Endodontist
Endodontists study and treat the area of teeth related to dental pulp health. They handle cases that are more advanced than can be treated by a general dentist. Most patients are referred to endodontists by their dentist. In practice endodontists work to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases and injuries that affect dental pulp. If the inside portion of a tooth becomes irreversibly infected and inflamed the patient can experience severe pain. This pain may be evanescent (comes and goes) but it will require a root canal which cleans out the inside of the tooth of infection and saves the tooth. If further surgery is required, periradicular surgery may be required if a conventional root canal is unsuccessful. This treatment removes the tip of the tooth’s root. After either of these procedures, a patient may be sent to a general dentist to repair the tooth with a crown. Crowns sit on and are fastened with bonding agents to the tooth that remains after treatment. Alternatives to endodontic care include the removal of the diseased tooth. The overall goal of endodontics is to preserve functional teeth and eliminate pain for the patient.
Endodontic practices employ one or more endodontists, dental assistants and support staff. They are furnished with x-ray machines which can provide 3D imagery of a tooth to examine root causes of pain and discomfort. Because pain can float to different teeth, the infected tooth may not appear to be the tooth that hurts, so imaging is a key aspect to effective treatment. Without proper imaging and understanding, there is a risk of operating on the wrong tooth which will do harm to the patient. Once a cause is identified, patients are typically scheduled for their procedure. This can be immediate or for some time in the future. These practices are run by electronic medical record (EMR) and electronic health record (EHR) software solutions. The systems keep track of patient history, scheduling and billing. Health insurance including Medicare and Medicaid may pay all or a portion of the procedure or none of the procedure cost. Patients then pay their portion of an endodontic procedure with cash, credit card or debit card or check and then the payment is updated to the patient file.
Payment Integrator integrates payments with endodontic practices. For in person payments we have a variety of devices to accept swipe, dip and tap credit card and debit card transactions with all major card brands. Over the phone payments can be entered into our virtual terminal. Patient bill presentment can be sent to text for text-to-pay or email to be paid on invoice with our hosted payment page (HPP) solution.
Tap here to open an account