There is great variety in the dental procedures each dentist choose to perform. A general dentist receives education and training in the comprehensive scope of dentistry, enabling her to perform a range of procedures necessary to care for her patients. Over time, each dentist tends to refine her practice to refer out particular cases and procedures for several reasons.
This blog will explain the potential reasons we might refer you to see a dental specialist for a specific dental treatment.
Primary Reason for Referral to a Specialist
The greatest factor underlying all of our decisions in patient treatment is our commitment to ensuring each patient receives the best dental care possible. When we believe that your best care will be from the hands of a dental specialist for a particular procedure, we will refer you to a specialist we know and trust. Over the last 16+ years, we have invested in relationships with the various specialists in our area, so we can send you to the same doctors to whom we send our own family members.
Explanation of Reasons We Refer to Specialists
There are a few specific reasons we may refer someone to a dental specialist, and they involve the procedures that our doctors do and do not perform. As we said earlier, our dentists have education and training in all of the disciplines of dentistry. As dentists refine their practices over time, they will refer out a variety of procedures, both those they do not perform and some that they typically do perform.
The Dentists at PFD Do Not Perform the Procedure You Need.
The first and most common reason we refer patients to dental specialists is because they require a dental treatment that our dentists do not perform. This does not mean the dentists have not received the education and training necessary to perform them. The decision to not perform particular procedures rests more heavily on personal preference and the equipment and/or materials necessary for the procedures.
Some dentists have a preference to treat young children, and others avoid them, referring all kids to pediatric dental specialists. (Our dentists love to see kids!) Many dentists find root canal treatments to require too many specialized instruments and materials to be worth the effort and so refer those procedures to endodontists. We know some dentists who perform all tooth extractions themselves, and we know others who do not like pulling teeth, referring all extractions to oral and maxillofacial surgeons.
At PFD, when our doctors simply do not perform a procedure, they will tell you plainly and refer you to a compassionate and experienced specialist who does.
The Dentists at PFD Do Perform that Procedure but Anticipate Complications in Your Case.
The human body is amazingly complex and diverse among different people. There are instances in which a unique aspect of a certain tooth or jaw makes a dental procedure more complicated than usual. For example, our doctors Jill, Cara and Summer extract many teeth in the practice, but there are some scenarios in which we anticipate greater complications. We are unlikely to attempt extracting an impacted and infected lower wisdom tooth when we know that it will be difficult. Instead, we would refer you to an oral surgeon with greater experience in impacted wisdom teeth.
There is great diversity among the 32 permanent teeth a human adult has, which can lead to the potentiality for complications. At Prosper Family Dentistry, our doctors place great emphasis on gathering accurate and comprehensive information about your dental health. Through this detailed investigation, we are able to more accurately predict complications or difficult scenarios. Using our education and training to gather and process all pertinent information about your mouth enables to know when to refer procedures to specialists.
More Questions about Being Referred to a Dental Specialist?
Call Prosper Family Dentistry at 972-347-1145 today to schedule a consultation with one of our skilled, compassionate dentists. We can assess your unique situation and answer any question you have about the dental procedures you need, whether we perform them or refer you to a specialist.
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