No Matter What You Can Afford, We Want to See You
If you’ve ever avoided making a dental appointment because you weren’t sure you could afford it, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans put off dental care every year for exactly that reason. And for a long time, the dental profession made that problem worse by designing practices that worked best for patients with generous insurance, large budgets, and the ability to say yes to a full treatment plan on day one. Comfort Dental was built around a different idea.
Dr. Rick Kushner, who founded Comfort Dental, describes sitting in lecture after lecture early in his career, listening to the profession’s leading voices lay out the ideal practice model. Don’t take that insurance. Avoid that neighborhood. You don’t want that kind of patient anyway. Every time, Kushner had the same reaction: “That doesn’t sit right with me.”
What he built instead is a dental organization that operates by a principle that sounds simple but turns out to be surprisingly rare: “Send me the patient, any patient, all patients. I’ll work with her. See if we can find a way to move forward, even if it’s just a partial treatment plan or a simple emergency visit. Send me everything.”
That’s not a slogan. It’s a practice philosophy that has been in place since the first Comfort Dental opened, and it shapes the way every appointment is approached across all of Comfort Dental’s more than 150 locations today.
What “We’ll Find a Way” Looks Like
When you come into Comfort Dental, the first thing that happens isn’t a sales presentation. It’s a conversation. Every new patient goes through an initial interview in a private setting, away from the clinical chair, where one of our doctors takes a few minutes to understand why you’re here, whether you’re in any pain, what concerns you most about your smile, and what kind of budget you’re working with.
That last question isn’t asked to screen you out. It’s asked so we can figure out how to help you. Not every patient can commit to a comprehensive treatment plan on the first visit. Not everyone can afford everything at once. Comfort Dental’s approach has always been to meet patients where they are, work with what’s possible today, and keep the door open for the rest.
If your most urgent need is pain relief, we treat that. If you can only address part of a bigger issue right now, we build a plan around that reality. If you’ve been avoiding the dentist for years because you assumed you couldn’t afford it, we’d like the chance to show you otherwise.
Fees That Make Care Accessible
One of the structural reasons Comfort Dental can take a flexible approach to patient care is that its fees are set with accessibility in mind. While most of the profession has pushed toward higher fees and a narrower patient base, Comfort Dental has operated on a different model: lower fees, higher volume, and a commitment to serving the communities that other practices pass over.
Kushner has been direct about this for decades. “There are more middle income and below percentage-wise in the population than there was in the ’70s and ’80s,” he says, “and it’s worse than ever.” Comfort Dental doesn’t pretend that problem doesn’t exist. It’s built a model specifically designed to address it.
That includes Medicaid. Ninety-eight percent of Comfort Dental practices accept it, and the organization serves a significant number of patients who depend on it. Whatever insurance you have, or don’t have, is worth a conversation with our team before you assume dental care is out of reach.
Hours That Work for Real Life
Access isn’t only about money. It’s also about time. Comfort Dental offices are open evenings and Saturdays because patients have jobs, kids, and schedules that don’t always accommodate a 10 a.m. Tuesday appointment. If weekday mornings don’t work for you, we probably have an option that does.
The Dentist Who Still Wants to Hear From You
Kushner is in his 70s now and still deeply involved in the organization he built. He talks about the patient relationship with the same conviction he had when he opened his first practice. The care call he describes making from his car phone decades ago, checking in on patients after a procedure to ask how they’re feeling, is still part of the Comfort Dental culture today.
That kind of follow-through isn’t something you find everywhere. Neither is a dentist who has spent 50 years arguing, loudly and consistently, that no patient is the wrong kind of patient. You don’t need a perfect insurance plan or a big budget to deserve good dental care. You just need to walk in.
Make an Appointment at Your Nearest Comfort Dental
We’re ready for you whenever you’re ready for us. Use the appointment scheduler on this site to find your nearest Comfort Dental location, and we’ll take it from there.