Find A Dentist

While we mention common causes as well as symptoms of an abscessed tooth on this site, we also stress how important it is that your diagnosis should only be made by a dentist. Surprisingly, far too many individuals and even families do not have a dentist that they visit regularly for cleanings, checkups or the occasional dental concern. If you’re visiting this page, perhaps you need some help to find a dentist for yourself or your family that can handle everything life throws your way. We can help with that!

Choosing a dentist is an important step in taking care of your complete health picture, but it shouldn’t be intimidating.  Ideally you’d like to take care of this step before you encounter a dental emergency, but just because you might be pressed for time (and perhaps pain relief!) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care when selecting.

Given the amount of information available online these days, a lot of your search can begin there.  And we do mean, begin – we’ll review what to do after you’ve exhausted your online researching.  Here are some things to consider before you even visit an office.

Consider and find out online or over the phone:

• What type of dentist do you need?
  • While dentists in general practice are qualified to provide a wide range of dental care, most will specify.  Some of those specifications might include:
    • Family Dentistry (will serve most needs for all family members)
    • Pediatric Dentistry (specifically geared towards serving the little ones in the family)
    • Cosmetic Dentistry (specializes in more cosmetic or aesthetic dental work such as tooth whitening, veneers, reshaping, etc.)
    • Oral Surgeon (specifically equipped to handle major dental surgical procedures)
• Where are you located?
  • Location, location, location.  Okay, so it’s not quite like real estate.  But, offices may be limited or abundant depending on where you live or work.  Some things to think about:
    • What is available in your area (suburban, city, rural) and how far are you willing to travel?
    • Also, would you likely go to an appointment from work (in which case you may want to look closer to your place of work) or home (in which case you may want to look closer to home)?
    • Is there a franchise that you would consider?  In some cases dental offices or groups have franchised, which means that your records would be available and easily transferred if you ever move or visit another office within the franchise.
• Do you have dental coverage, and if so, what providers fall under that coverage?
  • Offices will list online or over the phone what coverage they accept.
  • Instead of searching for dental offices themselves, login to your coverage website and let them do the searching for you.  Typically you can set parameters such as distance from a zip code, languages spoken, degrees earned and where, even gender of the dentist, to help you find out the basics.
  • And while this is a little out of the category, the front office staff will also let you know (or you can usually find out online) if the office is accepting new patients.

Once you’ve found out this information and considered your particular needs, it’s time to select a few offices and visit.  In the age of digital information, it’s easy to think about skipping this step, but a good relationship with your dentist and the front office staff is important.  Some things you just can’t find out, or feel out, without visiting.

Once you’ve selected some potential offices, try to evaluate.

The dentist’s office:

• Is the office clean and is the staff friendly?
• Do you feel comfortable in the space?
• What are the fees for general services?  Are they in your range?

The dentist office staff and dental assistants:

• Are the receptionists and assistants friendly and approachable?
• Are you able to ask questions if something is unclear?
• Is someone (other than the dentist) able to explain procedures before charging them?
• Does it seem like patients are treated individually and given attention?
• What is the pace of the office?  Are there lots of people waiting and for how long?
• What kind of flexibility is there for establishing payments plans if necessary?
• Can you get help with insurance claims or processing?

The dentist:

• Is the dentist preventative in nature?
• Does the dentist provide education to his or her patients regarding dental care?
• How available is the dentist?
• What happens is something occurs outside of office hours?  Can the dentist be contacted or is there a procedure?
• Does the dentist seem genuinely interested in your overall health?

Always keep in mind that you’ll learn quite a bit at your first appointment.  If at that time you feel like the dentist isn’t for you, it’s okay to check out one of your other top picks!  To find a dentist that best fits you and your family is the most important thing to remember here.

Photo Credit: Tom Magilery

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