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3 Questions You Must Ask Your Dentist Before Treatment

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Do you have issues with your teeth and are finally able to fix them? Have you finally gotten good dental insurance but you're not sure where to even begin with your new dentist? Getting the teeth that you've always dreamed about is a worthy accomplishment, but the journey isn't always an easy one. 

Knowing what questions to ask your dentist can certainly help ease the confusion that you may be feeling right now. Making a list of these questions ahead of time will help to ensure that you will actually remember them and be able to discuss them with your doctor. Some questions that you may want to ask include the following. 

1. Are there other treatment options? After your initial x-rays and exam, your dentist will discuss what he or she feels will be best for your situation. But what he or she thinks is best will not always align with what you feel is right. For instance, he or she might recommend extracting a tooth because it would take a lot of effort to save it and your insurance might not cover the associated additional costs. But if you are willing and are able to pay for any additional treatment, getting a dental crown on that tooth instead may be a better option for you. 

2. How long will this process take? If your teeth aren't that bad, you may be able to get everything fixed in one go. If there are more serious issues or you're having a dental crown put in place, having everything done may take multiple sessions over several weeks. If it's difficult for you to get time off of work to deal with health issues, you'll want to discuss this with your dentist so that he or she can prioritize your treatments and get the most important items completed first. 

3. What sort of pain management do you offer? Aside from some mouth tenderness or soreness after treatment, getting even a root canal or a dental crown should not cause serious pain. Although these treatments may have a bad reputation at times, anesthetics and the knowledge of how to apply them are better now than they ever have been before. A good dentist will offer multiple options for pain management both during treatment and after. 

This may mean simply giving you an additional shot of anesthetic, it may mean giving you the shot in a different location, or it may mean knocking you out completely. This is something that needs to be discussed beforehand with your dentist so that both of you are in agreement and know what to expect.


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