Dr. Samuel Bush is a board certified childrens dental specialist, who is pawsitively passionate about helping children and teenagers maintain healthy and beautiful smiles. He does this by helping instill in them a positive attitude towards dentistry by introducing them to a friendly and fun dental environment. Dr. Bush is a 2017 graduate of the Pediatric Residency Program at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry, where he developed extensive expertise treating the oral health of children, adolescents, and patients with special needs. Dr. Bush is certified in the use of oral sedation and, when needed, offers other sedation options including IV sedation.
Dr. Bush is a native of Andalusia and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Alabama. He then obtained a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Alabama School of Dentistry in 2015. Dr. Bush is married to his high school sweetheart, Tara, who is a lawyer and now serves as the office manager to Bush Pediatric Dentistry. They have two wonderful sons, Walden and Mac. They are also the proud parents of Poppy, who happily serves as the resident therapy dog in the office.
Poppy is Bush Pediatric Dentistry's only 4-legged employee and therapy dog. As a hypoallergenic Australian Labradoodle, she's here to make every one of your visits pawsitively relaxing. Poppy's obedience training and certification gives her the ability to reduce patient anxiety and stress.
Poppy loves seeing new and returning patients and even has her own office! Her job is to create a comfortable environment. She'll always have a trained handler by her side for patients who may feel nervous around dogs and will never be roaming free.
Payment for dental services is due at the time that treatment is provided. Every effort will be made to provide a treatment plan that gives your child the best possible care, and fits into your timetable and budget. We accept cash, personal checks, debit cards and most major credit cards.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND that we file dental insurance as a courtesy to our patients. We do not have a contract with your insurance company. We are not responsible for how your insurance company handles its claims, or for what benefits they pay on a claim. We can only assist you in estimating your portion of the cost of treatment. We do not guarantee what your insurance will or will not do with each claim. We are not be responsible for any errors in filing your insurance. Once again, we file claims as a courtesy to you.
Fact 1 - NO INSURANCE PAYS 100% OF ALL PROCEDURES Dental insurance is meant to be an aid in receiving dental care. Many patients think that their insurance pays 90-100% of all dental fees - this is not true. Most plans only pay between 50-80% of the average total fee. Some pay more, some pay less. The percentage paid is usually determined by how much you or your employer has paid for coverage, or the type of contract your employer has set up with your insurance company.
Fact 2 - BENEFITS ARE NOT DETERMINED BY OUR OFFICE Sometimes your dental insurer reimburses you or the dentist at a lower rate than the dentist 's actual fee. Frequently, insurance companies state that the reimbursement was reduced because your dentist 's fee has exceeded the usual, customary, or reasonable fee ('UCR') used by the company.
A statement such as this gives the impression that any fee greater than the amount paid by the insurance company is unreasonable, or well above what most dentists in the area charge for a certain service. This can be very misleading and is not accurate.
Insurance companies set their own schedules, and each company uses a different set of fees they consider reasonable. These reasonable fees may vary, because each company collects fee information from claims it processes. The insurance company then takes this data and arbitrarily chooses a level they call the 'allowable' UCR Fee. Frequently, this data can be three to five years old and these fees are set by the insurance company so they can net a 20-30% profit.
Unfortunately, insurance companies imply that your dentist is overcharging, rather than say that they are underpaying, or that their benefits are low. In general, the less expensive insurance policy will use a lower reasonable (UCR) figure.