Oral health for you and your family should always be a priority. Lack of regular dental checkups can be costly, as minor oral conditions may progress into major complications. Thus, it would significantly help if you had a family dentist who will take care of your family's dental needs. However, how do you choose the right dentist? Here are five questions to guide you:
1. Do They Provide Comprehensive Care?
Since you are looking for a family dentist, you need someone who treats patients of all ages, from adults to kids. Comprehensive dental care covers a wide variety of areas, including dental checkups, examinations, fillings, fluoride treatment, cleaning, and sealants. If you can get a practitioner who provides all the above services, you will save on cost as your family's oral needs will be adequately addressed by one person.
2. What Is the Quality of Their Services?
Quality dental care ensures that you and your family get the best oral care. How do you tell if a particular dentist provides quality care? You can visit their website and check for customer reviews. In most instances, clients provide feedback about the nature of dental care received. You can also ask friends, relatives, or your health insurance provider for recommendations.
3. What Are Their Charges?
Although cost should not be a major factor, you should choose a family dentist whose charges are within your budget. Factors that affect their charges include:
- Their location
- Their qualifications and experience
- Their reputation
If a family dentist is a specialist in a particular field, you expect them to charge more.
4. Are They Qualified?
If you are looking for a family dentist, ensure that they are trained in family medicine. Family dentists can serve everyone in some way-young and old, men and women. In this context, take time and find out if the selected practitioner can treat every individual within your family.
5. Do They Have the Right Technology?
Since times have changed, you need to choose a dentist who applies modern technology in providing solutions to common dental problems. You can visit different practitioners and ask about the dental technologies that they have. Typically, technological advances enable family dentists to perform common dental procedures in a more comfortable, efficient, and effective manner.
The Takeaway
Choosing a reliable and flexible family dentist is one of the most important decisions that you have to make. Since there are many practitioners in operation today, the process should not be rushed. Research thoroughly and always use the above questions as a guide to help you find a dentist.
Our oral surgery and general dental website offers important information on how to prevent dry socket following a tooth extraction. After getting your tooth pulled, a protective blood clot develops over the extraction site. Many of our blog posts explain how this protective clot helps promote healing after an extraction.
You'll learn that if the clot is accidentally dislodged, dry socket may occur, which can raise your risk for infection and heavy bleeding. We'll provide you with important tips on how to prevent this by avoiding smoking and drinking through a straw. You'll also learn that swishing water around your mouth should be avoided for a couple of days following your extraction because doing so creates a suction that may dislodge your clot, leading to dry socket.