new patients
Your first visit, step by step.
Most dental dread is really not knowing what comes next, so this page walks through the entire appointment in sequence before you ever sit down. Set aside roughly an hour at 41 S Medical Park Drive — and nothing gets decided while you're reclined in the chair.
You're welcome here whether it's been six months or six years since your last visit — the visit below adjusts to wherever you're starting from.
Check-in: ten quiet minutes
Arrive about ten minutes early so the front desk can verify your insurance and confirm the registration you filled out from home — or hand you a tablet if you didn't, which takes about fifteen minutes. Parking is right at the door on the Augusta Health campus: no decks, no meters, no circling.
Bring your photo ID, your insurance card, a list of medications and supplements, and any recent X-rays from a previous office — or have them emailed to us ahead of time so we don't duplicate imaging. Bringing a child under 18? A parent or legal guardian needs to be present for the first visit.
The exam: imaging, scan, and a full look around
We take a low-dose digital X-ray series if you're due, plus a chairside iTero scan that builds a 3D model of your teeth in a few minutes — a wand, not a tray of goop. Dr. Podbesek reviews everything with you on the screen: gum health, bite, existing dental work, anything that needs attention. You see exactly what he sees — that single habit sums up how this office works.
If your gums are healthy, your hygienist completes a cleaning the same day. If there's more significant tartar or gum inflammation, we'll book the right type of cleaning as its own visit rather than rushing it — you'll know which before anything starts.
Before you go: the plan, in writing
Before you head out, you'll know where you stand, in ordinary words. Sometimes the honest summary is that everything is healthy and we'll see you in six months — when that's true, it's exactly what we say. When treatment deserves a conversation, it arrives as a written plan with cost estimates and your insurance benefit already applied: what's a priority, what's optional, what the trade-offs are. The schedule stays empty until you give the word.
Setting up your next appointment happens at the desk in a couple of minutes, and text and email reminders keep it from slipping your mind.
Questions we hear in the chair
- Does the first appointment include a cleaning?
- If your gums are healthy, yes — same day. Years of buildup or gum inflammation sometimes call for a different type of cleaning that gets its own appointment; you'll know before anything starts.
- What should I bring?
- Photo ID, insurance card (and the policyholder's date of birth if it isn't you), a current medication list, and any recent X-rays — your previous office can email them to us before the appointment.
- I have a medical condition. Does that change anything?
- Mention it on your registration form — diabetes, heart conditions, joint replacements, blood thinners, recent surgeries. It changes how we sequence treatment, not whether we'll see you.
- What if the exam finds a lot?
- Then we rank it honestly: urgent items first, optional ones last, with your budget shaping the sequence. Nothing moves forward without your go-ahead — and no one sells you treatment while you're reclined in a chair.
Clinical content reviewed by Dr. Brian Podbesek, Lead Dentist.
On Medical Park Drive since 2014. .