient only. Therefore, not attending an appointment on the pretext of not receiving a confirmation message or call from the practice will not be accepted as a reason for your failure to attend.
If you fail to confirm an appointment, we reserve the right to reschedule without notice.
We do appreciate when patients notify us if they are unable to attend their appointment. However, we would like our patients to understand that it does not mean that we are always able to offer that appointment time to other patients. We pride ourselves on keeping our costs affordable for our patients. One way we do that is efficient use of equipment and professional staff. Missed or broken appointments represent a cost to us, and to other patients who could have been seen in the time set aside for you.
Contact or Communication Consent
When you book an appointment, we are required to collect your email and phone number. This is done so that we are able to notify you of your dental appointment details through
You will be asked to provide a contact or communication consent for any marketing promotions through
As a patient, you reserve the right to decline or accept such consent. We respect your decision and privacy.
Appointment Cancellation or Rescheduling
We request our patients to give us a notice of 2 business days for any cancellation. In case of sickness, we require our patients to inform the practice as soon as possible to avoid any cancellation fee.
A cancellation fee will be applied for any short notice cancellations or short notice rescheduling (less than required 2 business days’ notice). Our cancellation fee is $30 per 15min. If you have paid a deposit for an appointment or you have a credit with us, we may use that towards your cancellation fee. If there are 2 or more short notice cancellations or rescheduling on your account, you will be required to prepay a deposit for booking future appointments. We reserve the right to use this deposit towards your cancellation fee if required.
Informed Consent for Treatment
At our practice, we consider informed consent as a very important part of any dental treatment process. The responsibility of providing an informed consent to the patient remains with the treating dental practitioner. This may occur in the following way:
- Patient will be asked to sign a consent for every initial examination or consultation appointment.
- Patient will be informed verbally or in writing about the proposed treatment options with expected outcomes, risks and benefits of each option, an estimate of cost for individual option and time frame required to carry out such treatment process, in a manner they can understand
- Patient will be provided with the opportunity and time to ask questions about their treatment, or include a family member, care or advisor in their decision making
- Patient will be provided with sufficient information to make a decision on their own, without any coercion from the dentist or any of the dental practice staff
- Patient will be welcome and treated with respect regardless of their decision regarding any particular treatment.
Professional Service Fees
We take great pride in offering high quality dental services at competitive costs to our patients. Our amazing dentists and front desk staff will provide fee estimates prior to commencing treatment. But an estimate is considered an estimate until such time a treatment is performed. Additional charges may be applied in case a treatment plan change. We will inform you as and when this happens. We do not negotiate on our professional fees.
Although our amazing dentists always provide fee estimates prior to commencing treatment, the responsibility to discuss any treatment costs, any financial concerns or payment methods remains with the patient only. All treatment estimates are considered valid for 30 days only.
We accept payment by cash, eftpos, Hicaps, Visa, Mastercard, Afterpay, Zip pay or Payment Plan. You can make an instant Health Fund Claim at the time of your appointment. If there are any gap payments after the Health Fund Claim, you are required to pay it immediately at the time of the appointment. We do not allow direct bank transfers.
If you are unable to claim through your Health Fund for any reason, this is a matter between you and your health fund. Unfortunately, we cannot contact your Health Fund on your behalf. Any non-approved Health Fund Claim is required to be paid on the day of the treatment. We are happy to provide a receipt and a statement to make it easier for you to claim directly from your Health Fund.
If you fail to cover your professional service fees, you will be in debt, and we reserve the right to refer unpaid invoices to a debt collection agency. In case we have to involve a debt collection agency for any unpaid service fee, we may pass onto you any costs that we incur in recovering those unpaid fees, including any third-party fees or legal expenses with interest.
Warranty
We are committed to providing high quality dental care and try our best to bring consistency in our approach towards each individual treatment. However, we cannot guarantee an absolute warranty for treatment outcomes, and longevity. Nothing is forever. However, we do take any failure of material or treatment very seriously. We will assess such a situation as to why the failure of material or technique has happened and will try our best to rectify it. This will apply to:
- treatments completed within the 12-month period only
- patients who have returned for 6 monthly routine check-up or follow up appointment
- patients who did complete the recommended treatment
The warranty may not be applicable if:
- patient has failed to return for any routine check-up or follow up appointments
- patient has sought treatment elsewhere
- if any additional treatment or subsequent treatment is required
Referral
If and when required, we will arrange a specialist referral for you, for example, for a complex root canal treatment or a difficult wisdom tooth removal. We are unable to provide you cost of such referred treatments, and you must check this with the referred specialist dental practice. We are able to arrange a referral, however, each patient is required to contact the specialist dental practice on their own to book any dental appointments with them.
For any invasive or extensive dental treatment, we encourage our patients to seek a second opinion. If you decide to see a different dentist or a dental practice, we require a signed Record Release Authority Form to release your dental records to a different dental practice. We can then release your dental records by email, or you can pick them up in person.
If you have any concerns or queries, please do not hesitate to contact our office at (07) 3399 6228.
