How can you find a good dentist for the area of concern that you have?

Many people rightly perceive that if they have a problem in their mouth, then they should visit a dentist. The most cost effective way of getting a dental opinion is usually to look up the YellowPages, scan the dental directory and see if you can get in to see someone close by in a reasonable time.

By scanning further into YellowPages, you'll see that there are a range of choices to finding a dentist. Firstly there is a "dental specialists" listing, but for many people that seems a more expensive option that the "general dentist" category. Hopefully too, you naturally hope that your problem is not too serious, and a specialist can be avoided.

What is an endodontist, periodontist, prosthodontist or pedodontist anyway?

What is commonly not known is that dental specialists are dentists who have mostly "restricted" their practice to a special area of general dentistry. Meaning these specialists are recognized by the dental community (usually through formal recognition of the relevant State dental Board) to be called dental specialists. These include endodontists (who do root canals on teeth), pedodontists (dentists who exclusively treat children), periodontists (dentists who exclusively treat gum diseases) and prosthodontists (dentists who exclusively do crown and bridge and denture procedures).

These dental specialists (or rather restrictionists), compete directly with general dentists in providing the same services. In addition to having basic five year undergraduate dental training degrees where a general dentists may briefly have learned to provide such services, endodontists, prosthodontists, peropdontists and pedodontists all have a further two or three year postgraduate degree in their field. To see a dental specialist in their restricted areas of work, means that you are assured of a higher excellence of service, that they are recognized by their peers as being of dental specialist level, and of course that they have directed and specific training in that area.

So what is a general dentist, and how are they trained?

What does it mean if your dentist states that "I'm a dental surgeon, and I have many years of experience of this, and I have been to many courses in this area, and that in reality I am a specialist."

Firstly, all dentists graduate from university with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS). During this degree, they do very basic training in all major areas of dentistry, including endodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics and pedodontics. From the age of 23 or 24, they are entitled to the title "Dr", and to call themselves a "dentist", "dental surgeon", "general dentist", family dentist" or "dental practitioner ". All these terms are used interchangably.

One dentist who graduates from one university, or another, in one year vs another year, or uses one title vs another title, are all exactly the same as each other in terms of their basic training and ability. There is no greater training in any one general dentistry course, than provided to another dentist in any other university undergraduate degree course; and this is also generally true even comparing training between different universities in other Western nations.

Of course, it's in the dentist's best interest to say "I am better at doing this than him", or "I went to a better university", or "I trained extensively in Britain, which is superior to Australia", or "I did many more of these procedures at university than my classmates", or "I have done many courses in this". The point is, when you look up in the YellowPages for a general dentist in the general dentist listing, regardless of whom you choose, or what they may call themselves, or whatever courses they may have claimed to have done, you are randomly choosing a general dentist who has likely no more or less training in general dentistry or a specialist area of dentistry than any other general dentist.

So is there a legitimate superior general dentist, who can do everything in every area of dentistry, and better than a specialist?

There are of course general dentists who are legitimately better than other dentists in providing certain areas of dentistry. Such dentists are usually recognized by their clinical superiors, by the state dental board, or by other specialists. But if you are looking up in the YellowPages for a general dentist, every dentist you ring will claim to be superior or better at a particular clinical task. It is impossible on your own volition or investigation, and over the phone to find out who the better ones are. The only way you can ever know, is by either attending the dentist, and taking a risk, or being recommended to them by a dental specialist (that is someone higher up the clinical tree pointing down).

You may ask why would a specialist recommend a general dentist as superior in a certain area of dentistry? Well most specialists are specialists because they have done recognized and lond university based studies, and have been recognized by the state dental board as being a specialist in their specific area. They also regularly attend ongoing post-graduate education courses in their specialty area, and beling to specialist societies, have higher levels of insurance risk coverage, and buy spevial equipment that is usually only available to specialists. These specialists usually are very proud of their personal and academic and clinical achievements and are recognized by other general dentists and also other specialists as being of superior clinical ability.

So when they recognize a general dentist as also having similar abilities, and recommend their patients to see such general dentists, then you KNOW that those dentists do have special and superior clinical abilities. After all the recommending specialists own specialist reputation, and the reputation of their own specialty status in the community is at risk, so their recommendation is usually valid. The recommendation is usually based on the general dentist being of higher clinical quality, maintains regular post graduate education(at the same degree as the recognized specialist), and belongs to the same specialist clinical societies (but as a general non-specialist member).

It is never the case, that a general dentist is an expert in everything, and at the same level in everything as a specialist is in one area.

That's impossible.

Are there other dental specialties, like oral surgery or orthodontics?

Yes there are, but such specialties are ligitimate specialties, as their areas of dental care are not taught at all, or are taught at only the most basic of levels during the undergraduate (Bachelor od Dental Surgery/Dentistry) level. I say a spevialty as opposed to a restriction, as usually the restriction specialities are taught at some form at undergraduate level, enablind the general dentist to practice in a basic way.

Meaning the general dentist can do a basic root canal, or clean teeth, extract simple teeth, or treat non complex children.

However, no new graduate from dentistry, with a basic degree in dental surgery would ever consider practicing or oral surgery, or to claim any expertise in these areas based on their undergraduate dental degree. All practitioners in orthodontics are specialists, and all oral surgeons are specialist too, but there are of course some general dentists who claim to have special expertise in these areas, and claim even so far as to say they are specialists, or have extensive training, or are experts in these areas.

That is never the truth though.

So what is an orthodontist?

These are dental specialists who have three years of exclusive and full time training in orthodontics (meaning is isn't taught to undergraduate dental students in the same way as endodontics or paediatric dentistry is taught to undergraduates for limited general practice). They enter such programmes competitvely and many general dentists try and fail at gaining a place onto such programmes.

Orthodontics is the straightening of teeth, and there are plenty of general dentists who act with jealous, insecure eyes on their dental specialist colleagues, and have embarked on 3 day programmes here and there, to eventually claim to be orthodontists themselves.

Buyer beware! There are many, many general dentists who practice orthodontics, with the unwitting understanding by their patients that in fact they are being treated by a specialist dentist. These people usually charge just as much or more than specialists in orthodontists, and when things go wrong they usually leave shattered lives and wallets behind.

If they are general dentists, who actually have a very good and safe in practice in orthodontics, then they will be referred to by other dental specialists as colleagues. If you find such people in the Yellow Pages under the general dentist column, DON'T RING!

So what is an oral surgeon?

Oral surgeons, or rather dentists who operate in the mouth, do no really exist any more as a recognized specialty. There are sill people who legitimately are recognized as Oral Surgeons by the State dental Registration Boards. Such old style practitioners are thankfully a dying breed, and no new dentists are legitimately recognized as oral surgery specialists in this way.

Oral surgery was absorber into the wider medical specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery many years ago (yes that's right, now you need to be a registered medical practitioner to be trained and recognized as a specialist in oral surgery).

Oral (& Maxillofacial) surgery exists under protection of specialist surgical societies, medical and dental specialist registration boards, expensive insurance coverages, and post-graduate education programmes which are limited to specialist only attendance. There are many charlatans that claim to have extensive or equivalent training in Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, usually from overseas, and they usually practice in desperate country towns, where practice is exceptionally dangerous and wrong. Most of these quacks only practice under coverage of general dental registration, and recruit patients not by word of mouth or recommendation, but purely through advertising and usually by the YellowPages. Some falsely claim to be medical practitioners or medically registered, and even list themselves under the medical practitioners listing.

The practice is wrong, it is generally unregulated, and the process is a buyer beware one.

Okay, but you still haven't really told me what an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon is...

Well, these are specialists of surgery (like ENT, Plastics, colorectal, neurosurgical, O&G, orthopaedics, opthalmology, paediatric, general and upper GI surgeons). The only difference between Maxillofacial and these other surgical specialities, is that the OMS needs to be co-trained and co-registered in both dentistry and medicine. When eventually they graduate (after usually more than 14 years of overall srudy), then they diagnose and surgically treat diseases and disorders of the mouth and face and jaws. They do dentistry because most of these diseases involve teeth, and because they involve teeth, and they sometimes must work with general dentists, who are given the right to refer to them. Unfortunately, because of this association, some general dentists claim that they can also do oral surgery, and are specialist in the area.

That's right. There are general dentists out there, who because they have done an undergraduate dental degree where they extracted 10 teeth with dental forceps, and did about 5 hours of didactic instruction in oral surgerydiseases, and are empowered to become registered as a dentist, truly and wholly believe that they can perform oral & maxillofacial surgery (which they personally classify as dental). These dentists operate, usually undr protection of ignorance, and do so without any more training than their own confidence in themselves, and the belief of an innocent patient who has rung them off the YellowPages.

Such general dentists are serious quacks.

So what can I do to know that my dentist is qualified in what they are telling me they are expert in?

Firstly, ask them what their qualifications are... you can access this web page to find our all about dental qualifications, and what their letters mean.

Dental Qualifications in Australasia and the UK

You can also ring your State dental Board to see if they are registered as a dental specialist, or your state Medical board to see if they are a medically registered Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon.

Usually common sense would say... If you have two very different opinions about how you should be treated or by whom, then you would normally listen to the person with the most letters right?

Well that's logical, but time consuming. If you haven;t the time to look up what all the initialisms mean, then my advice is a little different.

I say you should usually reject the opinion from the person with the least number of letters after their name.

I suggest you start your information search from the top of the pyramid down, and not from the base of the pyramid up.

I advise that you start your dental practitioner search in the dental specialist column, and not from the general dentist column of the YellowPages. Its not more expensive, it's quicker, and you will get a higher (and safer) standard of advice.