OK, so let’s say you have just moved into a new area or you have migrated to a new city or even a country, you are obviously going to need a dentist. Or maybe your previous dentist has moved out or for whatever reason you no longer want to see your dentist and you’re looking for a new one.
Whatever the reason may be, the real question is how are you going to find a good one? It is no secret that finding a good dentist can be challenging for many reasons. Are they really good? What certifications do they have? Are they overpriced? How good is actually their work? do they follow all the safety and hygiene protocols? How are they staffed?
These are just a few questions that may come to mind when looking for a dentist. In this article, we’re going to tell you about six main factors that you must consider when it comes to choosing a new dentist.
Keep in mind that there are countless other metrics that you may want to consider. You may even have your own standards and preferences. What you’re about to read in this article or only the general, most important, and most common factors to consider.
Having said that let’s get started!
Choosing A New Dentist, Do Certifications Matter?
When it comes to choosing a dentist their certifications should be your top priority! One of the biggest mistakes most people make when it comes to choosing a new guy doctor in general is that they take the bare minimum which is having a medical degree. This means that for many people as long as their doctor or in this case, dentist, has graduated from any university and is licensed it is sufficient to leave their precious teeth to them.
This is a grief mistake and we’re going to tell you exactly why! Your teeth are the only tissues of your body that are placed outside and in contact with the outside environment do you think following just a bare minimum is going to be enough? The obvious answer is a big no! If you want to take good care of your teeth in the long run, your dentist must be graduated from a good university.
For example, Dr. Horiyat has multiple certificates from accredited institutions, such as IAOMT, and many other holistic certificates. You can check out all her certificates on her dedicated page linked here.
Years of Experience
The next important thing for you must be the experience of your dentist. Do you really want to go and leave your oral health to someone with insufficient experience? We don’t think you would want to do that. It is true that everybody has to start from somewhere, and there is nothing wrong with being a newly graduated dentist, however, Those dentists must be under more experienced dentists and not left alone. If you see a dentist who is newly graduated, you may want to try other options prior to visiting them.
A good example, again, is Aria Dental. In our clinic, all of our professionals are equipped with many years of experience in their arsenal having treated hundreds of patients successfully so you can be sure that you are in good hands when sitting under the dental unit here at Aria Dental.
Holistic Expertise
The next very important factor that you should look for in your new dentist is holistic and toxicological expertise. Research has shown that your oral health can have a more significant impact on your overall health than you may think. It is now proven by science that each individual tooth is connected to one or more certain body parts. This is best showcased through the Meridian chart.
Disclaimer: This Chart is for interesting information only. It’s not intended to be diagnostic nor should be contoured to be so. This information is not the opinion of the ADA or CDA.
This means that each individual to your dentist must know where it is exactly headed and what impact it is going to have on the rest of your body. Gone are the days of conventionally opening up a tooth, performing root canal therapy, and moving on with the tooth. Today, many holistic dentists such as Dr. Horiyat pay much closer attention to this matter and spend hundreds of hours under severe training and taking professional courses to make sure they guarantee the overall holistic health of their patients.
And this is not even it! Science has also shown that toxicity from certain dental materials such as titanium and mercury fillings can and will have extremely negative effects on the patient’s lives, resulting in chronic illnesses that are almost impossible to diagnose. That is why many dentists are now starting to avoid using such materials and in fact, encourage their patients to remove them from their mouths and use a biocompatible material such as zirconia instead.
Dr. Horiyat has extensively discussed this matter on her YouTube channel and along this website so make sure to check out our zirconia dental implant page to get more information by clicking here and don’t forget to watch the video below.
Online Reviews
Reading online reviews prior to going to your dentist is always a very good idea. It helps you get an idea of what you are going to come across when you enter the place and how you’re going to be treated. This will also give you the chance to use the experience of others and see whether the previous patients were happy with their results and treatments. Here are a few basics for when it comes to reading the reviews from Google or any other website.
The number of reviews
The number of reviews and establishments acquired on the Internet is extremely important as it shows how real the reviews actually are. Unfortunately, many enterprises today tend to post fake reviews for themselves to falsely encourage people to become their customers or patients. But the good news is that they cannot do this for either long or long. When you’re coming across a business that has four or five 5-star reviews only, the likelihood of the reviews being fake is extremely high. You should always go for businesses with a large number of reviews.
Normally if you’re going to a good place, such as dental care, you are going to see a variety of reviews ranging from 4 to 5 stars mostly, and make sure you’re looking for businesses with at least 100 reviews on Google.
What are the people saying?
Now let’s say you have come across a dental clinic with a good number of reviews; now it is important to look at what the reviewers are actually saying. Are they happy with the service they got? Are they all complaining about a certain doctor or a certain service? Have they all been happy with a certain doctor or a certain service? These are what you should be considering when taking a look at the reviews so not only the number of reviews are important but the quality of the reviews must be a crucial, deciding factor for you.
The overall rating
Another factor that is quite important to keep in mind when taking a look at the reviews is the overall rating. The overall rating is normally scored out of five and shows you how satisfied people are in general with the clinic that you are selecting. This is extremely important because for some reason you may only be seeing positive or negative comments in the reviews however, this overall score will show you what everybody else has experienced without any biases.
Range of services
If you have recently moved to a new area and you’re likely to stay, it is often a very good idea to look for a place that can offer the entire package. But what does that even mean? In general, this means that you should always go for clinics that offer a wide range of services. This may include services that are beyond general dentistry, including gum treatments such as LANAP, dental appliances, dental implants, orthodontics & braces, Invisalign, ozone therapy, and more!
The reason behind this is that you are going to be visiting that place not only for your regular checkups but also for any other treatment that may be necessary. You would not want to go from one clinic to another and the next one because the first clinic you decided to attend does not offer the service you need.
You can often find out about the services, a dental clinic or a dental office provides by simply going online on their website. They are most likely to have a tab called services in their menu where you can see all the services they provide. Or you can simply make a phone call and ask them about it. Either way, it is necessary for you to have some general idea of the services they can and the services they cannot provide.
Number of specialists
So now let’s say you have found a dental clinic with a wide range of services, now the question is do they have enough specialists to attend to all those services? One of the biggest headaches for patients is the fact that many clinics offer services for which they have no one to provide the services. This means they will have to either hire someone from outside of the clinic or keep you on a very long waiting list before it is your turn to see that one specialist who does your job.
This can turn into a nuisance as you may be in an emergency and your specialist may be busy or even on holiday, so it is quite important for you to make sure the place you are going is not understaffed, especially in the specialist front!
Most of the dental clinics will have a section dedicated to their dentist, specialist, and hygienist so learning about this should also not be a very big issue.
Ask the locals
Probably one of the smartest and most efficient ways of finding your dentist is by asking the locals. They are always neighbors here and there who are more eager to communicate with you and become friends so why not start by asking them about the best dentist in your area? The locals often have valuable experiences and insights that you can hardly find on the Internet. Because they are often there as they live in the neighborhood, they are able to monitor every move and thing that is happening around them.
One good idea is to see which dentist is most common among your neighbors or your coworkers. Asking the parents of your child’s friends can also be quite fruitful.
Final thoughts
Everything that has been said in this article may be common sense but a lot of them also come from professional dentists who really really care about their patience and regardless of whether they will choose them or other dentists, they would want the people to choose the dentist that is most suited for them. We invite you to visit our website at ariadentalcare.com or by clicking on the banner below and going through each of the points that we have mentioned in this article to see if Aria Dental is the right choice for you.
