How to Choose or Accept Treatment in a Dental office
- Research your doctor’s credentials:
- What school did he graduate from? (See Dr. Ramo’s US rankings)
- How long has he been in practice?
- Call the Board regulating Dentistry, look for “Good license standing”
- Does the office have the newest technology: digital x-rays, latest technologies and educational live demonstration explaining treatment?
- Do you have to go back several times or they will start your treatment right away? In the best doctors offices, your treatment should be done in reasonable amount of time.
- If it is a surgical office, do they offer a non-invasive procedures? You should find out if the doctor uses non-invasive procedures when indicated. When the technology is available, most dental procedures are performed by non-invasive surgeries.
- How they answer the phone:
- Is the receptionist in a hurry?
- How nice and helpful are they?
- Do they answer your questions clearly?
- At your office visit:
- How do they greet you when you get to the office?
- How long is the wait on the first visit?
- Does the office smell fresh?
- Is the office congested or organized?
- How clean is the office?
- Customer service is respectful?
- Do you feel rushed / pushed?
- Does everybody in the office show care?
- Did you understand your needs?
- Were the costs explained properly?
- Did they answer your questions about their cross contaminations / sterilization procedures
- Do they follow HIPPA : hippa is the law to protect your privacy from confidential signing sheet ( no name on it , the minute you sign in they should peel you name and signature this way the next patient will not see your name ) are the patients chart exposed for everybody to see or they are kept in a locked cabinets , did you sign the Hippa form if they don’t have it you should ask for it and also ask for their Hippa compliance. All this must be done by law to protect your privacy.
If you there are any negative or missing elements in this list, look for another doctor.