As a team of professionals, we are dedicated to facilitating your achievement of optimal oral health.  With excellent clinical and communication skills we will motivate, educate and encourage you to accept the very best dental treatment that we can offer.  Through our services we will increase the self-esteem and well being of our patients, our practice and ourselves.

From time to time Dr. McArdle will refer a patient to a specialist when the patient's condition warrants the more definitive treatment that only a specialist can provide. The patient's well being is always the first and foremost consideration in decisions of this kind.

An example of a situation in which a specialty referral would be appropriate is where a patient's periodontal (gum) health has dramatically deteriorated for whatever reason. In a case such as this, Dr. McArdle would refer the patient to a Periodontist (gum specialist) who could cure the problem more completely and efficiently.

Young Children and Dental Care
While we do see children in our office starting at the age of three, Dr. McArdle generally refers preteens who require invasive treatment such as fillings or extractions to a dental specialist known as a pedodontist. Pedodontists are dentists who have had at least two years of additional training in a specialized, postgraduate dental program specifically aimed at managing the distinct oral health needs of youngsters in this age group. Such a referral does not mean that Dr. McArdle considers your child to be ill behaved, immature or otherwise difficult. Dr. McArdle does this because he feels strongly that your child's early experiences with dental treatment MUST be positive ones if he or she is to grow into adulthood with the proper attitude toward dental care which will allow him or her to enjoy optimal oral health for a lifetime.

Pedodontists are uniquely qualified through their

training to meet the dental needs of young children.

Almost all young children have a deep-seated sense called the "fear of mutilation" that makes them extremely apprehensive about any procedure done to their bodies. Your child tends to perceive them as mutilating, intrusive, punishing or evidence of abandonment and will anticipate pain even when there is no past experience to justify this. This sense may extend past the preschool years and even approach adolescence in some individuals. Pedodontic training includes an extensive program of study in child psychology that allows the pedodontist to understandingly dispel these fears and allow your child to undergo needed dental care without developing a phobia to it that might prevent him or her from seeking such care in adulthood.

Dr. McArdle believes that most often first impressions are the most lasting ones and that this is nowhere more true than when it comes to your child's dental care. This is why he sincerely believes that your child's first experience with invasive dental care should be at the hands of the professional most qualified to deliver it, a pedodontist. Of course, if you wish to continue to have your child's routine preventive and diagnostic care rendered here in our office, we will be happy to do so - the choice is yours. However, if you trust Dr. McArdle's judgement, then please take his advice and have your child seen by a pedodontist when he diagnoses him or her with the need for invasive treatment.

ONE, IT WILL SET THE STAGE FOR GOOD ORAL HEALTH THROUGH A LIFETIME!

Why We Don't Do Managed Care
 

This office does not participate in dental managed care plans such as dental health maintenance organizations (DMOs, also known as capitation programs).  To explain why, let us help you understand how these plans work. After signing a managed care contract, the dentist is required to deliver care according to the terms of the plan. Under this arrangement, the dentist is reimbursed for each patient who signs up for dental care at his or her office from the plan's list. This is how a capitation plan works. It does not matter whether these patients visit the doctor's office or not in given year, only that they are enrolled there. Managed care plan standards have nothing to do with the time the doctor spends with each patient or the quality of care he or she provides. They only depend on the number of patients the dentist can possibly manage (there's that word again!) to see. This places the emphasis on the volume, not the quality, of care. 

When these patients do need care, the doctor is often severely overworked by the sheer number of patients he or she is obligated to see by the regulations of the contract. This is how corners are cut and mistakes are made!  If the dentist should refer patients to the care of a specialist, he or she will often lose their enrollment under the terms of the contract. What kind of dental care do you think you would receive under these circumstances?  The answer is minimal at best with a specialty referral being more rare than snow in July.  Some such contracts contain clauses (called "gag rules") that prohibit the doctor from discussing treatments that do require a specialist's expertise. This would be just fine as long as you want your dentist to ignore any problems you may have that aren't gagged by your plan, but then your dentist is working for the managed care company and not for you! 

Managed care companies recruit dentists into their plans declaring that patients with this coverage will refer others into their practices who receive care using the doctor's established approach. This is usually not true because most patients refer family members and co-workers who are in the same plan. Even if it were true, it would make those patients covered by the DMO second class citizens to those patients in the dentist's practice who are proceeding with treatment according to the doctor's fundamental principles. The quality of dental care provided is inevitably comprised under this managed care scheme. In fact, many consumer groups have taken to using the term "mangled care" when referring to these types of plans.

Managed care rewards the quantity, not the quality, of care.

Dr. McArdle is only interested in providing the absolute best quality of care that he possibly can. For this reason and the state of affairs recounted above, it is in your best interest that Dr. McArdle does not participate with any DMOs. If you are dissatisfied with your current dental benefits coverage, ask Dr. McArdle about Direct Reimbursement (DR). DR is a superior alternative to conventional dental plans that your employer should know about. If you have questions concerning any of this, please ask Dr. McArdle.