Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Information you give us directly. The Site has two places where you can send us information, and both are optional:

• Contact form — first name, last name, email address, phone number, the type of service you are asking about, and whatever you write in the message field.
• Newsletter sign-up — the email address (and, where the form asks for it, the first name) you enter in the subscription form on the Site.

You may also simply call or email the office instead. Nothing on the Site requires you to create an account, and the Site does not take payments or process insurance.

Information collected automatically. When any browser loads a web page, basic technical data is exchanged so that the page can be delivered: your IP address, your browser and device type, the page requested, and the referring page. Our host and the third-party providers listed in Section 5 process this data in their server logs for delivery, security, and abuse prevention.

What we do not do. We want to be specific, because many dental websites say otherwise. The Site runs no Google Analytics or similar analytics tag, no advertising or social-media tracking pixels, and no cross-site or behavioral tracking of any kind. The Site’s own code sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. We do not build visitor profiles, we do not track you across other websites, and we do not sell or rent personal information to anyone. See our Cookies Policy for the full detail.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use what you send us only for the purpose you sent it for:

• To answer your question and, where you have asked for one, to arrange an appointment
• To send practice news and updates to people who have subscribed to the newsletter
• To keep the Site working, secure, and free of spam and abuse
• To meet our legal, regulatory, and professional obligations as a Georgia dental practice

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes, and we do not use information you send through the Site to target advertising to you.

3. Website Submissions Are Not Part of Your Dental Record

The contact form and the newsletter sign-up are ordinary web forms. They are not a secure channel for health information, and information you send through them is not entered into your protected dental record. Our form provider, Netlify, hosts the Site and receives form submissions; Netlify is not a HIPAA Business Associate of the practice. Our newsletter provider, Flodesk, is likewise not a Business Associate.

For that reason, please do not include medical or health details, insurance or account numbers, or anything else you consider confidential in a Site form. For anything about your care, call us at (404) 446-2776 or use the patient portal.

If a message you send us does contain health information, we treat it with the same confidentiality we apply to all patient communications, move it into our patient-records system where it belongs, and delete the Site copy under Section 7.

4. Text Messages (SMS)

If you give us your mobile number, we may text you about appointments, reminders, confirmations, recall notices, and similar practice communications. Our patient messaging is sent through Curve Dental / CurveConnex, our practice management and patient communication system, which is a contracted Business Associate operating under a Business Associate Agreement with the practice.

Your mobile information is not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. We do not sell mobile numbers, and we do not pass them to advertisers, data brokers, or lead generators.

Messaging consent is not a condition of receiving dental care. You may opt out at any time by replying STOP to any text message, or by telling the office by phone or email; reply HELP for assistance. Message and data rates may apply, and message frequency varies with your appointment activity. Opting out of texts does not opt you out of calls, mail, or email where those are needed to reach you about your care.

5. Service Providers and Third Parties

We use a small number of outside providers to run the Site and the practice. Each one receives only what it needs for its role, and each is governed by its own privacy terms:

• Netlify — hosts the Site and receives contact-form submissions. Not a HIPAA Business Associate. Netlify Privacy Policy
• Flodesk — stores and sends our email newsletter, and provides the subscription form embedded on the Site. Receives only the email address and name you enter in that form. Not a HIPAA Business Associate. Flodesk Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts — serves the typefaces used on the Site. Because the font files load from Google’s servers, your IP address and browser information are transmitted to Google when a page loads. Google Fonts sets no cookies. Google Privacy Policy
• Curve Dental / CurveConnex — our practice management system and patient portal, and the system that sends patient text messages. A contracted Business Associate under a Business Associate Agreement. The patient portal is a separate Curve-hosted service reached by a link from the Site; information you enter there is governed by our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, not by this policy.
• katchimedia, llc — our website and marketing vendor, which builds and maintains the Site. By written scope limitation, katchimedia does not access, receive, or process patient health information.
• Sunbit and CareCredit — third-party patient financing companies. The Site links to their applications; it does not collect or transmit any financing information. If you apply, you do so on their site under their terms. Sunbit Privacy Policy
• Gusto — hosts our job applications. The Careers page links out to Gusto; the Site itself collects no application data.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it — for example in response to a valid subpoena, court order, or regulatory request — or where disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of our patients, our team, or the practice.

6. Private Team and Practice Forms

The Site also hosts two private, unlisted pages used by our team and contractors to record attendance and internal performance notes. These pages are excluded from search engines and are not linked from the public Site. They collect staff and contractor information — role, dates, categories, notes, and acknowledgments — together with practice performance data recorded only as counts and percentages. No patient names, dates of birth, account numbers, or other patient identifiers are collected on those pages. Information recorded there is used for staffing, scheduling, payroll support, and practice management only.

7. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep personal information only as long as needed to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. When that purpose is complete, we delete it or anonymize it so it can no longer identify you. Personal information is erased within thirty (30) days of the end of its purpose or of a verified deletion request, except where retention is required by law, such as tax, accounting, regulatory, or legal-hold obligations. In those cases, we keep it only for the period the law requires and then delete it. To request deletion, contact privacyandlegal@betterhealthdental.com.

How that works for each place Site data is stored:

• Contact-form submissions (Netlify). Submissions appear in the Netlify dashboard and are emailed to the office. Netlify does not delete them on its own, so the practice purges the form dashboard on a monthly schedule, removing every submission older than 30 days, and deletes the matching notification emails from the office inbox at the same time. Anything that needs to be kept for your care is first moved into Curve, where it is retained as part of your dental record.
• Private team and practice forms (Netlify). Purged on the same monthly schedule once the entries have been transferred to our internal staffing and payroll records.
• Newsletter subscriptions (Flodesk). Retained for as long as you remain subscribed, because an ongoing subscription is the purpose. When you unsubscribe or ask to be removed, we delete the record in Flodesk within 30 days. Flodesk may retain a suppression entry so it does not email you again — that is a legal requirement of commercial email, not a marketing use.
• Server and security logs. Held by Netlify for its own short operational retention periods and not used by us for analytics.
• Dental records (Curve). Not Site data. Patient records are retained for the period required by Georgia law and our professional record-keeping obligations, and are governed by our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information. The Site is served only over HTTPS with modern TLS encryption and a strict Content Security Policy, our private team pages are excluded from search engines and reachable only by direct link, and the providers we use maintain their own security programs. Patient health information lives in Curve, behind that system’s access controls and under a Business Associate Agreement.

No method of transmitting or storing information electronically is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, which is the reason for the caution in Section 3 about what not to send through a web form.

9. Children’s Privacy

The Site is written for adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child through the Site. If you believe a child has submitted information to us through the Site, write to privacyandlegal@betterhealthdental.com and we will delete it promptly.

We are glad to care for children as patients. A parent or legal guardian should schedule a minor’s appointment by calling the office, so that consent and health history are handled properly rather than through a web form.

10. Your Choices and Rights

You may ask us at any time, whatever state or country you live in, to:

• Access — tell you what personal information from the Site we hold about you
• Correct — fix information that is inaccurate
• Delete — erase it, subject to the legal exceptions in Section 7
• Opt out of email — unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of any newsletter, or ask us to remove you
• Opt out of texts — reply STOP to any message, as described in Section 4

Write to privacyandlegal@betterhealthdental.com or call the office. We respond within 30 days and may need to verify your identity first. Exercising any of these rights costs you nothing and will never affect the care you receive.

We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of in that respect. Your rights in your dental record — including the right to inspect, copy, amend, and receive an accounting of disclosures — come from HIPAA and Georgia law and are described in our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices; request those from the office directly.

11. Links to Other Websites

The Site links to places we do not control, including the patient portal, financing partners, our job listings, our social media profiles, and professional and community resources. Once you follow one of those links, this policy no longer applies. Please review the privacy terms of any site before you give it personal information.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices, our providers, or the law. When we do, we revise the Effective Date and Last Updated date at the top of this page. Material changes will be noted on this page. Continuing to use the Site after an update means you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact Us

For any question about this policy, to exercise a right described above, or to raise a privacy concern, reach us at:

See also our Cookies Policy, Terms of Use, and Disclaimer. For general scheduling questions, email smile@betterhealthdental.com or call (404) 446-2776.