bcjch
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2015
- Messages
- 103
- Location
- Dallas, TX, USA, metro area
Hi all,
A comment in another thread got me thinking - for those of you who have finally made it to a dentist's office, what kind did you choose - a corporate dental chain or a privately practicing dentist? And would you rate the experience negative or positive?
Those of you across the pond from me might have to qualify this based on the NHS - I don't know for sure how that works, whether it's a government chain or something each practitioner can choose to participate in. What I have in mind is something like Aspen Dental or Monarch Dental (the latter has offices near me) in the USA - or, based on my understanding, Smiles Dental in the UK.
I'm not sure how much of a differentiator this will be among scared patients - both types of practice might have equally negative ratings. But if not, I wonder if it might help narrow the scope of who you'd feel best about working with. So I'm submitting the question in that spirit.
In my case, I've been to both, and the worse experience has been with a dental chain (which is neither American chain named above). It seems like the quality of work there, as well as the bedside manner of the practitioners, is a crapshoot. One crown I had there has lasted for nearly 20 years, but another was mismounted (though I couldn't judge that at the time) and only lasted a couple before it had to be replaced. The cleaning done there was horrible - one hygienist shredded my gums with a water tool before deciding it was too much for me and would have to be finished another day. The one who completed the cleaning was upset that I didn't allow her to use the water tool.
What are your experiences? If you can't compare the two, please say which kind you finally went to and what you thought of it, based on the practitioner's manner and the quality of work.
A comment in another thread got me thinking - for those of you who have finally made it to a dentist's office, what kind did you choose - a corporate dental chain or a privately practicing dentist? And would you rate the experience negative or positive?
Those of you across the pond from me might have to qualify this based on the NHS - I don't know for sure how that works, whether it's a government chain or something each practitioner can choose to participate in. What I have in mind is something like Aspen Dental or Monarch Dental (the latter has offices near me) in the USA - or, based on my understanding, Smiles Dental in the UK.
I'm not sure how much of a differentiator this will be among scared patients - both types of practice might have equally negative ratings. But if not, I wonder if it might help narrow the scope of who you'd feel best about working with. So I'm submitting the question in that spirit.
In my case, I've been to both, and the worse experience has been with a dental chain (which is neither American chain named above). It seems like the quality of work there, as well as the bedside manner of the practitioners, is a crapshoot. One crown I had there has lasted for nearly 20 years, but another was mismounted (though I couldn't judge that at the time) and only lasted a couple before it had to be replaced. The cleaning done there was horrible - one hygienist shredded my gums with a water tool before deciding it was too much for me and would have to be finished another day. The one who completed the cleaning was upset that I didn't allow her to use the water tool.
What are your experiences? If you can't compare the two, please say which kind you finally went to and what you thought of it, based on the practitioner's manner and the quality of work.