Cancellation Policy

We appreciate you and understand your time is valuable. We make every effort to keep you from waiting, and your appointment time in our office is reserved exclusively for you. We have guidelines in place to respect the needs of all our patients. Please review them so you are fully informed moving forward in our practice. 

• We set aside 2 hours for your first appointment. During this time, we will gather photos, x-rays, and review your medical and dental history.  Pitarra or Dr. Vela will do a comprehensive examination, determine what type of cleaning you need based off x-rays and clinical examination and will discuss any treatment needs/recommendations.  We will give you a written estimate including insurance contributions.  This is only an estimate based on the information you provided and with the understanding that we are NOT IN-NETWORK with any insurance company. 
• If you are more than 20 minutes late without prior notice for a scheduled appointment, we will consider this a missed appointment.
• If you would like us to handle your insurance, it is imperative that you provide all the pertinent information at least 48 hours in advance. This allows us time to properly verify your coverage so we may better serve you.  If you have not provided complete insurance information, we will ask you to pay for your visit and be reimbursed by your insurance company. There is no way we can give you an accurate estimate that accounts for any insurance coverage if we do not have all your insurance information.  
• When making your appointment, we will gather some preliminary information. This allows us to send you a login email for our patient portal.  Please access the portal to complete all your paperwork.   If you are unable to access the portal, we kindly ask you to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment so you can complete the paperwork in our office. 
• If you miss your first appointment without a call or 48 hours notice, you will not be offered another appointment in our practice.

Our voicemail is available for messages left after business hours. If a message is left after business hours cancelling an appointment for the next day, this will be subject to our guidelines. We understand that extreme/unavoidable emergencies or circumstances do arise which may require you to cancel your appointment, and individual circumstances will be taken into consideration.