For years, I’ve had people ask me what defines our practice philosophy, and I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. There are many things we find important at our practice but pinning down an overall practice philosophy felt like a tall order.
Today, I can confidently say that what defines our practice – and sets us apart from other dentist offices – is that we hyper focus on getting you to 100 with all your teeth. That one statement defines every decision we make for our patients.
Our Strategic Approach
Helping patients get to 100 with all of their teeth starts during our new patient exam. During this dentist appointment, we do a thorough exam and diagnose all dental problems and risks. From there, we categorize these into A, B and C needs and create a master treatment plan that prioritizes care based on these categories.
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A Needs – Require Immediate Attention.
An A need is something that needs to be done yesterday, like a dental crown or root canal. This is something that is either causing pain or impeding the function of your teeth and has put the patient in survival mode. Some patients will have a lot of items on their A list, and some patients will have none. However, it’s important to understand that we have no chance of getting you to 100 without addressing these problems first.
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B Needs – Create Predictability.
Once your A needs are addressed, we can move onto the B needs. This is where we really dial things in and set you up to thrive. These issues are slow growing – like gum recession, tooth wear from clenching and grinding, or cracked or missing teeth. These issues may not be causing problems now, but they will down the road and it’s important to get ahead of them. The longer you wait to address these problems, the worse (and more expensive) they will become.
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C Needs – Enhance Aesthetics.
Typically, the first thing people want to do is whiten their teeth. But this cannot be done until your A and B needs are addressed first. Whitening your teeth before tackling more foundational issues would be like painting a house that is falling apart. Once our A and B needs are addressed, we can discuss cosmetic dentistry such as tooth whitening, veneers and BioClear.
Relationship-based Dentistry
Helping my patients get to 100 with all their teeth requires that they trust my team and we have a good rapport. They’re coming to our dentist office because they know we can help them achieve their goals. Sometimes, we will tell them things they might not want to hear. But we are doing so with their best interest in mind.
It’s our job to look at your master treatment plan and decide if a B need has moved up to an A need, or new issues arise that require immediate attention. As a fee-for-service dental office, we can make these decisions without the influence of an insurance company telling us what is and isn’t covered. Our patients dental health is our top priority and moving patients from emergency dentistry to single-tooth dentistry is our ultimate goal.
If you’re looking to establish a relationship with a dentist who will help you get to 100 with all your teeth, call our office to schedule a consultation. We’d be happy to discuss your problem areas and desires and create a plan that works for you.
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