4 Important Characteristics Of A Dentist
You might wonder why a dentist in Singapore needs important characteristics. Well, dentists today must do so much more than just to simply check out patients teeth or gum. A great dentist needs a variety of skills to be able to accurately examine the teeth while limiting patient discomfort. Every dentist should have these 4 important characteristics which are caring, professional, communication and reputation.
Professional
Dental professionals' top priority when it comes to patients would be professionalism. A professional dentist should value cleanliness. It is all about keeping everything neat and tidy in the office and cleaning up after each and every patient. They should also be looking at themselves too. No patients would want to visit the dentist if their doctor is unhygienic.
Another thing would be physician - patient privilege also known as doctor - patient confidentiality. Diligent maintenance of patients' dental records are critical as there have been countless instances when patients' records are used to identify their remains in the event of a fire or other incidents. Notwithstanding such a morbidity, having the proper organization of patients' records is a way to keep track of their previous dental visit and other pieces of information that would be necessary for proper treatment. Lastly is knowing what information is important and what should have been left unsaid. A dentist should never ever diagnose problems outside their own specialties.
Communication
The very second thing that a patient would notice would be the dentist's communication skills. Are they able to communicate well? Are they able to deliver the message that is supposed to be delivered to us? A good dentist should not have a plan to care for and correct problems with your teeth. They should have a good idea of the costs for each procedure, knowledge.
The best dentists know the importance of communicating everything to their patients properly. This would also include the detail of dental procedures they are going to do on the patients, why such procedures are important, and what patients must do to ensure that dental processes done on them would be successful. Great dentists would not keep their patient guessing and be left in the dark about critical matters pertaining to their oral health. Instead they would explain everything in a simple language so that their patients would understand. This will create a trusting doctor - patient relationship. It always helps to avoid problems later on.
For pediatric dentists on the other hand, children tend to be scared when they visit the dentist. Hence having a dentist that is excellent and kid-friendly would be a simple and easy way to explain to kids what they are going to do.
They will help the child to understand the process as a way to ease the nervousness. If necessary, the dentist will even avoid using words that may frighten the child, and talk about something of interest to distract the child from fear or anxiety. They also understand that each child is different in their own way, therefore it is important that a kid-friendly dentists can accommodate and be flexible to those needs.
In a nutshell, a dentist should be able to communicate with their patient with simple words for them to understand and a pediatric dentist should be able to not frighten the child and instead they are able to talk about something else to make them distracted.
Reputation
Each dentist or each dental clinic has their own reputation. Dentists who have only been practicing for a short while will develop a reputation that sticks with them. Before deciding on a new dentist you should always ask around or research and learn as much as possible if you can about them.
The older the dentist, the more information and detail you will likely get from them as they are known and have been out in the dental field for years. Always check to see if the dentist has a website with patient reviews as it is important to know what other people think of the dentists and how the dentist do in their own field work. Another important thing would be their education. Your dentist should have a doctor of dental surgery or doctor of dental medicine, alongside with keeping up on new dental practices. Be sure to ask your dentist what they do to keep up with modern dentistry.
Caring
Lastly, an individual who has trusted the dentist near Clementi might alway feel comfortable during a visit or appointment. Well, maybe because the dentist shows genuine care for what the patient is feeling during the dental procedure such as tooth extraction or oral prophylaxis. Each time the dentist does a sensitive and potentially painful procedure, the dentist would routinely ask if the patient is in pain.
So the dentist would pause and do something that would reassure and lessen the pain. A dentist should always value their patient’s well being first. Some dentists may try to suggest options for their own monetary benefits when there are less expensive, more practical options available for them. A good dentist will explain the positive and negative of every option so that the patient could choose on their own. They will also share in the interest of the patient by giving them honest answers. As a patient it is also very comforting going through any procedure when you feel as though your dentist really cares and is not just doing their work for the sake of the paycheck.
Overall, most dental clinics or dentists would have all 4 characteristics which are caring, professional, reputation and communication. Without this characteristic, it would most probably not be any dentist or dental clinic that would be suitable for any of us.
Most dentist at West Coast have these 4 characteristics: caring, professional, reputation and communication. At the end of the day, it is all up to you to choose the dentist that would be suitable for you or your child. Do some research about the dentist that you would want to go to, ask around for recommendations that would be great for you. Read articles of the dental clinic if there are any. Maybe patient reviews on their website or Google.