Picking a Dentist for Dental Implants

Video Transcript

"Now with dental implants, if you need dental implants, you want to know who can you go to. Is dental implant implant a specialist treatment? I myself as a general dentist--I specialize in dental implants, I've done over five thousand cases of dental implants, and what it comes down to is not once specific specialty. Really, dental implants is like doing a filling, doing an extraction, doing a root canal. In anything like that, basically we know the trend is that all practitioners are wanting to learn how to do dental implants. And the thing it comes down to is where do they learn it from, how long have they done it, and are you confident with that dentist that you're with. I mean, if this is your dentist that you've been going to years and years and you're comfortable with that dentist's hands, and it really comes down to the individual's hand. Can they perform this minor surgery. Going to a surgeon or going to a gum specialist or going to a special GP doesn't mean that that person has a good hand or anything, or they have done a lot of it. Even if you've done a lot of it doesn't mean anything. It just means, basically, you need to find somebody that you are comfortable, that you know that you can trust. And that's something that you have to do your homework on, and you have to do your interview. Not everybody is going to be upfront to say that this is my first one, or this is my ten thousandth one, or whatever. So you kind of have to, one, go by referral, and two, go by talking their own patients. If you have done so many, can I talk to one of your patients to see if they're happy, if they're good. Or you look at the office and you talk to the staff, and get their feel. Usually the staff that are in tune with dental implants, they're pretty confident. How they answer everything is pretty free flowing, versus a staff that just started doing this and they basically have no idea how to answer you. So you can definitely feel the vibe of the office, if they're in tune with it or if they're not. And most importantly, I think, you should interview the dentist. When you sit in that chair, if you're not comfortable being in that chair, then you shouldn't get any work done in that chair. That's my bottom line. But at the same time, if you've been with this dentist for a long time and if he or she's done very good work and you trust that dentist to do good homework so to say, so that they would do a good surgery so everything will go well, but that doctor don't have that much experience, but if that doctor is good in his or her preparation, in his research, then even that is okay. Because I see many young doctors that I have taught that are not experienced, but my gosh, their hands, their preparation, their every little bit is very detailed and their first surgery just came out beautifully as though they've done hundreds of these already. And I've seen dentists that have done a lot of these and their preparation's really not so good and when I see their surgery I feel sorry for the patient. So, it really depends on the practitioner and how good their hands are. In our profession, the dental profession, your hands are everything. If someone that--their hand kind of shakes a little bit, I'd tend to go find somebody else instead of sticking around with that one. So, do your homework. I think that's very important. I do consultation every day, and see a lot of new patients that come in for consultation. Most importantly, I want them to--don't just stick with me. If they don't feel a hundred percent comfortable, go get a second opinion, a third opinion. There's nothing wrong with that."