Deciding on a Dental Clinic

What to Look for when Deciding on a Dental Clinic

When it comes to selecting the right dental clinic that would suit either yourself as an individual or your family, many factors must be taken into consideration.

If this decision is only for yourself, it is already a difficult task. However, when making this decision on behalf of your whole family, it becomes considerably more challenging. After all, you need to choose a dental clinic that has the skills to manage the needs of both ageing adults and growing children. You also need a practice that offers not only the basics of oral hygiene but can also provide more complex procedures with knowledge and professionalism.

With so many practices available in South Africa today, what do you need to look for when deciding on a dental clinic that would best satisfy your long list of requirements? Our team of skilled oral hygiene professionals at Intercare have come up with a few tips and questions that you might want to consider following before making the crucial decision of selecting the perfect practice that would meet all your family’s needs. Let’s have a look at six of the most important ones.

1. Referrals are a Great Start

If you’re new to a specific area or haven’t required the expertise of a dental clinic in a while, it is always a great idea to ask for referrals. Suggestions from friends, family members, neighbours, and work colleagues are always a great place to start. Still, the Internet can also provide some sound advice and sometimes offer previous patient reviews. The information you acquire from people you trust or from reliable sources will go a long way in narrowing down your search.

2. Is the Dental Clinic Family-Friendly?

A family-friendly dental clinic doesn’t end with a few toys displayed in a box at the reception area. Routine habits are formed early on in a child’s development and oral health practices are no exception. A visit to the dentist can be a very stressful and traumatic time for little ones. Their approach to future oral hygiene appointments, both as children and as young adults, depends largely on the professional who first introduces them to dental practices. Many dentists will work on children, but you need a doctor that introduces the basic procedures of dentistry to your children with care and compassion whilst bearing this foresight in mind. Waylaying their fears and apprehensions while explaining these procedures to them is essential.

3. Does the Practice have The Human Element?

Education, knowledge, and experience are, of course, very important when deciding on a dental clinic that you would feel comfortable with and obviously, these prerequisites must be taken into consideration. However, they are also, quite simply, certifications framed on a wall. It is always important to have a good rapport with your doctor and, you must be able to feel comfortable and at home when visiting your dentist. Both you and your family should feel valued, respected, and heard. After all, we’re all human and you would want to select a dental clinic that would treat you and your family as such.

4. Does the Clinic have Additional Expertise?

 

Before engaging with your short-listed practices, do some inquiry into, firstly, specialised services that your potential dental clinic might offer. It is then useful to compare these to potential treatments that you or your family might require over the coming years. For example, does the dental clinic have radiography and orthodontic or implant dentistry offerings? Should you or a family member suffer from gum disease, does the practice offer periodontal treatments? If paediatric services are a prerequisite for your family, choose a dental clinic that offers procedures in specialised children’s dentistry. Your choice of dental clinic must include the ability and expertise to deal with all of your family’s oral hygiene eventualities and have access to facilities where such procedures may be professionally and hygienically performed.

5. Does the Practice Remain Available to their Patients?

Having a decent oral hygiene regime or a sustained, mid-term dental plan in place in conjunction with your doctor, should ensure that you and your family need only visit a dental clinic at the recommended minimum, six monthly intervals. What happens, though, in the case of an emergency? Booking appointments months in advance is usually quite effortless but, you would want to know that, should there be an emergency, you are with a dental clinic that has the ability and capacity to accommodate you on short notice. This is sometimes very difficult, regardless of the practice. However, you would still expect that your clinic of choice can facilitate these emergencies within a reasonable time frame.

6. Is the Practice Conveniently Located, and are They Open at Convenient Times?

In today’s modern society, life can be extremely busy. It can therefore be a challenge to find the time to keep abreast with even basic, routine oral care appointments. That is why you need a dental clinic that is easily contactable through easy, online bookings. It’s also useful if they are conveniently located to your place of work or your home and are open during convenient times, like lunch and tea times, before work or once you’re done at the office.

Before you make that Choice – Consider Intercare

Apart from being able to find us in most major Metropoles and their surrounding suburbs throughout South Africa, being able to be easily contactable through easy, online bookings and being open at convenient times to accommodate your busy lifestyle, Intercare is proud of our community-centred and patient-focused services.  

From our friendly, accommodating reception staff to our carefully selected, approachable, professional dentists and their support staff, we meet with you and your family’s high expectations. We believe in providing only the best service and comfort for our patients and building sustainable, lasting relationships. When considering your next dental clinic, think Intercare, where good, old-fashioned family values are still considered a virtue.

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