How to Choose a Dentist You Will Actually Stick With

Most people choose a dentist the way they choose a plumber in an emergency: whoever can see them soonest. That works until you need something bigger than a filling, and then you are making a decision about a crown or a root canal with somebody you barely know.

Choosing well takes about twenty minutes of thought. Here is what actually matters, what does not, and the questions that tell you more in one phone call than an hour of reading reviews.

Start with the things you cannot change later

Location and hours decide whether you keep going. A practice you can walk to, or reach on the way home, gets visited twice a year. A brilliant dentist forty minutes away in traffic gets visited once, and then not again until something hurts.

Be honest about your own week. If you cannot take a weekday morning off, a practice that only opens nine to five is not a practice you will use. Evening and Saturday appointments are worth more than a slightly nicer waiting room.

• How far is it from home or work, door to door, at the time you would actually go?
• Do they open outside your working hours, and how far ahead are those slots booked?
• If you woke up in pain on a Monday, could they see you that day?

Check what they do, not just who they are

General dentists handle most of what most people need: exams, cleanings, fillings, crowns, and often root canals and simple extractions. Specialists exist for the rest. An orthodontist straightens teeth, an endodontist does root canals, a periodontist treats gum disease, an oral surgeon handles extractions and implants, and a pediatric dentist works with children.

It matters because of referrals. A practice that does its own root canals and implants keeps your treatment under one roof. A practice that refers everything out means more appointments, more travel and sometimes more cost. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you are joining.

The five questions worth asking on the phone

Call before you book. How the front desk handles these tells you a great deal about how the practice runs.

• What does a new patient exam include, and what will it cost me on the day?
• Do you take my insurance, and are you in network or out of network with them?
• If I need treatment, will I get a written estimate before anything starts?
• Who would I see if I had an emergency on a weekend?
• How long is the wait for a routine cleaning right now?

What reviews tell you and what they hide

Reviews are useful for patterns, not verdicts. One furious review about a bill says little. Fifteen reviews mentioning surprise charges says something real. The same goes the other way: a hundred five star reviews that all arrived in the same fortnight is a marketing campaign, not a track record.

Read the middle reviews, the three star ones. They are usually the most honest, because the person is neither in love nor at war. And look at what the practice says in reply. A calm, specific answer to a complaint is a better sign than a wall of praise.

The signs that should send you elsewhere

Some things are worth walking away from, even if the practice is convenient.

• A treatment plan with a lot of work on it, presented on your first visit, with pressure to start today
• No written estimate, or an estimate that keeps changing after work has begun
• Discomfort with you asking for a second opinion, which any confident dentist expects
• X-rays taken at every visit as routine rather than because something needs checking
• A front desk that cannot tell you what anything costs

Second opinions are normal

If somebody proposes major work, thousands of dollars of it, getting a second opinion is ordinary and expected. Ask for copies of your X-rays, which are yours, and take them to another practice. Most will do a consultation for a modest fee or sometimes nothing.

A dentist who reacts badly to that has told you something useful about how they will handle it when something goes wrong.

Our directory lists every dental practice in the United States, taken from the public federal registry and searchable by town or ZIP code, which is a reasonable place to draw up the shortlist of two or three you are going to phone.

Frequently asked

This is general information to help you ask better questions, not a diagnosis. Anything happening in your own mouth needs a dentist who can look at it.