Notice of Privacy Practices
The privacy of your health information is important to us. This notice describes how your health information may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully
Our Legal Duty
Federal and state laws require us to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to provide this notice about our office’s privacy practices, our legal duties and your rights regarding your health information. Some information — such as HIV-related information, genetic information, alcohol and/or substance use disorder treatment records, and mental health records — may be entitled to special confidentiality protections under applicable state or federal law, and that our practice will abide by those protections. We are required to follow the practices that are outlined in this notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect 02/16/2026 and will remain in effect until we replace it. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and make the new notice available upon request. For more information about our privacy practices or additional copies of this notice, please contact us (contact information below).
Uses and Disclosures of Health Information
We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment and health care operations. For example:
Treatment: We disclose medical information to our employees and others who are involved in providing the care you need. We may use or disclose your health information to another dentist or other health care providers providing treatment that we do not provide. We may also share your health information with a pharmacist in order to provide you with a prescription or with a laboratory that performs tests or fabricates dental prostheses or orthodontic appliances.
Payment: We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide to you, unless you request that we restrict such disclosure to your health plan when you have paid out-of-pocket and in full for services rendered.
Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our health care operations. Health care operations include, but are not limited to, quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualifications of health care professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities. Your Authorization: In addition to our use of your health information for treatment, payment or health care operations, you may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization while it is in effect. Unless you give us a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except those described in this Notice of Privacy Practices.
To Your Family and Friends: We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this notice. You have the right to request restrictions on disclosure to family members, other relatives, close personal friends or any other person identified by you.
Persons Involved in Care: We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care, of your location, your general condition or your death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such uses or disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your health care. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, X- rays or other similar forms of health information.
Change of Ownership: If this dental practice is sold or merged with another practice or organization, your health records will become the property of the new owner. However, you may request that copies of your health information be transferred to another dental practice.
Required by Law: We may use or disclose your health information when we are required to do so by law. Public Health: We may, and are sometimes legally obligated to, disclose your health information to public health agencies for purposes related to preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability; reporting abuse or neglect; reporting domestic violence; reporting to the Food and Drug Administration problems with products and reactions to medications; and reporting disease or infection exposure. Upon reporting suspected elder or dependent adult abuse or domestic violence, we will promptly inform you or your personal representative unless we believe the notification would place you at risk of harm or would require informing a personal representative we believe is responsible for the abuse or harm.
SUD Treatment Information. If we receive or maintain any information about you from a substance use disorder treatment program that is covered by 42 CFR Part 2 (a “Part 2 Program”) through a general consent you provide to the Part 2 Program to use and disclose the Part 2 Program record for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, we may use and disclose your Part 2 Program record for treatment, payment and health care operations purposes as described in this Notice. If we receive or maintain your Part 2 Program record through specific consent you provide to us or another third party, we will use and disclose your Part 2 Program record only as expressly permitted by you in your consent as provided to us.
In no event will we use or disclose your Part 2 Program record, or testimony that describes the information contained in your Part 2 Program record, in any civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceedings by any Federal, State, or local authority, against you, unless authorized by your consent or the order of a court after it provides you notice of the court order.”
Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your health information to appropriate authorities if we reasonably believe that you are a possible victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence or the possible victim of other crimes. We may disclose your health information to the extent necessary to avert a serious threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of others.
National Security: We may disclose to military authorities the health information of Armed Forces personnel under certain circumstances. We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence and other national security activities. We may disclose to correctional institutions or law enforcement officials having lawful custody of protected health information of inmates or patients under certain circumstances.
Appointment Reminders: We may contact you to provide you with appointment reminders via voicemail, postcards or letters. We may also leave a message with the person answering the phone if you are not available. Announcement: Upon arriving at our office, we may use and disclose medical information about you by announcing your name when we are ready to see you.