Teaching Practices

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The Teaching Practices of the Harvard Dental Center is a modern dental facility dedicated to patient oral health. Dental care is affordable because faculty-supervised student dentists provide treatment. The Standards of Care for the Pre-Doctoral Teaching Practices can be viewed here. There are two options within the Teaching Practices:

Predoctoral Teaching Practices

Third-and-fourth year dental students provide care under the supervision of experienced faculty members. The students perform both general dentistry and specialized procedures.

Advanced Graduate Teaching Practices

Dentists who are in specialty training programs provide care. These advanced degree students are training to be Endodontists, Periodontists, Orthodontists, Prosthodontists, and Implant Specialists. General dental care is provided by students in the General Practice Residency Program.

Teaching Practice Staff

Services

The Teaching Practices provides comprehensive care to patients. It combines all aspects of dentistry - oral diagnosis, dental hygiene, radiology, restorative dentistry, endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery and orthodontics - at a single location. Whatever your dental needs, the entire range of dental care services are available at the Teaching Practices.

Length of Treatment

The number and length of visits is greater in the Teaching Practices than in a private dental practice. The dental students often work at a slower pace. To assure the highest quality of care, a Harvard faculty member will check the work at each step. For many patients the lower fees make it worth spending the extra time to receive quality care.

Insurance, Billing, and Payment

The Teaching Practices accepts many insurance plans as well as Master Card, VISA, and American Express.

Insurance plans accepted at the Teaching Practices include:

  • Delta Dental Premier
  • Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts
  • UnitedHealthcare
  • Commonwealth Care Alliance/Scion*
  • MassHealth*

*Your Patient Services Liaison will review your insurance plan or Commonwealth Care Alliance/ MassHealth eligibility and outline the estimated costs of your comprehensive treatment plan.

If your insurance is not listed here, we can still treat you, albeit the request for reimbursement will be your responsibility. Patient Services Liaisons can provide you with a claim form for submission to your insurance.

Cost

There is an initial fee for an examination and necessary diagnostic x-rays in the Oral Diagnosis Clinic. If you need additional treatment, each of the Teaching Practices has a different fee structure. The Predoctoral Practice has the lowest fees. Although the Advanced Graduate fees are higher than the Predoctoral fees, they are still lower than those charged by dentists in private practice.