Office Policies

Scheduling a general anaesthesia appointment for yourself or for your child requires a fair amount of consideration. Before scheduling your appointments please be certain of the following:

Time off work or school

Please be aware that you will be unable to work or attend school on the day of the appointment.  Depending on the work performed you may need additional time off.  Please ensure your schedule permits this. 

Consent to treatment

Children or anyone who requires consent by a proxy must be accompanied to their appointment with their legal guardian or decision maker

Transportation and aftercare

Transportation to and from your appointment must be prearranged.  Failure to attend an appointment due to lack of travel will constitute a missed appointment and be subject to a fee for our costs incurred.  Every patient must be driven straight home by a responsible adult that will be able to remain with the patient for the remainder of the day. For children it is often advised to bring 2 adults to the appointment to facilitate safe travel home. Public transit is not permitted after anaesthesia appointments. Patients cannot travel home unattended by taxi following sedation.

Nothing to eat or drink

For your safety, you cannot have anything to eat or drink 8 hours prior to a sedation or anaesthesia appointment.  However, water or apple juice is permitted up to 3 hours before your appointment. If you or your child cannot follow this instruction for any reason, please discuss it with a nurse prior to scheduling your appointment.  Failure to follow these rules will constitute a missed appointment and a fee will apply.

Confirming appointments

Appointments must be confirmed with our office digitally within 48 hours of the appointment.  We need to confirm the appointment date and time, as well as confirm that you have no changes to your health.  If you do not respond in the 2 business days preceding your appointment we will cancel your appointment and you will need to reschedule.

Cancellations and Missed Appointments

Appointments for sedation and anaesthesia require a great deal of organization on the part of the office as well as the patient.  This includes scheduling the doctor, nurses, dental assistants and hygienists. The time and energy devoted to your care as well as the significant expense in operating a modern anaesthesia facility necessitate the following strict rules:

Changing an appointment:

Appointments are pre-scheduled.  Requests to change pre-scheduled appointments must be made more than 48 business hours in advance.  Failure to give the required notice will constitute a missed appointment. 

Missed appointments will be subject to a fee for our overhead incurred, and it will based on the amount of time missed ($250 per hour of appointment time booked).  The cancellation fee is not a punishment, but simply a requirement to recover part of the overhead associated with a missed or cancelled appointment.

Missed appointments:

Missed appointments or appointments cancelled with less than 2 business days of notice will be charged to the patient.  The includes appointments that must be reschedules due to a patient not following pre-anaesthesia instructions.  This charge is not covered by any insurance company or government assistance plan and must be made in full before another appointment can be booked.  The cancellation fee will be based on the length of appointment time missed, and the minimum fee is $250.

Attire:

Patients cannot wear any earrings or jewelry.  If you have a ring that is not easily removed please let you doctor know in advance.  Nail polish or false nails are not permitted as they interfere with vital signs monitors.  Please wear loose fitting clothes that will permit applications of patient monitors.