Privacy Policy

This policy covers what we collect when you use centredent.com, contact our front desk, or interact with the chat and voice tools on this site. Health information we collect during treatment is covered separately in our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

We try to keep this readable. If anything here is unclear, email privacy@centredent.com or call (212) 925-7066.

Who we are

Centre Dental NYC is a dental practice located at 139 Centre St, Suite 306, New York, NY 10013. When this policy says "we," "us," or "our," we mean Centre Dental NYC. If you are a California, Colorado, Virginia, or other out-of-state resident, the rights described below apply to you to the extent your state's law requires.

What information do we collect?

Information you give us directly:

• Name, email, phone number, and any message you type into our appointment or contact forms
• Insurance carrier and member ID when you ask us to verify benefits
• Medical and dental history submitted through intake forms
• Payment information you provide when paying for services
• Resume and cover letter you upload to our careers page
• Transcripts of chats you have with May, our website assistant
• Recordings and transcripts of calls you place through the web-call button, which are handled by Alex, our AI voice agent

Information we collect automatically:

• IP address, browser, device type, and operating system
• Pages you visit, time on page, and how you got to the site (referrer or search query)
• Language preference (English or Chinese)
• Anonymous analytics events fired by Google Analytics 4
• Bot-detection signals from Cloudflare Turnstile when you submit a form

How do we use that information?

We use what we collect to:

• Respond to your appointment request or question
• Verify insurance benefits before your visit
• Send appointment reminders and care-related messages
• Process payment for services
• Route chat and voice conversations to the right team member
• Improve the site, measure which pages are useful, and prevent spam
• Comply with tax, legal, and recordkeeping obligations

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent it or trade it for marketing lists.

Text Messaging

Centre Dental NYC offers text messaging to patients who choose to receive it. This is a two-way service: you can reply to us and we will reply to you.

How you opt in. You may opt in by telling our front desk staff in person or by telephone. Your consent is recorded in your patient record. Consent to text messages is optional and is never a condition of receiving dental care.

What we send. Appointment reminders and confirmations, messages about rescheduling or changing an appointment, notice of an earlier opening if you have asked to be on our waitlist, requests to complete forms before your visit, and replies to questions you send us. We do not send marketing, promotional or sales messages of any kind.

Message frequency. Message frequency varies depending on your appointments and care schedule.

Message and data rates. Message and data rates may apply. Your mobile carrier's standard rates apply to messages you send and receive.

How to stop messages. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any message from us. You will receive one confirmation message and nothing further. You may also opt out by calling us at (212) 925-7066 or emailing privacy@centredent.com. For help, reply HELP to any message or call that number. Opting in and opting out both happen through the same number.

How we handle your mobile information. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We use a messaging service provider to deliver and receive these messages on our behalf. That provider processes your mobile number solely to deliver the messages described above and for no other purpose. We do not sell, rent or trade mobile numbers or text messaging consent to anyone.

Messages we send and receive are recorded in your patient record and retained under the same rules as other treatment communications.

For more information about text messaging, see our Terms of Service.

Who do we share information with?

Except for text messaging originator opt-in data and consent, we share information with the vendors and partners we need to run the practice. Messaging service providers may process mobile numbers only as described above. We ask vendors to handle your data with industry-standard security and, where HIPAA applies, we sign a Business Associate Agreement with them.

• Insurance carriers — to verify benefits and submit claims
• Dental laboratories — to fabricate crowns, aligners, and prosthetics
• Resend — to send transactional email (appointment confirmations, password resets)
• Neon — our database host for booking and form data
• Groq — language model provider that powers May, our website chat
• Retell — voice-AI platform that powers Alex, our inbound and outbound call assistant
• Cloudflare — DNS, CDN, and form bot-detection (Turnstile)
• Google Analytics 4 — aggregate site analytics
• Legal or regulatory bodies — when we are required to disclose by law, subpoena, or court order

Cookies and tracking

We use a short list of cookies and similar technologies:

• Analytics (Google Analytics 4) — anonymous page-view and event tracking
• Cloudflare — session security, bot filtering, and performance
• Chat session — remembers your place in a May conversation if you navigate between pages
• Language preference — remembers whether you chose English or 中文

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some parts of the site, like the chat widget, may stop working if cookies are fully disabled.

How long do we keep your data?

Treatment and billing records are kept for the period required by New York State dental recordkeeping rules — at minimum six years for adult records and, for records of minors, at least six years past the age of majority. If you have questions about records for a new patient visit, our new patient guide explains what to bring and how intake works.

Marketing contact data (newsletter, appointment reminders) is kept until you opt out. Website analytics events are retained by Google Analytics 4 for up to 14 months. Chat and voice transcripts are kept for up to 12 months for quality review unless they are attached to a patient record, in which case they follow medical-record retention rules.

How can you exercise your rights?

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we have about you
• Ask us to correct information that is wrong
• Ask us to delete information we are not required by law to keep
• Opt out of marketing email or text messages
• Ask us not to use automated decision-making about you (we do not currently use any)

New York residents are protected by the New York SHIELD Act, which requires us to maintain reasonable safeguards around your private information and to notify you if a breach affects your data. California residents have additional rights under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right to know categories of information collected and the right to limit use of sensitive information. EU/UK residents have rights under GDPR and UK GDPR, including the right to object to processing and the right to data portability.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@centredent.com or call (212) 925-7066. We will confirm your identity before acting on the request and will respond within the timeframe required by the applicable law (generally 30 to 45 days).

How we protect your information

We use industry-standard safeguards: HTTPS/TLS on every page, access controls on patient records, encrypted backups, Business Associate Agreements with HIPAA vendors, and ongoing staff training. No system is perfectly secure, but we treat every report of a vulnerability seriously.

Under the NY SHIELD Act, if we ever discover that your private information was exposed, we will notify you and the New York State Attorney General within the timeframes the law requires.

Children's privacy

This site is not targeted at children under 13. We do treat minor patients in the office, but that care is governed by our HIPAA Notice and by New York parental consent rules, not by this website policy. If you believe a child under 13 submitted information to us through the website, email privacy@centredent.com and we will delete it.

Third-party links

Some pages link to outside sites — Google Maps, review platforms, insurance carrier portals. Once you leave centredent.com, the privacy policy of that other site applies, not this one.

Changes to this policy

We may revise this policy when our tools or practices change. The updated policy will be posted here with its effective date.

How to reach our privacy contact