This year has brought a lot of changes to MPDO and in 2025 we hope those changes will begin to help bring our style of dentistry to more children in the greater Jacksonville area. First up, our software system received an overhaul in February! We never imagined how disruptive that can be and 9 months later (about as long as a pregnancy!) We are just now finally getting our rhythm in this new system. This new software promises better tracking of patient appointments and services, so you won't get lost if you don't pre-appoint your hygiene visit or cancel a visit and not reschedule. The best way to keep on top of your child's dental health is to keep your regular dental visits. We also have a new 3rd party software that confirms appointments up to 2 weeks ahead of time so there is plenty of time to reschedule or just remember to put it on your calendar. We know your lives are as busy as ours and are always looking for ways to help.

The end of 2024 also brought something new to MPD. With the new software, we realized that many of our regular patients had not been seen in over a year. Life moves fast as often a year between visits seems like only a few months! Part of this was due to a lack of availability in our schedule. In October, we decided to try using a dental temp agency for the first time in our 45 years of existence! We are now able to reschedule less appointments when staff call out sick as well as better monitor our existing patient base and have more opportunity for new patients to be seen. We continue to look for wonderful people to join our team as full time staff or temps, so if you see a new face when you visit, make a new friend, as well as, say hi to the friendly faces that are familiar to you and your children.

It was also time to renew our lease on the Hodges location in 2024! We still can't believe it has been 10 years already since we opened that location! It has been an honor and a joy to serve the Jacksonville area around Hodges and Beach Blvd. In an effort to serve the children in our community better, we will no longer be seeing patients over 18 years of age at the Hodges location. It is a smaller clinic and we feel we need to focus on the children at that location moving forward. We will still see adults in our adult program at Middleburg. Thank you for your understanding this and rest assured, there are many great adult dentists in the area. We will still continue to serve our older special needs patients at both locations.

In 2024, we also added another 3rd party, budget friendly payment option through Sunbit. This adds a different choice with different terms than care credit which we have offered in the past. We continue to look for ways to make the dentistry your children need budget friendly.

Looking ahead into 2025, we hope to change our digital imaging company and system to one that better integrates with our software platform as well as continue to innovate our orthodontic early treatment services with expanded Invisalign options. There are innovative ways to help control the biofilm which is the key to reducing cavity risk beyond brushing more and avoiding sweets (both of which are still important). As always, we are looking for innovations that make dentistry easier for your child and less costly for the family even if you are out of network or private pay.

To help keep our costs down and better serve our existing patient base, we are revamping our 24-hour cancellation policy for 2025. Even with our new patient reminder system, the busy lifestyle of the day has led to increasing last-minute cancellations or no show appointment. Every appointment slot missed is further increasing the backlog and increasing the difficulty for all patients to be seen in a timely manner. If you have to move or cancel an appointment, please give > 24 hours notice and avoid the extra fee.

And finally, please remember we have two locations and know at which one you are scheduled. We will be separating our databases in 2025 to help avoid the miscommunications as to location, however this will also separate our phone systems, so know which location will be your home location. If you live between offices (ie in Mandarin), you get to pick which one you like to visit the most and make that your home location.

We look forward to seeing you in the New Year!