What Your First Visit in Fort Smith or Roland Actually Looks Like

Do the paperwork at home, not in the waiting room

Fill out your new patient forms before your appointment. It saves you fifteen minutes of clipboard time and it means the doctor has read your history before walking into the room instead of skimming it in the hallway.

Download or complete your new patient forms

If you would rather not, that is fine. Arrive fifteen minutes early and we will get you set up.

The short list

• Photo ID
• Insurance card, if you have dental insurance
• A list of your medications, including supplements and vitamins. This matters more than people think, because several common medications affect bleeding, dry mouth, healing, and anesthesia.
• Your medical history, especially heart conditions, diabetes, joint replacements, blood thinners, and any history of taking bisphosphonates
• Recent X-rays from a previous dentist, if you can get them. Ask them to email the files. It can save you a set of images.
• Your completed forms, if you did not submit them online

If you have a specific complaint, write it down before you come. What hurts, when it started, what makes it worse, whether it wakes you up. People forget half of this once they are in the chair.

Start to finish, in order

Check-in, about 5 minutes. ID and insurance card, and we confirm the benefits we already verified.

X-rays and images, about 10 minutes. A full series for a first visit, so we can see between and beneath the teeth. If your treatment calls for it, we may take a CBCT 3D scan, which shows bone, sinuses, nerve position, and the shape of your airway.

The hygiene exam, about 15 minutes. Your hygienist measures the pockets around each tooth, checks for bleeding and recession, and looks at the health of your gums. This is the part that tells us whether a standard cleaning is appropriate or whether you have gum disease that needs different treatment first.

The doctor exam, about 15 minutes. Dr. Sparkman, Dr. Farmer, or Dr. VanNice reviews your images, examines every tooth and existing restoration, checks your bite, screens for oral cancer, and looks at your jaw joints. We will also ask about how you sleep and whether you snore, because airway problems show up in the mouth first.

Your cleaning, about 30 to 45 minutes. If your gums are healthy, we clean that day. If we find active gum disease, we will explain why a standard cleaning would not be the right treatment and what we recommend instead.

The conversation, about 10 minutes. We show you what we found on the screen, tell you what needs attention now and what can be watched, and give you a written plan with costs. Then you go home and think about it. No pressure, no closing pitch.

Total time: about 60 to 90 minutes for a typical first visit. If you are coming in for a specific emergency, that is a shorter, focused visit instead.

What the first visit costs

With dental insurance, preventive visits are commonly covered at or near 100%, though your specific plan controls that. We verify your benefits before you arrive and tell you your expected out-of-pocket cost up front.

Without insurance, a new patient exam, a full set of X-rays, and a cleaning at our standard fees run $103.

Or enroll in Smile Savers for $440 a year, $36.67 a month, and your exams, X-rays, cleanings, and fluoride are included with no waiting period. You can sign up at the front desk before your appointment and use it that same day, and you get 20% off any treatment that comes out of the exam.

If you have been avoiding this

Tell us when you book. Not when you sit down, when you book. It changes how we schedule the appointment and how we run it.

We can go slower, stop whenever you raise a hand, skip the play-by-play if hearing it makes it worse, or use sedation dentistry so you remember very little of it. Many of our patients came here after years away, and nobody is going to make you feel bad about a gap in your history. We care about what happens next.

Bringing children

Bring them. Both offices see kids, and families can often be scheduled back to back so you make one trip instead of two.

A first visit for a young child is short and mostly about making the room a normal place. Counting teeth, a ride in the chair, a quick look. Nothing gets forced on a three-year-old on day one.