Dentists: A Patient's Guide

Dentists may not be the most popular medical care providers around, but it is important to make sure that you see them regularly. If you have never been or just haven't been there in a while, now is the time to set up an appointment and find out how your mouth, teeth and gums are doing. Follow these easy steps to setting up your first visit.

Dental Insurance

Find out if you have dental insurance. If you do, your visits will cost less, though you will need to choose one of the dentists within the network. If you don't have insurance, feel free to go to any office that you want. After paying for an exam and finding out if you need any work done, you may choose to look into insurance for the future or just continue without it.

Choose a Provider

Find out if any local dentists are accepting new patients. If so, this is a great time to call and make an appointment. Try to find a time that you can make it over to the office without rushing and be sure that you can get there a few minutes early. Usually, if you are a first time patient, you will need to fill out some paperwork.

At the Visit

Most dentists' offices are set up in a similar manner. Patients begin by signing in a the front counter or desk. You can put your name as well as the time that you arrived and the time of your appointment. If there is more than one dentist in the office, you may need to write down which one you are planning to see. Before someone calls you back, you will be called back up to the front counter. You may need to fill out paperwork, provide an insurance card to make filing a claim easier, or just to verify the information on file.

Once everything is completed, you will be called back and placed in an exam room. If you are a new patient you will need to have x-rays taken. Some offices have a special room for this and others just have the equipment in each room. Someone will prepare you for this and place some type of bites into your mouth. As you bite down, it will move your mouth in such a way to get the best look at your teeth. These often take a while to complete, so you may be waiting in the room for a small while.

A dentist will come in and talk to you about the x-rays. If there are any issues that need to be addressed, he or she will talk to you about what appears to be going wrong and what solutions or options that you have to fix it. Even if you are in for a routine cleaning, if someone notices something that doesn't look right, they may still bring it to your attention.

When you are done, you usually receive a free toothbrush or toothpaste. You can go to check out at the same desk that you used for check in. If you have a co-pay or payment that is due, this is the time to take care of that. Also, if you need to schedule another appointment, you can do that before leaving.