Privacy Policy

1. Our contact details

• Name: Toothreferralcom LLC
• Address: 13220 Strickland Rd, STE 166 Raleigh, NC 27613
• Email: info@toothreferral.com
• Website/mobile application: www.toothreferral.com
• Contact Person name: Vejay K. Ravindran

2. Introduction

We are dedicated to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy specifies how we collect and process personal information about you when you use our website, mobile application (the "Platform") and/or our online products and services (collectively with the Platform, "Services"). This Privacy Policy applies to all users of our Services.

"You" or "user" refers to any of the following persons interacting with or utilizing our Services:

(A) Potential or Actual Patients Seeking Dental Services or Guest Users:

• Individuals who are seeking dental services, including routine or urgent dental care
• Users who want to find dental providers with specific skill sets, membership plans, or who are in-network with their insurance
• Patients who prefer to schedule appointments directly through our website/application without making a phone call
• Individuals with an existing referral

(B) General Dentists:

• Dental professionals that have earned either a DDS or DMD and hold a valid dental license
• Dental professionals who offer a range of general dental services
• Dentists who want to advertise their membership plans to attract new patients
• General dentists who need to refer patients to dental specialists for specialized treatments
• General dentists who want to manage and track their referrals to specialists, check referral statuses, and communicate securely with other dental offices

(C) Dental Specialists:

• Dental Specialists are dental professionals that have earned a DDS, or a DMD and completed an ADA recognized dental specialty program.
• Dental Specialists can also be dental professionals that have earned a DDS, or a DMD and completed additional training in a non-recognized ADA dental specialty.
• Dental professionals who specialize in various areas of dentistry, including orthodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, periodontics, prosthodontics, dental anesthesiology, oral pathology, oral radiology, and pediatric dentistry.
• Specialists who want to advertise their membership plans and unique skill sets to attract referrals from general dentists.
• Dental specialists who need to customize referral templates, provide real-time status updates to referring dentists, and communicate with other providers or office team members.
• Users who want to list their same-day availability, track referral sources and growth, and offer self-referral options for patients seeking specialized care.

We may collect certain health-related information in order to provide the Services. This may encompass a variety of health-related data such as dental preferences, dental treatment history, and insurance information. Additionally, it may include information related to health and wellness, medications, tests ordered and results, and other health issues. The health information collected, transmitted, and stored through our Services may also include medical records containing details about conditions, treatments, and diagnoses. We collect this health-related information to facilitate the search for dental providers, membership plans, and appointment scheduling tailored to the user's preferences and needs as more specifically detailed herein.

By registering for or using our Services, you consent to the collection, transfer, processing, storage, and other uses of your information (including your health-related data) as described in this Privacy Policy.

3. Personal Information collection

Information collected from Potential or Actual Patients Seeking Dental Services:
We collect and process the following information:

• Full name
• Email address
• Mobile phone number
• Referral ID (if available)
• Password
• Details of your tooth problem
• Details of membership plan selected
• Dental preferences
• Scheduling preferences

Information collected from General Dentists:
We collect and process the following information:

• Full name
• Office Name
• Office Image or your personal photo
• Dental Specialization Area
• Email address
• Mobile phone number
• Referral ID (if available)
• Password
• Details of membership plans offered by you
• Skills information (e.g., Same Day Crown provider, Same Day Dentures, Tongue Tie treatment, etc.)
• Appointment scheduling information
• Insurance provider details
• Referral Information when sending a referral to the Dental Specialist, including:
  • Patient name
  • Date of Birth (DOB)
  • Sex
  • Contact
  • Email
  • Parent/guardian details (if applicable)
  • Reason for referral
  • Dental issue details
  • Treatment plan
  • Medical history
  • Surgery performed
  • Pathology reports
  • Types of services requested
  • Referral doctor details
  • Practice area
  • Referral doctor email
  • Referral doctor phone
  • Scanned images of radiographs and treatment plan
  • Insurance details
  • Referral ID

Information collected from Dental Specialists:
We collect and process the following information:

• Full name
• Office Name
• Office Image or your personal photo
• Dental Specialization Area
• Email address
• Mobile phone number
• Password
• Details of membership plans offered by you
• Skills information (e.g., Gentle Wave®, LNAP®, Hospital Privileges, Tongue Tie Treatment, surgical Extractions, implant placements, sleep apnea provider, TMJ)
• Appointment scheduling information
• Insurance provider details
• Referral Information when receiving referrals from General Dentists (same fields as above). Note that Gentle Wave® and LNAP® are registered trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Patient's Name
  • Patient's Date of Birth
  • Sex
  • Contact Number
  • Patient's Email
  • Parent / Guardian details (if applicable)
  • Reason for Referral
  • Details of dental issue
  • Details of treatment plan
  • Details of medical history
  • Details of any surgery performed
  • Details of pathology reports
  • Types of dental services requested
  • Name of referral doctor
  • Practice area of the referral doctor
  • Email of referral doctor
  • Phone of referral doctor
  • Scanned images of radiographs
  • Scanned images of treatment plan
  • Details of insurance
  • Referral ID

Paid Membership: If you choose to use any membership plan, we may collect payment information such as credit card details. We utilize Stripe, a third-party payment processor, to securely process payments. Your payment information is collected directly by Stripe and is subject to their privacy policy. We encourage you to review Stripe's privacy policy.

Interactions:

When you communicate with other users or healthcare providers through the Services, we collect information related to those interactions.

This may include:

• User-Generated Content: Any content, messages, or information that you choose to share or post within the Services when communicating with other users such as text, images, videos, or files. Users may provide feedback, ratings, and reviews on their experiences with dental providers, membership plans, and appointment scheduling processes.
• Information may be collected based on user interactions with the application, such as search queries, filter selections, and appointment scheduling actions.
• User Identifiers: Information that may identify you or other users involved in the communication, such as usernames, profile pictures, or unique identifiers associated with your account.
• Communication Metadata: Metadata associated with your communication activities, such as timestamps, sender and recipient information, message length, and interaction frequency.
• Transactional Information: Information related to transactions or activities conducted within the Services during the communication process, such as appointment scheduling, referrals, or requests for information.

We may collect information from you when you:

• register or sign up with us,
• interact with us through phone, text, email, chat, or otherwise,
• provide feedback,
• respond to surveys,
• interact with other users.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality:

We are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all data collected for analytics and reporting purposes. Any data shared with subscribers will be aggregated and anonymized to the extent possible to protect individual privacy and confidentiality.

Opt-Out Option: If you prefer not to have your data included in analytics and reporting, you may opt out by contacting us at the contact details provided herein. However, please note that opting out may limit your access to certain features or functionalities of our Platform.

You shall provide us with personal information which is accurate and true and inform us of any changes. If you are providing information regarding someone else, you represent that you have the authority to act for them and to provide the information.

In addition to the information outlined above, please note that certain health-related information collected from you may constitute protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA regulations. This may encompass a variety of health-related data such as dental preferences, treatment history, insurance information, and any other health-related information that users may provide. Additionally, when you communicate with other users through the Platform, certain interactions may involve the sharing of PHI. This may include user-generated content, user identifiers, communication metadata, and transactional information related to appointments, referrals, or requests for information. We collect this health-related information for purposes described in Section 4 (How the information is used).

We are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of minors' PHI in accordance with the HIPAA and other applicable laws. Minors' PHI will be handled with the utmost care and sensitivity to ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Parents or legal guardians have the right to access and obtain copies of their minor children's medical records, including PHI, maintained by our services. Requests for access to minors' PHI should be submitted at our contact details stated herein. Except in limited circumstances permitted by law, we will obtain the consent of a parent or legal guardian before disclosing a minor's PHI. This includes disclosures for treatment, payment, healthcare operations, and other permissible purposes outlined in HIPAA regulations.

Minors may have certain privacy rights under HIPAA, including the right to request restrictions on the disclosure of their PHI for certain sensitive healthcare services. We will honor any valid requests for restrictions on the use or disclosure of a minor's PHI, subject to applicable legal requirements.

4. How the information is used

We use the information we collect to:

• Facilitate communication between users and healthcare providers.
• Facilitate direct scheduling of appointments with dental providers, based on the user's preferences and availability.
• Create and manage your accounts.
• Develop searchable databases or personalized search results: User preferences for dental providers and appointment scheduling are used to generate personalized search results, presenting relevant options that match the user's criteria and preferences.
• Make Appointment Matching: Scheduling preferences such as preferred appointment times and urgency level are used to match users with available appointment slots that best fit their needs and constraints.
• Make Membership Plan Recommendations: Dental membership plan preferences are used to recommend suitable plans tailored to the user’s age group, dental needs, and insurance coverage, helping users make informed decisions about their dental care options.
• Enable you as a General Dentist to check your Referral Status: Scheduled, Not Scheduled, Completed.
• Enable you as a Dental Specialist to receive referrals.
• Enable you as a guest user to change an existing referral to find a different provider.
• Enable you as a Dental Specialist to customize your referral template and to allow General Dentists to send quick referrals to you.
• Enable you as a Dental Specialist to obtain real time status updates to your referrals.
• Enable you to use our calendar to list your same day availability.
• Enable you to track referral sources, frequency, and growth.
• Allow simplified interactions such as allow your patients to modify their own referrals on their time such as when their contact information has changed.
• Allow dental office staff to send messages to other dental offices. For the avoidance of doubt, any guest users do not have access to contact dental providers via instant messaging or chat features. Guest users can only access the database to search for dental providers and leave ratings based on their experience.
• Data Analytics and Reporting: We collect certain data to develop analytics and reports that provide insights and information to our users. This may include aggregating and analyzing information such as referral numbers, user interactions, and usage patterns within our Platform. The data collected is used to generate analytics and reports that enable us to improve and enhance our Services, identify trends, and measure the effectiveness of our Platform. For example, we may analyze referral numbers to track the growth of our user base and assess the impact of our referral system. Analytics and reports generated from the collected data may be presented to subscribers of our service. This allows subscribers to track and monitor the performance of the software, including metrics such as new referrals generated and the overall impact on their practice or business.
• Provide, maintain, operate and improve our Services.
• Send administrative information, updates, and promotional materials.
• Assist us in internal record keeping.
• Respond to inquiries/offer support.
• Manage and implement billing.
• Comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal processes, or to respond to lawful requests from governmental authorities.

5. Sharing the information

With other users: For General Dentists and Dental Specialists, certain information (name, photo, profile, business address, fax, phone, email, website) may be visible to other users. User preferences and scheduling information may be shared with dental providers to facilitate appointment scheduling.

With Service Providers: We may disclose your information to third parties who provide services to us (payment processing, appointment scheduling, customer service, data processing, hosting, fraud detection, research, telemarketing), including Apponword Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Cloudflare. We do not store payment information on our servers; Stripe processes payments. Insurance information may be shared with insurance providers to verify coverage. We use Cloudflare for content delivery and security.

Corporate Transactions: We may share information with affiliates and in connection with corporate restructuring, sale of the business, merger, or asset sale.

Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information to comply with applicable laws, protect rights and safety, or enforce our terms of service.

Except as stated herein, we do not share, sell, rent, transfer or disclose your information to any third party unless you consent or as required by law. We do not sell personal information for monetary consideration.

6. Lawful Bases

Under applicable data privacy laws, we rely on:

• (a) Your consent (you can withdraw at any time by contacting us; withdrawal may prevent use of Services).
• (b) Contractual obligation to fulfill our contract with you.
• (c) Legal obligation to comply with law or prevent fraud.
• (d) Legitimate interest to protect rights and interests where necessary.

7. Children's Information

Our Services are not meant for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. We recognize that referrals may be made for patients under 13 with parent/guardian involvement. We require parental consent for collection and processing of personal information for patients under 13. Parents or legal guardians must explicitly consent before any data is collected. If you believe your child under 13 has provided personal information without your consent, please contact us; we will make reasonable efforts to remove such information.

8. Opt-Out

When you sign up, you may opt-in to receive emails (newsletters, updates, promotional offers). We do not make marketing phone calls or send marketing text messages. You may opt out of marketing emails at any time by following unsubscribe instructions in the emails. You may continue to receive service-related communications even if you opt out of marketing emails.

9. Retaining your information

We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary—as long as we have a continuing relationship with you, to comply with legal or contractual obligations, or as otherwise applicable. On expiry of those periods, we will either delete or de-identify your personal information.

10. Security and Storage

We utilize AWS services including EC2, RDS, S3, Elastic Public Address, Secret Manager, and CloudWatch. We employ encryption, access controls, regular security audits, and compliance with industry standards. Cloudflare provides security against DDoS, malware, and unauthorized access. We take reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access, misuse, loss, destruction, or alteration of your personal information. No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Your data protection rights

Under applicable data protection law, you may have the right to:

• (a) Access your personal information (copies; you may also login to see what you have disclosed).
• (b) Rectification of inaccurate or incomplete information (you may also update via your account).
• (c) Erasure in certain circumstances (you may also update via your account).
• (d) Restrict processing under certain conditions.
• (e) Object to processing in certain circumstances.
• (f) Data portability—transfer of your personal information to another organization or to you.
• (g) Withdraw your consent.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond. Contact us at the details stated herein. We may ask for additional information to verify you; we will only use that information for verification. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

12. Changes

We may modify the Privacy Policy at our discretion. Changes will be posted on this page and we will email you with a link to the updated privacy policy. If you have concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at the contact details above. You have the right to complain to your privacy regulatory authority if you are unhappy with how we have used your information.