You can’t trust your child’s oral health to just any dentist. You want to make sure the dentist you bring them to will be capable of delivering quality dental care to help your children stay happy and healthy. After all, good oral health is the foundation of overall health, and it helps set your child up for academic success and social acceptance. Family dentists make it easy for your entire family to get the care you need for life. So it’s important to find a family dentist you can trust.
Here are some tips to help you find the best family dentist for your family. If you’re in Palmetto Bay, FL, consider the family dentists at Luxe Smiles, where we’re passionate about providing top-notch dental care for all patients.
Start Early
It’s never too early to start considering family dentists in Palmetto Bay, FL. Once you’ve decided that you want to have children, it’s time to start thinking about your family dentist. One of the things that can make a family dentist a better choice than a pediatric dentist is that you can also be a patient at the dental practice. This helps you assess a practice before deciding to bring your child there. It can take years to get to know a dentist and observe how well they work with children before you bring your own child to the dental office.
Choosing a family dentist can seem like a daunting task when it’s time for your child’s first dental visit. This can cause you to either postpone your child’s visit or make a rushed decision.
Ask for Recommendations
Once you’ve started the process of looking for a family dentist in Palmetto Bay, FL, you should collect recommendations. Ask parents who have older children what dentist or dentists they’ve seen. Pay attention to both recommendations for and against specific dentists.
Note when families are truly excited about their family dentist or when they have simply settled for their current dentist.
Keep track of recommendations, but don’t assume that just because a dentist is right for a friend’s family, it will be right for your family. Instead, use the recommendations as a jumping-off point to focus your own search.
Search Online
You’ll want to have at least five dentists you’re considering at this stage. Eventually, you’ll narrow it down to one with a backup, but for now, you want to consider several. If you don’t get enough good recommendations, take your question online, searching for Palmetto Bay, FL, family dentist to see who comes up. Add a few potential candidates to your preliminary list.
Visit the websites of your potential family dentists. Evaluate the dentists for:
- Practice emphasis
- Experience and training
- Results and reviews
- Other features
You want to make sure potential dentists make family dentistry a priority. Some dentists say they’re family dentists but don’t actually want to see children or even let children come to their dental practice. Looking at a dentist’s website carefully should show whether a dentist actually wants to see children at their practice.
While you’re on a dentist’s website, check their experience and training in dealing with dentistry throughout a person’s life cycle. This includes dental procedures for children, such as orthodontics, and dental procedures focused on older individuals, such as dental implants and dentures.
Look at reviews of the dentist on their website. Look for references to children in the reviews to confirm that the dental practice really does see children on a regular basis.
You can consider other factors, such as a dentist’s hours, location, and technology. These are secondary factors, though. The right dentist is worth a little bit of scheduling difficulty and travel time. Plus, technology is nothing but a tool. Trust the dentist, and you can trust the technology they choose.
For every family dentist you’re still considering, do a separate name search to track down reviews not on their site, as well as any relevant news items. It’s nice to see if a dentist is active in your community, but sometimes you’ll see that a dentist has been disciplined. You might decide that’s not the right dentist for you.
Once you’ve done your online research, you should narrow your search down to three dentists to consider.
Schedule Office Visits
Before you bring your child to a dentist’s office, you should have visited it multiple times yourself or visited several dental offices and decided this is the best one for your child.
If you started choosing a family dentist early enough, you can just schedule a checkup and cleaning with the first dentist on your list. If you like them, schedule another appointment. Talk to them about children at their dental practice, and watch for children in the waiting room. Hopefully, you get to see children after their appointment so you can gauge how well the practice deals with children.
If it’s nearing time for your child’s first dental appointment, just schedule consultations with all three Palmetto Bay, FL, family dentists on your list. Talk to them about their practice and how welcoming they are to children. Choose the one that makes you feel confident in their ability to care for your child.
Don’t worry too much if you don’t find one you’re fully comfortable with for your child’s first visit. It’s not a big deal. Your child’s first few dental appointments are pretty routine and will give you time to decide how you feel about a dentist.
If you have an older child that needs dental treatment, be more discerning. If none of your potential choices gives you confidence, start your search over.
Family Dentists in Palmetto Bay, FL
Are you looking for a family dentist in Palmetto Bay, FL? At Luxe Smiles, we are dedicated to delivering quality dental care to patients over 12, and we invite you to visit our office.
Please call (305) 253-7670 or use our online form today to schedule an appointment at Luxe Smiles in Palmetto Bay, FL.
