What is going on this winter? Ah well.........still, if you are scheduled for an appointment with us on Monday, March 2nd, it looks like we will not be seeing each other. Please do keep an eye on our blog for updates, but with the way things are looking this evening, we will be closed on Monday. Everyone be safe, and we'll be in touch soon to reschedule you.
If you are one of our patients, please take a few moments to visit our Facebook page. We'll be adding announcements there, specials (pretty much the same thing as here, but you're probably on Facebook more frequently, right? :-) ), and it's a neat way to stay connected to what's happening in our practice. You can even write reviews (yes, we WELCOME reviews!!!), become a FAN, and leave messages about what's going on in your lives. Having a baby? We'd love to see pictures! Been on vacation? Share! Have your own business? Let us know and we'd be delighted to have you list your business for others to benefit. And if you're not currently one of our patients but would like to find out more, you can get information on the practice there, too. I've also added a Widget in the Sidebar that allows you to Bookmark us on Delicious so we're always easy to find. Don't you just love the Internet? :-)
We've added new portraits of the Smiles by Payet Team Members who provide you with such terrific care at this page on our website: About our Team
As a professional photographer on the side (I don't plan on quitting my day job any time soon), I have a passion for both the taking of pictures and the digital developing/use of those pictures, and software today is so remarkable in how it can be used. With increasing levels of integration among Photoshop programs and others, it is becoming increasingly easy to take the pictures, edit them as desired, and then quickly convert them into a usable format. I will be adding more videos to both our Blog and to SmilesbyPayet.com in coming weeks, so stay tuned for more! [...]
Not sure how many Charlotteans are waking up to the same conditions as we have here at our home in Huntersville this morning, but our neighborhood roads are covered in black ice, lightly covered by a layer of snow. Not much snow on the roads, but it is enough that -- despite my years of driving in snow while growing up -- I'm going to go back to bed for a while, then enjoy breakfast and a cup of coffee in the safety and warmth of our home. Of course, it's really the ice that is the problem -- I almost fell on my rear with my first step onto the sidewalk. I am very sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause, of course, and we will do our best to get everyone rescheduled very quickly.
Tonight was the first meeting of 2009 for the Charlotte, NC area CEREC Study Club, which I founded shortly after I took possession of my CEREC 3D CAD/CAM system on December 31st, 2007. (If you're unfamiliar with the terms, CAD/CAM means "Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Milling.") It was really a very exciting meeting (ok, most people probably wouldn't find it really exciting, but we're a bunch of dentists, after all, who happen to be kind of geeky and like hi-tech tools in our office which happen to provide really awesome results for our patients), as the manufacturer (Sirona USA) just recently released a tremendous new upgrade, the CEREC AC Bluecam, which uses a range of improvements in both hardware and software to drastically increase the system's speed. Given the cost of the new unit, and since my CEREC 3D is only 13 months old, I'm not going to be introducing this new version to our office this year. The one we have, the CEREC 3D, is still an excellent system, and we regularly enjoy giving our patients the great experience of single-visit all-ceramic crowns and onlays with it. This means no temporary restorations, no second visit getting numb, no metal, practically no sensitivity afterwards......there's really no downside. Along with the new system, Sirona USA is launching another terrific innovation that will also benefit patients, and it's called CerecConnect. The difference is this: with CEREC, we can create 1-4 units of crowns and/or onlays in a row fairly easily, and even do all of them in 1 visit. However, doing a full arch (all the top or all the bottom teeth) is extremely difficult and typically requires great expertise and advanced training, and it will still usually take [...]
Oh, it feels so good to finally be able to announce this, as I've been working on it so hard for so many nights after my family has gone to bed, but FINALLY I have begun producing some new Patient Education videos to help explain a number of options that we offer by using pictures of many similar cases. Over the last 4 years, I have amassed a catalog of about 38,000 digital photographs of the work that we do. You can see my Photography Blog post on the subject of Patient Communication with Digital Photography for more info on how/why we take pictures of our work, but now I'm finally able to turn a lot of those photos into various video formats to highlight problems that many patients have, often without even realizing it, and to let our patients actually see what they can expect once the treatment is completed. It's really quite exciting! We're not talking about "stock" photography here, of work that someone else did. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the pictures that you'll see were taken by Dr. Payet (me), and every completed procedure was performed by Dr. Payet (me) and my Team. (Hope you don't mind me talking about myself in the 3rd person for a moment there; I was having a Bob Dole flashback after reading some political articles. :-) We'll look forward to showing you these new videos when you come in! Don't have any of those videos in Web format quite yet, but keep an eye on our website, Smiles by Payet Dentistry, for them to begin appearing there within the next few weeks. You'll be able to see and understand so much more easily, I promise!
We've actually been a Preferred Provider for Delta Dental Premier for several years now, but we just received confirmation that CIGNA has now processed all the paperwork, and we are officially listed as a Preferred Provider for CIGNA as well. This is great news for the many patients who already receive care with us and who have CIGNA, but for other patients who are seeking a dentist on their list. This will provide some significant savings for anyone whose employer offers them dental insurance through CIGNA. Of course, I don't want to miss this opportunity to plug our affordable Quality Dental Plan, which is a program that we created for our patients with no dental insurance, or who perhaps have dental insurance but it's a HMO or other plan that won't allow them to see us, but they value the service and quality we provide and want to keep us as their dentist. Follow the link to our website for more details, or call and talk with Rosie Bonnett, our Front Desk/Patient Care Coordinator, and she can help you get signed up.
Quick Announcement! Check out our website, www.SmilesbyPayet.com, to see our new Whitening Specials for Valentine's Day. Don't forget that special day is coming up, and you want to look your best. $100 off our regular Custom Whitening Trays (Normally $350, now $250) OR $250 off our amazing Deep Bleaching™ process! (Normally $1195, now $945)
Just in case anyone has tried calling the office or hasn't seen our website www.SmilesbyPayet.com for updates, our office is closed today due to the snow and icy roads. We are making every effort to contact everyone today, and we anticipate being open again tomorrow, January 21st 2009, so we'll be working to reschedule everyone promptly. We do apologize for the inconvenience; as my team members and I all live fairly far from the office, we felt it was too dangerous to make it in. Fortunately, it seems many patients feel the same way, so everything will work out fine. ;-) ================================= UPDATE: As usual, the forecast for horrible driving conditions due to multiple inches of snow in Charlotte fell apart. Ah well, at least now we can be sure that we'll be open on Wednesday for patient care as usual.
