What are the ten most common mistakes patients make when selecting a dentist?

 

Often people make the mistake of judging their prospective dentists by the wrong measures. Too often they may end up with a dentist who will not provide optimal results.

1)Choosing the closest dentist to where you live or work. Although this seems to be terribly          convenient, it should not be the primary reason to go to any doctor or dentist especially since you trust that the closest provider will also be the most competent. The office location is just one of the factors that should help you choose your dentist. Before choosing a dentist it’s a good idea to check their credentials and what other patients say about their practice

2)Picking your dentist primarily based on out of pocket cost of treatments. The fact is there are an awful lot of dentists willing to treat patients for what the insurance covers and forgive the patient any out of pocket co-pay. Unfortunately this is considered insurance fraud and why would someone want to trust an inherently dishonest dentist with their well being?) 

3)Picking their dentists based on their looks. This is especially true for those using Zoc Doc or Yelp to help find a new dentist; Many of the listings feature young good looking recent graduates. That being said, some of them are lacking in clinical experience. Make sure that they have appropriate experience. Probably they should preferably have a minimum of several years experience .

4)Choosing a dentist solely based on glowing internet reviews. This can be a bad idea since it is certainly possible to “game” the system and some practices can gather a great number of 5 star reviews that don’t actually reflect the quality of the dental work that the practice delivers.

5)While a friends recommendation can be a great way to find a new dentist. Although  good word of mouth is important often the questions we ask our friends can be equally important. Such as “Why do you like going there?, How long have you been a patient? How well does his or her dental work hold up? Be careful if the only recommendations are based on how modern the office looks and how attractive and nicethe staffs are. Many excellent practices do not look state of the art modern and may have middle aged staffs that have been with the practice for years.

6)Choosing a dentist based solely on a  practice website or their internet presence. Many practices have invested in their websites and SEO and spend a significant part of their marketing budget on internet marketing. While this is a good strategy to help them to attract new patients it doesn’t necessarily correlate with the quality of a dental practice.

7)Be wary of practices that claim to accept all insurances, since this is not necessarily a good thing. If they accept most insurance plans, even those with poor reimbursements, how do they sustain their overall quality? When asked about this, practices may claim that their greater efficiency allows them to cut their costs while maintaining quality. To some extent this may be true because the greater number of patients treated allows some cost saving, but it may also be true that their dentists are under greater pressure to complete procedures in less time than more traditional dental practices and this can result in lower quality standards and poorer outcomes.

8)Don’t be afraid to ask the dentist questions that you may have. Do not be intimidated and make sure their answers make sense. Even though they are the ones with the DDS degree, part of being a good dentist is communicating about why suggested treatments are in the best interest of their patients.

9)Picking a practice based on convenient extended office hours. The fact is that dentists , like everyone else do not perform their best work late in the evenings. Most dentists “fade” in the evening and probably do their best work during regular office hours. Dentists are surgeons of a sort and usually try to schedule difficult procedures early in their working day.

10)Choosing a practice that employs specialists that allow a patient to have all their procedures done “in house”. While this can be a good thing, sometimes it’s not always, since practices often can’t afford to have associated specialist always present in their office. Often the specialists come in once or twice a month. While this is good for the practice, it isn’t always optimal for their patient’s treatment since patients can have to wait for their specialist appointments. The more traditional pattern that many dentists still often use is to refer to outside specialists. Often they are more willing to see referrals sooner,  because they do not want to lose their referral source.