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Shopping For A Smile: Finding The Best Provider

What’s the best way to choose an orthodontist for treatment?

I think the best way is to get a referral from a dentist you like and trust. A referral from a friend is also a reliable source. Barring that, you can find one on your own by doing research online.

The worst way to choose a provider is to base your decision on price alone. I’ve seen many people shop around for the cheapest orthodontist, ignoring other important factors. This is not the way to do it! Remember that old saying, you get what you pay for.

When choosing an orthodontist for you or your child, here are some things to look for:

 Look For: Orthodontic Care From An Orthodontist (Not A Dentist)

An orthodontist is a dentist but a dentist is not an orthodontist. This is an important distinction between the two.

While both have attended dental school, the orthodontist has gone on to complete an additional two or three years of study in the field of orthodontics. More and more dentists are offering braces and other orthodontic services to their patients, but they simply don’t have the academic training or the real-life experience that orthodontists have. With something as important as your smile, you should work with an expert.

Look For: A Practice Owned By The Provider (Not A Corporation)

When a doctor, dentist, or orthodontist owns their own practice, they have a personal interest in making sure their patients are satisfied with the treatment and care they’ve received. In my experience, I’ve noticed that they are in it for the long haul and they care greatly about their reputation and the reputation of their practice.

Alternatively, when a practice is owned by a corporation or investors, the providers within that practice don’t have the same sort of skin in the game. They may be fresh out of dental school or be primarily motivated by paying off student loan debt, rather than providing the best patient care possible. It’s also been my experience that these types of practices are more likely to have over-worked (and possibly under-trained) employees, provide treatment of lower quality, and have long wait times.

Though the fees may be lower at a practice that’s not provider-owned, you can see why that is. Bottom line, make sure to ask whether the practice you’re considering is owned by the orthodontist.

Look For: Competitive Fees (Not The Lowest)

Competitive pricing means that the fees one provider charges are within the range of what his or her competitors are charging. Fees far below those of other providers should make you stop and think. As another old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There’s a reason the price is so low.

Unfortunately, sometimes paying less for treatment ends up costing more in the long run, especially if the patient needs treatment again in the future to correct mistakes made the first time. Yes, this happens.

I know that paying for orthodontic treatment can be a burden to many families and I don’t make this recommendation lightly. The bottom line is, it’s not possible to get the same high level of care at the lowest price. Many orthodontic practices, including mine, make it easier for families to pay by offering options like payment plans and financing so that every individual can get the high-quality care they need. If paying for treatment is a big consideration, look for a practice that has these kinds of options.

Look For: Great Experience and Reviews (Not Just Fee Schedules)

You can usually find out a lot about a potential provider from their website. Try to see how long they’ve been practicing and the range of services provided. Look for evidence that the practice cares about the training standards of their assistants and staff. See if they offer extras, like Brace Bus, care calls, and patient compliance rewards.

For the things you can’t find out from the practice’s website, read over online reviews. Here you’ll discover whether the wait times were too long, if the front desk staff was friendly or not, and whether the reviewers were happy with the treatment they received.

In short, do your homework. Even if you get a strong referral from a friend or a dentist – which I believe is the best way to find an orthodontist – it’s still smart to find out what you can online.

Finding the Right Provider for Your Family

Remember that undergoing orthodontic treatment is not just a matter of money, but of time, comfort, and convenience, too. You will likely be going to the orthodontist’s office regularly, so it’s important that you like the people and the atmosphere. Think about what’s important to your family and do your research. When your treatment is over, you’ll be glad you spent so much time choosing the right provider for your family.

First Impressions Count

Ask any orthodontist, and I bet they’ll tell you that one of the most gratifying experiences in their practice is seeing a patient smile for the first time after treatment. There’s nothing like the confidence that comes from having a great smile. For many patients, this is the first time they’ve ever been able to smile confidently and like what they see looking back at them in the mirror.

Why is a smile so important? The teeth make up such a small part of the body, but can be a big source of confidence or insecurity. This is because first impressions matter, and a person’s smile is a big part of making a first impression.

What Orthodontists Do – and What They Really Do

Yes, orthodontists “move teeth” using braces, headgear, oral appliances, and the like. We straighten teeth out and fix underbites and overbites and crossbites. Treatment may affect the facial profile, the shape of the face, and the fullness of the lips. It can also restore healthy function, for example helping people speak, chew, swallow, and even breathe correctly, when they couldn’t before.

While orthodontists make smiles pretty and restore function, I believe that what we really do is not only change people’s smiles, but also change their lives. This claim may sound a little overblown but I can explain why I believe it.

Science Shows That First Impressions Matter

We all know intuitively that first impressions matter. We may remember times we’ve been judged by someone else based on their first impressions of us, and we may even remember times we’ve done the same to someone else. Whether we mean to or not, it’s natural for people to make assumptions about other people based on their appearance, and part of a person’s appearance is their smile.

A 2012 digital study found that 29% of people who saw images of strangers reported noticing a person’s teeth first, and a little less, 24%, said that teeth was the one facial feature they remembered most after meeting someone for the first time.

These judgments go beyond first impressions and have an impact on how people judge our ability, trustworthiness, and likelihood for success. In the same study, nearly half of respondents – 45% – believed that a person with straight teeth would be more likely to get hired when competing with someone who had crooked teeth. Even more, 58%, associated straight teeth with wealth and success. And nearly three quarters, 73%, judged people with nice smiles as more trustworthy.

Similarly, whether our teeth are straight or not is a factor for many people when it comes to dating and romance. More than a third of people in the study said they wouldn’t go on a second date with someone who had crooked teeth. More than half thought that people with straight teeth would be able to get a date on appearance alone.

There are even more statistics and studies I could share that say the same thing, but I think you get the point: People judge other people based on the appearance of their teeth. That’s why an orthodontist is not “just” straightening crooked teeth or fixing bites but is really managing first impressions, too.

Smile Specialists

Now that you’ve seen how important the smile is when it comes to making a good first impression, you understand why I say that orthodontists don’t just change smiles, they change lives. Orthodontists are smile specialists who can help improve our patients’ appearance and function – not to mention make other people see them as more trustworthy, more dateable, more hireable, and more successful. Even more importantly, we can help them change how they see themselves. And that’s where change matters most.

The Importance of Getting a Smile Assessment

All patients who come to our practice have what we call a Smile Assessment. This simple, yet comprehensive assessment is a foundational step in our care, which is why I wanted to go over it in detail and explain why we consider it so important.

The Smile Assessment Starts with Images and Information

The Smile Assessment is a one-hour appointment that starts with a greeting by the Treatment Coordinator and a tour of the office where you will meet many of the team members and learn about the many unique amenities in our office. Next comes the technology. A technician takes digital photos of the mouth, then a panoramic X-ray is done. These images are uploaded to the computer.

After this, the patient goes into an exam room with the Treatment Coordinator to discuss health history, why the patient is here today, and any other relevant information. Then I meet with the patient (or if the patient is a child, with the child and parents). We talk, I look at the images and information that’s already been collected, and I take a look inside the patient’s mouth.

The In-Person Exam Follows

Even with all our advanced technology, there’s no substitute for an in-person exam. Visual inspection and even feeling the gums, jaw joints, and teeth can be the best ways to find some conditions such as gum disease and to assess the patient’s oral hygiene habits. Looking in a patient’s mouth also allows me to examine their bite, which has a big impact on treatment.

Beyond teeth alignment and bite, orthodontists are able to assess and detect other problems in the mouth that might have an effect on treatment, such as missing teeth or temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD, a disorder of the jaw joint) can affect orthodontic treatment. Orthodontists may also be able to detect things you’d never think of, such as oral cancer or tumors. I once saw a pituitary tumor in a patient’s brain on his X-ray, which led to a referral to an oncologist and treatment that saved his life. Of course, the vast majority of Smile Assessments don’t turn up such results, but it does show the power of the exam.

Finally, We Discuss Options and I Answer Questions

Once I understand what’s going on with the patient’s mouth and smile, it’s time to discuss options. I explain what I’ve seen and what I recommend in terms of treatment plans. Many times, there are multiple options available, and I go over the pros and cons of each in detail. For example, there are many kinds of braces available these days, including metal braces, clear braces, lingual aligners, and clear aligners, each with their own pros and cons.

An important part of this discussion is helping the patient visualize the final outcome. I use photos of the patient themselves when I can to illustrate what I’m talking about and occasionally before-and-after photos of other patients. Even better, with technology it’s possible to show people what their results will look like using 3-D scans of their teeth and computer modeling. Simply seeing what their final result will be is enough for some patients to take the step to start treatment.

Why the Smile Assessment is So Important

The Smile Assessment is important because you can’t know where you’re going or how to get there if you don’t know where you are. It’s the best way my team and I have found to assess the health of the patients’ mouth and teeth, understand their goals, communicate what we can offer, and select a treatment plan together to move forward on. The Smile Assessment is only the beginning. Once treatment starts, that’s when the real magic begins!