Is it right for a dental office to refuse 2 see a patient?

A friend of mine was running late to get her child to the dentist-they were ten minutes late.The school was packed with cars in the towing zone so no way to drive up to pick up child for dental exam.


Th ey were ten minutes late.


They were told to come back tommorrow.








Do all dental office's work this way?

Is it right for a dental office to refuse 2 see a patient?
I think that was really unfair. They should know that no one is perfect.
Reply:Some places require an adult at all times .
Reply:The dentist can do whatever s/he likes about late arrivals, including billing them for time wasted waiting. Sounds like this one doesn't have much flexibility. Maybe she should ask around and see if she can't find a dentist better able to accommodate those who live in the real world.
Reply:Different offices have different policies.


There might have been a way to work them in. But the hours are short after school, the desk might have known they were already overbooked %26amp; the child would have had to wait 2 hours. Better to come back the next day, in my opinon.


If you have a cellphone when you're running late, you can sometimes get them to rearrange the schedule %26amp; take you when you can get there.
Reply:Yes, dentist and doctors have schedules. Missed appointments can throw everything off for the entire day, depriving other patients of timely and needed treatment. Doctors can also refuse treatment for non life threatening things because they don't think they can give suitable treatment, patients condition or even that they don't like a person's looks or personal hygiene. Most doctors and dentists will even require you to arrive 10 to 30 minutes early to reserve your appointment. Be 10 minutes late for a court appearance and you lose your case by default. Not a good thing being late to professionals.
Reply:i was a dental technician for over 15 yrs and i can tell you that 10 minutes doesn't sound like a long time to you but when the office schedules run on 15 minutes intervals then when someone is late it sets all the appointments back. its not that the office was trying to be rude or insensitive but they also have to consider others. you have to understand that certain procedures take time to get the patient settled, then numbed up if necessary then the actual procedure and usually the dentist has several rooms going at once so when one patient is late then it makes everyone else have to wait longer which makes them angry and they take it out on the assistants, hygenists and front office people. most of us have had to wait sometimes long periods of time in dentist and doctors offices and the majority of the time it isn't the doctor running behind its patients showing up late or requesting or requiring treatment not scheduled for. it may have been that particular dentist had a problem with late arrivals and choose instead to be considerate of those showing up early or on time instead of making them wait.
Reply:When a patient is late for an appointment it means all of the other people after them will have to be seen late. It's sort of a domino effect. In my office 10 minutes is the cut off time. Later than that and we reschedule. It's only fair to the patients who are to be seen next. Believe me, we hate to have to reschedule so it's always best to try to be a little early for your apts.
Reply:Some do, though they usually allow a 15 minute lead way. Meaning if you are 15 or more minutes late, they will reschedule you. The reason for this, is because whenever a patient is late, it causes the dentist to run behind on all the following patients, and also causes staff members to work part of the way through lunch or late at the end of the day. Dentist offices usually schedule patients based on the amount of time the procedure needs. For example: If a patient is coming in for a check up, xrays, and cleaning, that normally takes 1 hour in my office. If a patient is late, even by only 10 minutes, that takes 10 minutes off that hour appointment. Meaning, either the hygientist skips something during the appointment, or they run 10 minutes behind on the next patient.





We understand that situations arise that cause a patient to run behind, and try to make exceptions. However, if a patient being late is going to cause us to run behind on other patients, is going to cause us to work through lunch, or cause us to work late at the end of the day, then we will require that they reschedule. Even if we do go ahead and see them, we document that they were late. The next time it happens, we can look back and see that this patient has been late before, and we won't be as forgiving the next time. On some patients who are habitually late, we actually tell them that their appointment is 30 minutes before it really is, that way if they are late, it won't matter cause it wasn't really time for their appointment anyways. This may sound wrong, but we try to run on schedule and when patients are late, it causes us to run late on other patients, and then they get mad at us, not at the person who caused us to run behind.





I suggest that in the future your friend leave early enough to allow plenty of time to make it there on time, or early. If a patient shows up early, I try as best I can to get them back in a room early if possible.