Mainstream vs Quality
Research is showing that people are living longer and many are interested in enjoying healthier lives. This is a quality of life issue for most individuals. However, their oral (dental) health is not being given the attention that the rest of their body is receiving. There are many reasons for this caused by both the general population of patients as well as many dentists. The following list gives many of the causes for this dilemma.
- Lack of and/or poor use of continuing education of the Dentist, their staff, and therefore the patients
- Poor or ineffective communication skills of the Dentist and their staff
- Telling the patient what to do and therefore, in essence manipulation of the patient into a treatment plan
- Abdication of responsibility by the patient – in other words the patient has the attitude of “You’re the doctor, fix me!”
- Assumptions by both parties due to lack of and/or poor communication
- Lack of all the choices available to the patient because the dentist does not understand them, offer them or cannot perform them well
- Inability to understand &/or perform or refer for all aspects of dental care
- Production & money centered rather than patient and health centered dental practices
- Quantity (volume) vs true quality centered practices
- Insurance driven patients and dentists
- Dentists offering &/or patients choosing patchwork dentistry to fix only the localized problem rendering merely a short term fix
- Dentists not spending enough time getting to know, educating, and helping patients make their own informed decisions regarding treatment;
- What I call Drill-Fill-& Bill dentistry
- What I refer to as marketing by using fluff to attract patients, that is having all the bells and whistles without being able to perform where the rubber meets the road
These are some of the reasons for the lower level, fair or merely satisfactory, standard of care that many dentists offer patients and patients ask for and expect under the guise of "quality and excellent dentistry". In reality, this model of practice, which I would say is "mainstream", is not optimum and is only adequate. This form of dentistry will actually set patients up for future treatment due to problems not being addressed early enough or well enough to actualize true oral health.
I believe that actual lasting & beneficial oral health can only be achieved through the following:
- Relationship building
- Information exchange
- Fully informed decisions by the patient
- Continuing education for the dentist, the staff, and the patient that is put into practice
- Health and whole person/patient centered treatment planning & treatment. Fair & honest diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment
- Education & discussion of patient needs and desires giving patients the responsibility of making their own decisions with guidance from the dentist.
Higher levels of care (see the Four Levels of Care), especially optimum dentistry, actually costs less in the long run because it lasts longer, looks better, & is easier for the patient to maintain.
Dr McCann is capable of providing optimum care, which is true prevention and Dentistry for Life!
Click here to contact drmccann@michaelsmccanndds.com
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