Before you pick a new dentist based on reviews, you should check out the
details and dates. Old reviews that no longer apply, and
recommendations made by people with an ulterior motive, may lead you to
dentists that you will not like.
It is often helpful to read a review or get a verbal recommendation
before choosing a new practitioner. When browsing dentists, you might
wish that it were easy to get the opinion of past or current patients,
since they know how each dentist really is compared to what their
advertisements might suggest. Before you decide using recommendations,
consider what to look for in each one.
While the overall opinion is important in any review, you should also
consider the details. Someone might really like their practitioner, but
perhaps it is for reasons that do not appeal to you. For example,
someone who is often late to appointments might enjoy dentists who are
quite busy and always running behind themselves, as this means that late
patients will likely still arrive before they are called into the room.
Of course, if you are always on time and do not like waiting in an
office, you will probably not like the same dentist as the perpetually
late patient. Clearly, the details are important in any review about
dentists.
You should also consider the source of the recommendation. For instance,
some dentists offer free or discounted services if their current
patients refer people, which means that some people have an incentive to
tell you how great their dentist is. If you are pretty sure that a
practitioner offers each patient a reward for positive reviews, you
should take each review with a grain of salt. The same goes for
recommendations made by relatives, friends, and employees of the
dentist. It is not always easy to find out this information, but if you
have a feeling that someone is recommending a practitioner for reasons
other than just helping you out, you should take this into
consideration.
Finally, consider the date of the review. If you are reading reviews
online and it turns out that they were written years ago, be aware that
policies and attitudes might have changed since then. The same goes for a
recommendation that a friend gave you a few years ago. You might want
to ask for an updated one since so much can change in a few years.
Listening to recommendations can be quite helpful, but only if they are
given for the right reasons, and they still apply to the dental office
in question. While they might help you make a decision, you should also
visit a few dentists to get a feel for them first. This way, you can
determine on your own whether the reviews were right.
