Welcome to Park Ridge Dental – we look forward to meeting you

We understand that the first visit anywhere new can be a bit scary, particularly if it is to the dentist.

We want you to feel at ease with Park Ridge Dental even before you step in our front door. So take a moment to read through this guide to your first visit to Park Ridge Dental.

What happens during my first dental visit?

The first step is finding your way to our practice. We have created this handy guide to finding us. We have plenty of free patient parking so this guide has instructions on this parking and also how to get to us by public transport. We recommend you reviewing this the day before your visit to reduce any stress on the day of your first visit.

After you walk in, you will meet Mandy or Tracy, our friendly patient care team. It is likely you already met one of them over the phone or online when you made your appointment, but now we get to meet you in person.

We ask new patients to come in 5 minutes early to fill in our new patient form. If you like to have a little longer with filling in forms just let us know and we can email this to you to fill in before your appointment. Don’t forget to bring in your Medicare and health fund cards, plus details of any medications you are on.

First appointment: check up and clean

From our front desk you will be taken into see your dentist and undergo an initial oral exam where we check and chart any existing dental work you have had done.
Then we will do your X-Rays. These usually happen at your first visit and then every 2 years after than unless you have a condition that requires them more often.

We get these results pretty quick and are able to have a quick discussion with you about anything that has come up on the X-Ray before we proceed with the scale and clean.

The scale part of your dental clean is not everyone’s favourite part but we do have different options if you have sensitive teeth or are nervous so be sure to let us know so we can make adjustments to help.

Once this is done the calm part of the appointment, the polishing of your pearly whites to a beautiful white is next. This appointment is finished with a fluoride treatment.

Once this is all done we like to take you through your X-Rays and if it helps we can also use the IntraOral camera to show any decay or wear. We discuss any further treatments you need and formulate these into a treatment plan to take home with you.

First appointment: accident, emergency or toothache

We might meet you for the first time if you have had a dental emergency or are in pain. These appointments are a lot more tailored and individual to your situation.

Generally, there will be a consultation with the dentist, there might be X-Rays and then where time allows we will proceed with treatment to try to fix the problem. We are usually able take steps to get you out of pain or treat a problem at your first appointment, but in the rare cases where we can’t we will devise and agree next steps that both the dentist and patient are happy with.

After you step out of the chair

Once you have finished your appointment you will return to the team on the front desk. They will take care of your health fund rebate, payment and help to book any future appointments you may need. Easy!

We are here to help!

We want to make your first visit (and all your future appointments) as relaxing and stress-free as possible. If there is anything we can do or if you would like to discuss your situation then feel free to call us or chat with us online before your appointment. We are here to help!