Military & TRICARE Dentist in Southern Pines, NC
Moore County holds one of the densest concentrations of retired service members anywhere in North Carolina, and a steady population of families who live out here and commute to Bragg. Our practice treats both. Whichever side of that you are on, the benefit questions are answerable and we answer them before you are in the chair.
Our office is 100% in network with United Concordia — the carrier that administers the TRICARE Dental Program and the Active Duty Dental Program. Service families are billed at contracted rates here, with nothing left over for you to make up.
Bring whatever plan documentation you have. Our team runs the verification internally, files the claim, and hands you a written cost figure before treatment is booked. You are not responsible for decoding your own coverage.
Call (910) 839-0055 — Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Retirees: what happened to TRICARE dental
Retired members arriving here often expect a TRICARE product, and that expectation is a few years out of date. The retiree dental program under TRICARE was discontinued after 2018. Since then, dental coverage for retired uniformed service members has lived under FEDVIP — a program the Office of Personnel Management sponsors and BENEFEDS handles enrollment for.
Unlike the family-side plans, nobody subsidizes your premium. FEDVIP is voluntary and enrollee-paid in full. This year the program offers a choice among eleven participating dental carriers, most of them selling both a standard and a high version of the same plan. The high version costs more per month and reimburses more heavily on major restorative treatment. Average premiums moved up about 3.3% this year, though the spread runs from under one percent to roughly eleven depending on which plan you hold.
Who qualifies is broader than most assume: retired members and their families, surviving spouses and dependents, and Retired Reserve members — including gray-area reservists below age 60 who are not yet drawing retired pay.
Why the no-wait rule changes your treatment planning
The single most useful feature of FEDVIP, and the one that goes unmentioned most often: there is no twelve-month wait on major restorative work.
Nearly every dental policy an individual can buy on the open market imposes a waiting period specifically to stop people from enrolling right before expensive treatment. FEDVIP does not do this. Crowns, bridges, complete and partial dentures, and implants are all payable from the moment your enrollment takes effect.
For a retiree who has been postponing a bridge or a full-arch case — and many have, for years — that is the difference between starting treatment this quarter and starting it next winter. Preventive visits are additionally reimbursed at 100% in-network, with no deductible applied to in-network care.
Timing your enrollment matters in two situations. Members separating from service receive a 91-day window that opens a month ahead of the retirement date and shuts two months past it. Everyone already retired changes plans during the annual Open Season, held from November into December for coverage that begins the following January. Take no action and your existing plan simply continues.
Restorative and implant care in Moore County
Most retiree treatment plans here are restorative, and having no waiting period is precisely what makes them plannable.
Implants, single and full-arch. One missing tooth or an entire arch on All-on-4 — both handled in-house rather than routing you to a surgical office and then back to a restorative one.
Bridges, dentures, and partials. New cases plus repairs and relines on appliances that stopped fitting properly somewhere around year five.
Crowns completed in one appointment. We mill permanent crowns on site. If your drive in comes from Seven Lakes or West End, skipping the second trip is worth something real.
Periodontal therapy. Gum disease drives most of what fails after sixty, and maintenance is the cheapest dentistry you will ever purchase.
One clinical note specific to this age group: blood pressure medication, antidepressants, and diuretics all produce dry mouth, which quietly accelerates decay in people whose oral hygiene has not changed at all. Bring your medication list to the first appointment. It changes what we look for.
Families on the TRICARE Dental Program
Plenty of active-duty households live in Vass, Cameron, and Carthage and drive to Bragg. Their dependents are covered by TDP, and we treat them here.
The program enrolls spouses and children of active-duty members. It also enrolls Guard and Reserve members directly, together with their own families. United Concordia holds the administration contract, awarded by the Department of Defense and running since December 2024.
Benefits cover diagnostic and preventive visits, sealants, fillings, crowns, and general restorative treatment. Orthodontic care is reimbursed at half the cost up to $1,750 across an enrolled person’s lifetime — a per-person figure, so two children in treatment means two separate ceilings, not one shared between them.
Because the government funds most of the premium, TDP typically undercuts an equivalent civilian family policy by a wide margin.
New enrollees should mind the calendar. Submit before the 20th and benefits activate at the start of the coming month; submit later and activation slides to the start of the month after. Anything treated ahead of that activation date falls entirely on you.
ADDP: active-duty soldiers are welcome here
Soldiers are treated at this practice under the Active Duty Dental Program, and they reach us two ways: a military dental clinic sends them out, or they ask to be sent. The second option goes unused mostly because nobody tells soldiers it exists.
ADDP sits outside both programs described above. Members serving full-time beyond 30 days belong to neither TDP nor FEDVIP, drawing care instead through their dental treatment facility or through ADDP referral to a civilian office like ours. United Concordia administers the program, and this practice is in network with them.
Arriving on a clinic referral means the clinic manages the paperwork and directs you to scheduling. Pursuing civilian care on your own within the States means obtaining an Appointment Control Number from United Concordia beforehand — have that number when you call. If you live out here in Moore County and commute to post, this route is worth knowing: an appointment ten minutes from your house beats one wedged into a duty day an hour up the road.
Emergencies override the whole process. Remote members with pain, infection, or bleeding require no authorization to be seen.
Where to find us
The practice sits at 340 Capital Drive, Carthage, NC 28327, placed centrally for Moore County rather than tucked inside any one town.
Patients come to us from Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen, Whispering Pines, Vass, Seven Lakes, West End, Foxfire Village, Cameron, and Carthage. If you spend part of the year somewhere warmer, mention it — we will stage longer treatment around your calendar rather than assuming February availability.
Hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Once you reach your annual maximum
FEDVIP and TDP both cap what they pay per year, and comprehensive restorative work can exhaust that. Where it makes clinical sense we stage treatment across two benefit years. Where waiting would be the wrong call, the O2 Advantage Plan, CareCredit, and Sunbit are available. Every figure is in writing before scheduling.
What Moore County patients ask us
Is your office in network with United Concordia?
Yes, at 100%. United Concordia administers both the TRICARE Dental Program and the Active Duty Dental Program, and dependents enrolled in TDP are billed here at contracted in-network rates.
Do you take ADDP patients, and can a soldier choose this office?
Yes. We treat soldiers under the Active Duty Dental Program, both on clinic referral and when a service member requests civilian care themselves. Stateside self-referral requires an Appointment Control Number from United Concordia, and we are in network with United Concordia once you have it.
I am retired military. Do I still have TRICARE dental coverage?
No. TRICARE’s retiree dental program was discontinued after 2018. Retired uniformed service members now hold dental coverage through FEDVIP, sponsored by the Office of Personnel Management with enrollment handled by BENEFEDS.
How many FEDVIP dental carriers can I pick from?
Eleven participate this year. Most offer a standard and a high option, and a few are regional rather than nationwide.
Will FEDVIP pay for a crown or denture right after I enroll?
Yes. FEDVIP imposes no waiting period on major services, so crowns, bridges, dentures, and implants are covered from the effective date of your enrollment.
I am separating this year. When do I need to enroll?
Within a 91-day window that opens 31 days before your retirement date and closes 60 days after it. Miss it and you wait for the next Open Season.
Are gray-area reservists eligible for FEDVIP dental?
Yes. Retired Reserve members under 60 who have not begun receiving retired pay qualify.
Does my surviving spouse keep dental coverage?
Surviving spouses and eligible dependents of retired members are eligible for FEDVIP dental coverage.
My spouse is stationed at Bragg and we live in Vass. Can our kids be seen here?
Yes. Dependents enrolled in the TRICARE Dental Program are treated at this office, and a Moore County address does not change their benefits.
Do you place implants at this location?
Yes. Single-tooth implants and full-arch All-on-4 cases are both completed at our Southern Pines practice.
How many visits does a crown take?
One. Permanent crowns are milled on site rather than sent to an outside lab with a return appointment weeks later.
Schedule at our Southern Pines office
Call (910) 839-0055 and bring your plan card to the first visit — FEDVIP or TRICARE, we will verify it accurately either way.
Visit Us Today!
We look forward to meeting you. Call (910) 839-0055 or request an appointment online to set up your first visit. We’ll be in touch soon.
O2 Dental Group of Southern Pines
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
8:00am – 4:00pm
8:00am – 4:00pm
8:00am – 4:00pm
8:00am – 4:00pm
CLOSED
CLOSED
CLOSED
