Today, I’d like to show you how to pick the right dentist for your first dental visit.

Hi, this is Dr Wendy Wang from Oralux Dental. A few days ago, one of my new patients Michelle from North Sydney said to me after her first consultation with us: Wow, I wish I knew you for a lot longer, it’s so hard finding the right dentist… this session was much easier than I anticipated…

This got me thinking, for people who are looking for a dentist, they probably don’t know what to look for to find the right dentist for them. So I thought I’d share some tips on what to look out for in your first dental visit to make sure you get the best care.

Here at Oralux Dental, the first thing we do is invest the time to know you as a person. To understand your emotions, your past experiences with dentists. If you don’t like seeing a dentist, that’s ok, it’s very common and I won’t take it personally. But its important to us to know how you think and feel so we can make your consultation as stress-free as possible.

We also listen to your fears, and what you don’t like. For example, you might not like the noise of the drill. In that case, we have some nice noise-cancelling earphones for you to listen to music with during the treatment, so this can minimise your discomfort.

Before we push the chair back and ask the patient to open their mouth. We look at the patient and their facial expressions, we look at the movement of the lips. We look at how their jaw moves and look at how they display their teeth at smile, making sure the muscles and the jaws are working in harmony with each other. As you can see, the dental consultation is not just about individual tooth, but their overall smile.

The next important part is for us to know your medical history. This is critical as this will determine what dental material and medicine we can and can’t use with you, as they could interact with your medication.

After this, we will perform a very thorough teeth examination. So that’s when we actually ask you to lie back and have a look inside your mouth.

We then do dental charting, this means we will record all of your conditions, including old fillings and any dental work done in the past, as well as the health of your gum. We also screen for oral cancer. It is very important to look at the overall skin inside the mouth and make sure there’s no suspicious point because just like skin can have skin cancer, oral cancer can be a big health risk, so this should be checked regularly as well.

Sometimes we take X-rays. Because there are certain area of the teeth, say the back teeth touching each other or under the old filling, that we cannot see through them, so we utilise advanced technologies like digital x-rays to check that area very thoroughly.

And after all the examinations, the dentist should go through all the findings with you. Here at Oralux, we spend about half of our appointment time to go through with you our findings, so you have the time to ask questions, explore your options, and find the best solutions for you. And nowadays, modern technology is allowing us to do this so much better.

For example, our camera takes very high definition photos and videos of certain movement. So can we show you on the big TV screens your condition and why it happens, this gives you a lot more clarity, while we explore treatment options together.

We will never push you towards one particular treatment. We believe our patients have the right to understand the pros and cons of each option, and they ultimately have the right to choose what’s best for their teeth. So you should never feel pressured by the dentist.

We love helping our clients creating beautiful healthy smiles. If you like how we look after our patients, and is looking for a dentist to look after you and your family, PM us on social media, give us a call, or go to our website at oraluxdental.com.au, and we will be in touch. I’ll see you at our next video.

Note: All content and media on the Oralux Dental website and social media channels are created and published online for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.

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