 Hi everybody, Andrea Terowski here. I've been a dental professional since 2005, but I've had my own mobile dental hygiene practice since 2018. So what I do is I clean patients' teeth in their own home. I bring all of my setup equipment into their home, and then that's how we have our treatment. That's how I provide the services. Now, a lot of newbie dental hygienists who are starting their own business say to me, well, Andrea, like what can I bill for? This is different than a dental office. Do I bill a recall exam, scale, polish? What do I do? And my first answer is always going to be, well, bill what you do just as you would in a dental office. You wouldn't bill a scaling code if you didn't do any scaling. You wouldn't bill a polishing code if you didn't do any polishing. But you also would bill those things if you did them. So what I typically do is when I see a new patient, I bill a new patient exam. And depending on how much scaling I do, I bill that scaling code, how much polish I do, I bill that polish code, and how much fluoride I do, I bill that fluoride. So if I get to fluoride, then I'm going to bill for a fluoride varnish, depending on how long I do the scaling and depending on how long I do the polish. But I do bill a new patient exam code. So I bill a primary, a mixed or permanent dentition code, because I am performing a new patient exam. They're a new patient to me. I'm going through all of the charting. I'm filling out the odontogram. I'm doing the perioprobing. I'm taking intraoral photos. When I worked in a dental office, I was the one who did the new patient exams anyway as a dental hygienist. But then of course, I would also be taking x-rays. Since I'm a mobile dental hygienist, I can't take x-rays. So I'm not going to charge for x-rays and bill for x-rays if I didn't do them. But all of the exam part of it, I am still doing. I'm letting them know if I suspected cavity. I'm letting them know if I see gingival recession, if I see wear on the teeth, whatever I see inside the mouth, I'm going to let the patient know. And this takes time. This can take about a half an hour for me to go through everything. Typically, I see patients who are coming from a dental office where I've asked their previous dental office to send me the records, but of course, they didn't get around to it. So I'm basically seeing the patient, I have no x-rays, no nothing. I'm going through everything as if it's the first time. So but then after that, after I see them for their first appointment, so their new patient exam, I like to call it, then I see them for a recall exam after that plus scaling, polishing, fluoride, that desensitization, if they need that. Basically, whatever they need, I'm going to give them just as I would in a dental office. Again, I'm not taking x-rays, so I would never bill for x-rays. I take inter-oral photos instead. So all of that is kind of part of my re-care exam, scaling, polish, and fluoride. These are typically the codes that I'm going to use. Some other codes that I do use sometimes, but not every time, depending on what I'm doing, could be the oral hygiene instruction code. If I'm spending half an hour going through brushing, using the water pick, talking about plaque, to calculus, to bacteria, all of that, then I'm going to bill according to that if I do that oral hygiene instruction code. But also typically, if I'm doing something like sub-gingival oral irrigation, if I'm mixing up diluted hydrogen peroxide, if I'm getting right in there because the patient needs something extra, I'm going to bill for that. I take inter-oral photos at every single appointment, but do I bill for that? No, because it just takes me a couple seconds, and it's something that I like to do. There is probably a code for inter-oral photos, but I don't bill for that, just because it takes me a couple seconds. But another question that people ask me is, do I bill a mobile fee? Yes, I do. Under your Dental Hygiene Association fee guide, you will see a mobile dental hygiene fee. This is if it's an at-home visit, there's one for emergency visits, and there's also one for if they're in a nursing home, so in an institution. I just bill for an at-home visit because that's typically what I'm doing. It does depend on how far I have traveled. I could bill anywhere from 10 to 25 dollars, depending on how many people I'm seeing that day and how far I have traveled. If I'm seeing 10 people, just as an example, I may bill a little bit less because it's absolutely, you know, it's more worth my time to be there. Not that it's not worth my time for only one person, but if it takes me 45 minutes to get there for one person, then I'm going to bill closer to 25 dollars because that's just how my time is kind of worked out. We are now seeing a vet that comes to our house to see our dogs, and as an example, they charge a $65 mobile fee. I didn't even think twice about it because I'm so appreciative for them coming to see me. Yes, that's more expensive than me going to the vet, but to take our three dogs to the vet is a big hassle. They have high anxiety in the car, they're barking, whining the whole way, oh my goodness, it's just, it's crazy. So for me, $65, I didn't even think about it. It was no problem. So think about that when you're charging your clients. You are only charging them for what you're doing. Don't feel bad about it. A dentist doesn't feel bad charging with their charging, so why should you? I feel as dental hygienists, we are so programmed to think, well, we're not a dentist, it's not worth my time, or the patient probably thinks it's not worth it, or I'm not a dentist, so I'm not as good, or I'm not a dentist, so why would I charge my patient just as much as they would at a dental office? You're still cleaning their teeth, right? You're probably giving them the best treatment ever because it's just them. It's not about coming in for a check, being behind, overhead fees, it's a busy office, a busy day. You are giving them the best treatment because you are just focused on them. You're not overworked, underpaid, because you're seeing 10 clients a day, back-to-back 30-minute appointments, so charge accordingly. You are giving them the best treatment, so I cannot stress that enough. Bill for what you do. Don't bill for what you don't do because that's considered fraud, right? Just as a dental office. Yet, I find in dental offices, at least the ones that I used to work at, they would tell me to bill three or four units of scale every single time because that's what we do. And I'd kind of say, yeah, but I'm not scaling for like 45 minutes. I'm not scaling for an hour, so I'm not going to bill that because I spent 15 minutes just saying hi and updating the medical history, things like that. So, bill for what you do. Don't be afraid of it. Don't overbill, but don't be afraid to bill either. The dentist doesn't care what you're billing. They don't care what you're being paid for, so why do you care if the next time they see their dentist for an exam, if something's not covered because it was covered with you? That's up to the dentist and up to your client. Again, the dentist doesn't care. They don't say, oh, well, what did your mobile dental hygienist bill last time? I'm going to make sure to only bill this much because that much won't be covered. So, you shouldn't have to worry about it either. You are just giving your patient the best treatment possible. I hope that makes sense. Let me know you guys if any questions. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one.