Privacy Policy

Welcome to SMILE CRAFT COSMETIC AND FAMILY DENTISTRY, PLLC. We are a cosmetic and family care dental office located in Birmingham, Alabama, dedicated to providing you with exceptional dental care. Visiting the dentist requires trust, and we believe that trust extends to how we handle your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your data when you visit our website (https://thesmilecraftdentistry.com), interact with our marketing communications, or use our patient services. We have designed this policy to be straightforward and easy to understand, reflecting our commitment to your privacy and our compliance with healthcare regulations like HIPAA, as well as comprehensive state privacy laws including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) and others. If you have any questions about how we handle your data, please reach out to us.

To provide you with the best possible dental care and online experience, we collect information in a few different ways. We only gather what we need, and we always have a legal basis for doing so.

We are intentional about how we use your data. Every piece of information we process serves a specific purpose in running our dental practice.

• Core Service Delivery: We use your health information and personal identifiers to schedule appointments, provide cosmetic and family dental treatments, and process your payments.
• Service Improvement: We analyze website usage data to make our site easier to navigate and to ensure you can find the information you need quickly.
• Communication: We use your contact information to send appointment reminders, follow-up on your care, and respond to your inquiries.
• Security and Fraud Prevention: We monitor website traffic through Cloudflare to detect and prevent malicious activity, keeping our digital front door as safe as our physical one.
• Legal Compliance: As a medical practice, we are required by HIPAA and state laws to maintain accurate health records and retain them for specific periods.
• Marketing: With your permission, we use your email and browsing data to send you promotional communications and deliver relevant advertisements about our dental services. You can opt out of these communications at any time.

We are highly protective of your data, especially your health information. We only share your information when absolutely necessary, and we never sell your medical records.

Depending on where you live (including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws), you have specific rights regarding your personal information. We extend these core rights to all our patients, regardless of location.

• Access Your Data: You can request a copy of the personal and health information we hold about you. We will provide this within the legally required timeframes (typically 30 to 45 days).
• Correct Inaccuracies: If your contact details or health history change, you have the right to request that we update our records.
• Delete Your Data: You can ask us to delete your personal information. Please note that as a healthcare provider, we are legally required to retain certain medical and financial records, which may override a deletion request.
• Port Your Data: You can request your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format to transfer to another dental provider.
• Opt Out of Marketing and Data "Sales": You have the right to opt out of having your identifiers shared with Google and Meta for targeted advertising. You can also easily unsubscribe from our marketing emails using the link at the bottom of any promotional message.
• Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process data, you can withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the legality of any processing we did before you withdrew consent.
• Lodge Complaints: If you believe we have violated your privacy rights, you have the right to file a complaint with your state's Attorney General or, for HIPAA-related concerns, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at smilecreatorcompany@gmail.com.

Protecting your information is a top priority for our practice. We align our security practices with SOC 2 standards and HIPAA Security Rules to ensure your data is handled safely.

We use industry-standard encryption to protect data in transit and at rest. Access to your sensitive health information is strictly limited to authorized dental staff who need it to provide your care. We also utilize Cloudflare to protect our website from unauthorized access and cyber threats.

However, we want to be honest: no system connected to the internet is 100% secure. While we work tirelessly to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You can help keep your information safe by using strong passwords if you access any patient portals and by ensuring your own devices are secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach that compromises your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities within the timeframes required by law.

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy.

• Active Patient Data: We retain your contact and health information for the duration of our patient-provider relationship, plus a reasonable buffer to ensure continuity of care if you return.
• Health and Financial Records: By law, we are required to keep medical and billing records for specific periods, typically up to 7 years, even if you are no longer an active patient.
• Marketing Preferences: We keep a record of your marketing preferences indefinitely to ensure we respect your choice to opt out.
• Technical Logs: Website analytics and security logs are generally retained for 12 months before being securely deleted or anonymized.

Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience and support our marketing efforts.

As a family dentistry practice, we proudly treat patients of all ages, including children. However, our website and online marketing are not directed at children under the age of 13. In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children online. All health and personal information regarding pediatric patients must be provided directly by a parent or legal guardian. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information online without parental consent, please contact us so we can delete it.

SMILE CRAFT COSMETIC AND FAMILY DENTISTRY, PLLC is based in the United States, and our primary operations are in Alabama. However, some of our service providers (like Cloudflare and Stripe) operate globally. When you use our website, your technical data may be routed through servers located outside your immediate region. We ensure that all our vendors maintain appropriate safeguards and comply with US privacy standards to protect your information regardless of where it is processed.

Privacy laws and technology are constantly evolving, and we may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect those changes. If we make significant changes to how we handle your data, we will provide fair notice by posting the updated policy on our website and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes, we may also notify active patients via email. Your continued relationship with our practice after these changes indicates your acknowledgment of the updated policy.

We welcome your questions, concerns, and feedback regarding this Privacy Policy. If you need to exercise your privacy rights or just want to understand more about how we protect your data, please reach out to us: