Choosing a dentist

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George the original one
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Choosing a dentist

Post by George the original one »

Seaside being a small town, selecting a dentist is a bit different than in the big city. We have 3 to choose from. Choice #1 is the old guy with no bad reviews, but he's of retirement age and we'd rather have someone that's going to be around as long we will. Choice #2 is a new guy with decent reviews, though not as many as #1. Choice #3 is a husband & wife team that specialize in cosmetic dentistry and have one bad review, so we ruled them out.

Other choices would be to go further afield, to the county seat in Astoria. However I've been warned off the dentists in Astoria apart from one old guy who is about to retire... sound familiar, LOL?

So Choice #2 has become our dentist after wife chipped a tooth. The wait was long because the other dentists are on (or have been on) vacation and so the local dentists cover each other's patients when vacations happen. Apart from the wait, she was in & out and everything is fine.

Scott 2
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Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Scott 2 »

I learned - don't pick the dentist with a salt water fish tank in the lobby and a dedicated loan department.

enigmaT120
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Location: Falls City, OR

Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by enigmaT120 »

I picked my dentist out of the yellow pages. She was the only one in my area with a female name, and I was gambling that a woman would be more likely to have smaller hands. She's pretty good though I rarely need anything beyond cleanings.

bryan
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Location: mostly Bay Area

Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by bryan »

Step 1, be sure to clean your mouth so you don't need to go to the dentist.
Step 2, try to get dental insurance that isn't a complete scam (i.e. get something that has a reasonable benefit maximum). Self-insuring may be an option, check what is covered by dental versus health, if the benefit maximum is too low.

In bigger cities, try out a new dentist every year (for cleanings) to see if you would like them for bigger jobs as well. Be sure they get along with your insurance.

Be sure to save receipts.. HSA should cover what insurance doesn't. I suspect I've saved enough health and dental receipts from the past few years to draw a year's worth of expenses from my HSA.

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Ego
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Ego »

enigmaT120 wrote:I was gambling that a woman would be more likely to have smaller hands.
:lol: So? The hands?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSL4cmFW_GU

Spin_Echo
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Spin_Echo »

It may be worth checking with any nearby university dental schools. The one in my town has a lottery to determine who gets accepted as a patient. If I needed major dental work that was non-urgent, I would submit my application to any nearby schools and cross my fingers.

jacob
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by jacob »

I definitely prefer old. Reason? No student loans to pay off. No new fancy clinic. I also prefer small operations. Reason? They don't work on an assembly line basis. I also prefer immigrants/anyone who doesn't believe in drill baby drill. Ideally the clinic has exactly 1 chair ... definitely not more than 2.

My current dentist is one dentist and one assistant who also does front office. They have two chairs total. The tooth-survey or whatever it's called is done by the dentist simply looking through here and there. No detailed tooth-by-tooth notes. She just writes up what is or might be problematic. Conversely, I've also had dentists that went through with a fancy bore camera and recorded a video or every tooth for the dentist to watch after me waiting half an hour. Imagine the costs of that. Also, she only fixes things that need to be fixed. Overall great.

(In case any Chicagoans are interested, they're on the corner of Lawrence and Hermitage.)

enigmaT120
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Location: Falls City, OR

Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by enigmaT120 »

Ego wrote:
enigmaT120 wrote:I was gambling that a woman would be more likely to have smaller hands.
:lol: So? The hands?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSL4cmFW_GU
I'm not sure I get the video, but yeah my dentist has pretty small hands. I did not forget to include a comma. They get the job done without dislocating my jaw (I still have my wisdom teeth).

Stahlmann
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Stahlmann »

Interesting perspectives vol. 232421.

I got my filling/teeth crushed eating (human grade) sunflower seeds last week :(.

Jiimmy
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Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 12:28 pm
Location: Nevada

Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Jiimmy »

jacob wrote:
Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:09 am
I definitely prefer old. Reason? No student loans to pay off.
Regarding old dentist vs new dentist, here's another data point, that occurred just this week:

Old dentist retired, new young dentist took over. Suddenly the entire routine cleaning became a sales pitch. They tried to upsell me on uncovered services, like Oral Cancer Screening, Fluoride Treatment, and Laser Deep Cleaning. Slept on it, then called this morning to cancel my upcoming appointment. I'll be shopping around for an old dentist with a small practice.

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Sclass
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by Sclass »

I’ve had some similar problems. We’ve changed dentists over the last few years. Here are some of my observations.

I’ve had two types of dentists. Those that really cared for me and those who wanted to make a living doing stuff to my teeth. Stuff like drilling, whitening etc.

These are real businesses with real bills to pay. I happen to have really strong teeth. It’s genetic or microbiome. Bottom line I’ve never needed any fillings in my 52 years. So when I suddenly change dentists and the new guy says I need all kinds of work I just laugh. It has happened a lot. I just ignore him/her and reschedule another cleaning. My cavities magically disappear the next time I come in. As we do years of cleanings the consensus becomes “Sclass you have really good teeth.” Scary.

My good dentists were guys who wanted to take care of me. One was a guy my dad set up with immigration papers and an office. He took really good care of us. Oddly we introduced him to our friends and he drilled the hell out of their teeth and maxed their insurance. Dad told me not to introduce anyone we cared about to him. Bottom line is he felt he owed us. I remember at parties watching the guy get drunk and start tearing up as he said my dad was his savior.

The next good dentist was just a nice guy. He was naturally a good guy. There was paint failure in his office. Dead bugs in the light. His hygienist was a granny. But he was debt free and he was driven to help his clients have the best dental health. He died in an automobile accident and I never found another like him.

All I get are these young people with offices full of shiny tech gadgets that look like they require big monthly payments. And they’re eager to use them on me. Way too many chairs and too few patients. I have to ignore their initial requests to drill and fill. Once we get past that it’s just regular dental cleanings. Kind of scary. Where did my cavities go? Those found during my introductory exam? My suspicion is I never had them.

I don’t think my latest dentist thinks he’s hurting me if he drills out an imperfection in my tooth and fills it with polymer. He probably thinks he’s making my teeth better. But, I like the natural covering of my tooth better because it tends to self replace. It’s alive.

Good luck. Learn how to identify decay with Google images. Take photos of your X-rays and records with your phone and show them to other dentists. Get second opinions before major procedures. Getting your tooth all ground down and hollowed out destroys its ability to heal itself. Make sure you really need the work before agreeing. The vast majority of these professionals don’t see a problem with filling your teeth to pay their bills. It’s a sad reality of what the business has become.

Most recently my wife’s new dentist said she needed a root canal. I couldn’t believe it. My wife has never had any problems and that tooth looks normal. Apparently it died in the last year without any pain. According to the new dentist. She tested it by putting a cold probe on it and showing a shadow on the X-ray. We couldn’t replicate her cold test with ice at home. All indications say the tooth is alive. The dentist said it needed a root canal before it spread to her other teeth. I told my wife to get a second opinion. It was kind of funny how suddenly this root canal issue appeared immediately after changing dentists. No pain, no smell, no visible surface damage. I think she needs a second opinion.

nesaro
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Re: Choosing a dentist

Post by nesaro »

I made a similar observation recently.

Former dentist was a relaxed man, age about 50 years. During my first appointment for a routine check-up he had me do an X-ray and said there's some misalignment due to my wisdom teeth that never surfaced. He would refer me to a dental surgeon if I wanted. The whole procedure would have involved surgery and follow-up treatments for about year to realign my teeth. Since I had no troubles and do not care about the misalignment I thanked him and declined. He was in no way pushy or anything and accepted my decision.
I went on to have routine cleanings twice a year at his practice and they cost exactly the amount my mandatory insurance reimbursed. All good.

After I came back from working abroad, this dentist had retired (he looked at least 15 years from normal retirement age, well done). His successor was relatively fresh from university and worked for a insurance-run dental center before buying this practice. He renovated the place and had all shiny new equipment. He filled a cavity with costly ceramic fillings and tried to talk me into replacing my old mercury fillings with ceramic as well, since the edges appear deformed :?
His cleanings cost me three times the amount I was used to pay at the former dentist. Mandatory dental insurance reimbursed one third of the bill. My fault, I didn't ask for the price before the procedure...
Needless to say, I am actively looking for a new dentist.

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