If you have recently moved, received dental benefits or have simply been stalling on that quest to find a dentist who is right for you, you are not alone. Plenty of people, for one reason or another, are right there with you. So here are a few quick hints on how to find a dentist.
Review your dental health benefits.
Before beginning your search you should find out whether your insurer has provided you with an HMO or PPO plan. Under an HMO plan health insurers place restrictions on who you can get a check-up or other work from. Meanwhile, with a PPO plan you will be allowed to see whichever dentist you like, but copayment amounts will vary. This is certainly something to think about as you review dentists options.
While these restrictions have much less to do with you than the contracts agreed to between dentists and your insurers, you will want to avoid showing up at the wrong place. To avoid the trouble of scheduling a visit and showing up to the dentist office with an unaccepted health insurance card you will want to go over the dentist directory provided to you by your health insurer. On this directory will be a list of dentists approved by your health insurer.
Phone a friend.
it may seem obvious in your quest to find a dentist, but if you have a friend willing to share an opinion of their, then ask. Getting the dentist information from a friend adds a certain human aspect to the search that would be otherwise over looked. Talking to someone you know about a prospective dentists allows you to ask a known source for their confidence of that dentist. If you like what you hear, your quest to find a dentist may have just gotten easier as you now have an in at the dentist office.
Ask for a consultation.
Phone interviews of a prospective dentistry are a great way to establish a working rapport with your dentist office. But before you take to the phone, give some thought to precisely what you are looking for out of a dentist. To find a dentist who is right for you, you may need to consider whether or not he or she is part of an organized dentistry, and which procedures are completed in-house rather than performed with referral to another dentist. You also may want to remember questions concerning copayment, location and dentist experience in order to be sure you find a dentist match for you.
Once you have gone through your checklist of question and answers, you should make an appointment. The best way to get a feel for the dentist and dentist office is by getting in the chair for a cleaning.