Direct care dentistry is a patient-centered approach to dental care, where dental services are provided by highly qualified dental providers directly to patients without the direct involvement of a third-party, like insurance carriers. Operating our practice with this model allows us to focus directly on building relationships with you, providing you with the highest quality of care, and providing an overall exceptional dental care experience. There are many benefits to direct care dentistry. Some of these include: 1. Enhanced Quality of Care: Without the many constraints and restrictions imposed on dentists and patients by dental insurance carriers, we have the freedom to recommend and provide the best possible treatments tailored to your unique needs and goals. Would you prefer a white filling instead of a silver one? How about a natural, tooth-colored crown instead of a gold one? Or, what about having your teeth cleaned as often as you and your dental provider think is right in order to maintain your dental health? If you aren't seeing a direct care dental provider, then you're forced to play by the rules set by your insurance carrier, which exist in order for them to pay as little as possible toward the dental care you need. However, by receiving direct dental care from an office like ours, you have complete freedom to choose what's best for you. White fillings? You've got it! Tooth-colored crowns? No problem! 4 cleanings per year? Of course! With direct care dentistry, you (not your insurance carrier) are in full control of your dental health! In our humble opinion, this is the way dentistry should be! What's more? We're able to use the highest quality dental materials and labs, so you can always rest assured that we'll never cut corners or compromise the quality of your dental care. All of this helps to ensure a higher standard of care and better overall treatment outcome. This means less time returning to the dentist, and more time spent living your best life! 2. Personalized Attention: Direct care dentistry allows our providers to spend more time with you, and be even more attentive to your needs. We're able to take more time to thoroughly discuss your dental health and treatment options, answer all of your questions, and address any concerns you might have. This ensures better communication and an overall more personalized and satisfactory experience. 3. Focus on Preventative Care: Direct care dentistry emphasizes preventative care and long-term wellness. In other words, true healthcare that puts a proactive focus on disease prevention as compared to the traditional sick care model of healthcare whereby doctors and insurance carriers focus on treating disease instead of preventing it in the first place. Without insurance carriers dictating treatment plans and restricting care, we can focus more on helping you maintain optimal oral health, preventing issues before they arise. 4. Transparent Fees for the Treatment You Need and Want: In a direct dental care model, patients always have a clear understanding not only of their treatment needs, but of any potential costs associated with their care. In our office, there are never any hidden fees or unexpected charges. Your journey with our practice begins with an Initial Visit where we update x-rays if needed and complete a thorough new patient Comprehensive Oral Evaluation. This allows us to carefully and thoroughly evaluate your overall dental health and identify any concerns that may need attention. We can also discuss any goals that you have, and how we can help you to meet them. Once all of this information has been gathered, we can "put all of the pieces of the puzzle together" and present you with a recommended treatment plan created uniquely for you in order to address your needs and goals. Your treatment plan will be organized in the order in which we recommend addressing your treatment, and each treatment will also have any corresponding fee(s) listed. This allows you to have a general idea of how many visits we expect might be needed in order for us to help you from start to finish, as well as an idea of the cost of each step along the way. Rest assured, we always consider the worst-case scenarios when creating a treatment plan, so there are hopefully no surprises for you along the way. For example, we almost always treatment plan a "base filling" whenever a crown is needed. A base filling is sometimes needed in order to build a tooth back up to provide a stronger foundation to support a crown. However, a base filling isn't always needed. We never really know until the time of treatment. The great news is, if we do find that a base filling is not needed during a crown prep visit, then we'll remove it from your treatment plan and you won't be charged for that additional service! Again, we always prefer to prepare our patients for the worst-case scenario going into treatment, while hoping that your treatment will actually end up going more smoothly and costing you less in the end. Are you working with dental insurance? Great! We'll work closely with you to help you get the most out of the insurance coverage you're already paying for. We realize insurance can be very confusing and tricky to navigate, so we provide complementary insurance verification and submit claims to your insurance as a courtesy to you. We also submit "pre-determinations" for most treatment plans. A pre-determination is essentially a copy of your recommended treatment plan being sent to your insurance carrier for review. Typically, your insurance carrier will respond back within a few weeks letting us know how much or how little they expect to cover toward your recommended treatment. We like to be very transparent with all of our patients about the fact that most modern dental insurances act like a coupon - they can often help cover a portion of your dental care, but rarely will they ever cover 100% of the cost of the care you need. Further, they often have certain rules in place governing how much they'll pay toward your treatment within a given timeframe. For example, a dental insurance plan may only cover $1,000 toward a patient's dental care every 12 months. Routine services like x-rays, exams and cleanings are also deducted from this amount. So if, for example, a patient has only $800 remaining in their annual insurance coverage but needs a crown, which can typically cost $1,500 or more, then they should expect that their insurance will not cover their treatment entirely. If you're confused at this point, don't worry! Just know that we're here to help you understand the estimated cost of your treatment before you return for treatment, so you'll always have an idea of what to expect, and will have fewer surprises along the way. 5. Flexibility and Accessibility: As a patient with our practice, you have the freedom and flexibility to choose the treatment and payment options that best suit your needs and budget. We work with most dental insurance carriers as described above, but we also offer many other options that make it easier and more affordable to receive the dental care you need and deserve. This includes our in-house dental wellness plan, Smile Sense, a membership-like plan for those who don't have dental insurance or would prefer an alternative to it. For more information about Smile Sense and to see if it's right for you, please visit the "No Insurance?" page of our website, or call or email us today! 6. Reduced Administrative Burden: We're able to limit our administrative time spent navigating the complexities of insurance. This means more time and resources can be dedicated to improving patient care instead of insurance negotiations, phone calls with long hold times and disconnects, paperwork, etc.

Yes! We're always happy to welcome new patients to our practice! Give us a call at (207)847-0353, or email info@smileintegrity.com and we'll be in touch soon!

At Integrity Dental, we're committed to providing you with a VIP dental experience, one that puts you first and provides you with the highest quality of dental care. While we do work with most dental insurance plans, we aren't contracted with any. Insurance carriers have been asking us for years to sign their contracts but, simply put, we can't bring ourselves to do that since we know how doing so would ultimately affect the quality of your care and your overall dental experience. Insurance can be an extremely complicated topic to explain to those who don't work in healthcare, specifically those who don't work directly with insurance on a regular basis. While we're always happy to discuss this topic and try to explain the truth about insurance, it's simply not something we can easily explain here. Suffice it say that we have only your best interests at heart. After all, we see ourselves as working for you - our patient - not the insurance companies. Our decision to remain non-contracted with all insurance carriers and instead provide direct dental care to our patients allows us to prioritize your health and well-being free from the constraints often imposed by insurance carriers. So, how does this ultimately benefit you? 1. Personalized Treatment: Our focus is on your individual needs and goals. By not contracting with insurance carriers, we can recommend the best treatment options specifically tailored to your unique needs and goals, without being limited by insurance guidelines. 2. Uncompromised Quality: Insurance carriers often set restrictions on the types of treatments, materials and labs that can be used. By remaining independent/non-contracted, we can ensure that we always provide the highest quality of treatment using only the best quality materials and labs. 3. More Time for Patient Care: Dealing with insurance carriers can be extremely time-consuming for medical and dental practices. This takes time away from focusing on providing quality patient care. By remaining independent/non-contracted, we can dedicate more time to providing you with exceptional care and a more personalized experience. 4. Focus on Prevention and Wellness: Our primary goal is to help you maintain optimal oral health. Free from the constraints of treatment plans dictated by insurance carriers, we can focus instead on providing preventative care and wellness strategies to help keep you healthier in the long term. 5. Transparent Costs: We believe in transparency when it comes to your dental care. With our office, you'll always know the cost of your treatment upfront, and we aim to avoid any surprises along the way. Our team is here to help you understand and maximize your insurance coverage, ensuring you get the most value from it. After all, insurance premiums aren't inexpensive, so we want to help make sure you get as much back from your insurance as you've paid into it.

No, we don’t accept MaineCare at this time. Unfortunately, MaineCare is extremely limiting for both children and adults. In fact, the reimbursements from MaineCare are so limited that we simply wouldn't be able to pay our team a livable wage or keep our doors open to continue caring for our patients if we did accept MaineCare. Many patients with MaineCare still choose to come see us and self-pay for the wonderful experience and high quality care we provide. Many more of our patients also previously had MaineCare but have since chosen to sign up for our in-house dental wellness plan (Smile Sense) instead, since it typically provides much better coverage often at a much lower cost. Smile Sense is our very own dental wellness plan we created as a much better alternative to dental insurance and MaineCare. To learn more about our Smile Sense wellness plans, please visit the "No Insurance?" page on our website, call (207)847-0353, or email info@smileintegrity.com.

Yes! Dr. J and our team enjoy taking care of the whole family! Currently, we're welcoming children ages 6 and up. We recommend that children below the age of 6 see a pediatric dentist until they're at an age where they're better able to behave and cooperate with their dental care. We've found that every child is different in how well they do during their earliest visits to the dentist. We're proud to say that most of our younger patients do great at their visits with us, but it's important to understand that every child is unique and your own child may respond differently. The only way for us to tell how your child will do at our office is to first start with a checkup visit. During this visit, we'll meet with you and your child and introduce your child to some of what's involved with a visit to the dentist. During these early visits, we use a strategy referred to as "tell, show, do" whereby we tell your child about each step of their visit and show them what each step entails before we do anything that might be new and unfamiliar to them. While we welcome and encourage a parent or guardian to stay in the room with your child, it's very important during your child's visit that you be a passive observer only and not interfere with our efforts to communicate directly with your child. We prefer to speak to each child directly both to show them the respect they deserve and so they can learn to trust and better cooperate with us. One of the biggest challenges arises when a parent/guardian interrupts our providers, as it can indicate to a child that they should listen to that individual instead of their provider. Too many voices and directions from multiple people can overwhelm a child and distract their attention away from our team, making it difficult or not possible for us to deliver the care they need. We'll see how your child behaves and determine their level of cooperation. If for some reason we feel they might not be ready to see a general dentist, then we'll make the appropriate referral to a local pediatric dentist.

Yes, we're always happy to try to accommodate urgent or emergency dental concerns for individuals who haven't yet established with us. That being said, please keep in mind that our schedule fills up very quickly and books out very far. We try hard to work emergency patients into our schedule as soon as we can accommodate them, but these visits are usually for an evaluation only and we can't guarantee same-day treatment. In the event that same-day treatment can't be provided, we'll do our very best to get you back in as soon as possible for any treatment you may need.

Dental x-rays are a very important part of your dental checkups. They allow us to see where our eyes can't, like taking a behind the scenes look at your teeth and surrounding structures. X-rays allow us to look between the teeth to check for cavities and evaluate older dental restorations (like fillings and crowns). They allow us to look at the health of the foundation (bone) that supports your teeth. They allow us to look around the roots of your teeth to check for signs of infection, dysfunction and trauma (like clenching and grinding). This is only a handful of what x-rays can tell us about your dental and overall health. That being said, dental x-rays are considered to be part of the standard of care in dentistry. This means that they're a requirement in order for us as dental providers to be able to properly do our job to maintain your best possible dental health. We require a full set of x-rays for all new patients over the age of 18. This typically consists of at least 18 x-ray images that show us every tooth at every angle in your mouth. A full set of x-rays is typically acceptable for diagnostic purposes for a period of 3 to 5 years, after which it will need to be updated. We may also recommend a panoramic x-ray if indicated. This type of x-ray offers us a "zoomed out" view of your skull and can offer us a broad view of your teeth, jaw joints, eye sockets, nasal cavity, and nerves - just to name a few. We require 2 to 4 "bitewing" x-rays for patients ages 6 to 17. We usually take 2 bitewings of the right side and 2 of the left side. Whether a patient needs 2 or 4 bitewings depends on how many adult teeth are present. Bitewing x-rays are typically updated yearly and allow us to keep a close watch on things and detect any changes to your dental health before they become a bigger problem. New patients are always welcome to try to have their dental x-rays transferred from their previous dental office to ours, but please note that these x-rays must be current and of diagnostic quality and must be received by no later than 1 week before your Initial Visit. Otherwise, we'll need to take x-rays at your Initial Visit. We unfortunately can't accept paper or printed copies of x-rays but are happy to accept digital files. After we receive x-rays from your previous office, the doctor will review them and a member of our team will reach out to you if for some reason new x-rays do need to be taken so you can plan for that at your Initial Visit.

Your Initial Visit with our team will hopefully be unlike any other dental checkup you've had in the past. Initial Visits for adults are typically around an hour and a half in length to allow enough time for our very thorough Comprehensive Oral Evaluation. Prior to your Initial Visit, you'll be emailed or texted a link to complete your new patient forms electronically. Please do so prior to your Initial Visit as we often need most or all of the time reserved for your appointment to provide you with the experience we believe our patients deserve. Carefully completing your forms beforehand also gives our team a chance to review them ahead of time in order to better prepare for your visit. If for some reason you're unable to complete your new patient forms electronically prior to your Initial Visit, please arrive at least 15 minutes early to your reserved appointment to allow enough time to complete your forms on one of our patient tablets. For patients with dental insurance, please also email a photo of the front and back of your dental insurance card well in advance of your Initial Visit. Without this information, we'll have no way of verifying and submitting to your dental insurance. You'll be greeted by a friendly member of our team upon arrival to our practice. They'll verify that we have all of the information we need to complete your new patient account. After that, feel free to sit back, relax, and help yourself to a complementary coffee or tea while our team finishes preparing for you! Another friendly team member will be out shortly to walk you back! Your visit will begin with us simply getting to know you! We love getting to know our patients before getting to know their teeth! Afterwards, we'll ask you some questions about your dental history, any concerns you might have, and your goals for the future of your dental health. We'll use all of this information to help us better understand who you are, what's important to you, and how we can best help meet your unique needs and goals. Your exam will begin with updating your dental x-rays, if needed. The doctor will spend some time reviewing your x-rays before starting the clinical portion of your exam. Your clinical exam will begin with a thorough evaluation of the outside of your face, including your jaw joints, facial muscles, lymph nodes and glands. We'll then move on to an oral cancer screening which can help us detect any suspicious abnormalities in an around your mouth. Your exam will continue with us taking some time to chart which teeth are present or missing, as well as your history of dental treatment. Finally, we'll take an in-depth look at your overall dental health, including the health of the gums and bone supporting your teeth, to identify any areas of present of potential concern. We'll then discuss our findings and recommendations with you, and work with you to develop a treatment plan that fits your unique needs, goals, timeline and budget. We pride ourselves on taking time early on with each of our patients to be sure that we all have a good understanding of where you're at and where you're going before getting started with your treatment. In our experience, this ensures the best possible outcome for your care.

As a new patient to our practice, we have no way of knowing exactly which type of cleaning is best for you based on your specific dental health concerns. Many patients assume they can have "just a regular cleaning," but this isn't always the case. For instance, some patients have gum or "periodontal" disease that requires a different type of cleaning than a patient with normal, healthy gum and bone health. During your Initial Visit, we'll complete our thorough exam process which will help determine what type of cleaning is best for you. We'll take the time to discuss this with you and answer any questions you have, and we'll then schedule you to return to begin treatment.

A deep cleaning, or "scaling and root planing," is indicated when an individual has tartar buildup farther below the gumline and/or if there are deeper pockets around a tooth or multiple teeth due to bone loss. In either case, these areas can't be accessed by means of a "regular" cleaning, which typically focuses on the areas of your teeth above the gum line and usually only goes to or just slightly below the gum tissue. Deep pockets with or without tartar buildup below the gumline, especially in the presence of bleeding gum tissue, almost always indicate periodontal disease, a very serious disease in the body whereby bacteria in the mouth burrow deeper and deeper into the gum tissue around teeth and destroy the foundation (i.e. bone) that supports those teeth. If periodontal disease goes untreated for too long, it can lead to loose teeth and eventually complete loss of teeth. A deep cleaning allows us to go all the way down to the base of these deep pockets and thoroughly debride/clean them, while also removing diseased tissue from the roots of the affected teeth so that new, healthier gum tissue can reattach and form tighter, shallower pockets that are easier to keep clean over time.

We do offer tooth removal/extractions depending on the tooth/teeth involved, the level of complexity, and the overall health and comfort level of the patient. In the event our doctor isn't comfortable extracting your tooth/teeth, we'll make the appropriate referral to a local oral surgeon.

At this time we're restoring dental implants only, but not surgically placing them ourselves in our office. The actual surgical implant placement is typically performed by one of our trusted oral surgeon or periodontist colleagues. We'll be happy to discuss the option of dental implants with you and help determine if you're a good candidate, then make the appropriate referral to one of our trusted colleagues. Rest assured, we'll be with you every step of the way to ensure that your needs and goals are met, and that you receive the best end result. Please also note that there is typically at least a 4 to 6 month period of healing after having an implant placed, and this healing must be fully completed before our team can restore your implant.