Top Dentist and Best Dentist in Minneapolis

And, at least once a year, we again wonder who exactly determined who the top dentists are, and what criteria they used. We wonder, because as far as we know, there is no mechanism for looking at all the dentists in the Twin Cities; and, if there were, it would be very difficult to know by what measure one determines which dentist is better than another.

Suggested Best Dentist Criteria

So, after giving it some thought, we think we have some criteria people can use to measure the top dentist, the best dentist, or a least how their own dentist might rank.

School of Dentistry

Firstly, we think the school the dentist studied dentistry at is an important, — perhaps the most important thing — criteria for determining who a top dentist is. Just like there are some great schools of law and medicine, there are great schools of dentistry. Getting accepted at these schools is a challenge, and the competition is high. At the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, for example, the ratio of qualifying applicates to accepted students is well over 10 to 1.

People Skills

Just being smart, however, is not a sufficient criterion for a top dentist. For a patient to sincerely call the dentist a "great" dentist or a "top" dentist, he or she also must like and trust that doctor very much. So "people skills" play a big role too in what people use to judge their dentist, and consequently what other patients or friends say about a dentist is important in judgement.

Continuing Education

Secondly, we would think in the fast moving world of dentisty it is important to keep up with what others in the field are saying is important to know. So, good questions to ask might be about continuing education:

What seminars have you attended in the last two years?

Do you belong to a study group of dental colleagues?

What dental journals do you get and read?

Have you taken any classes in the last few years?

What other ways do you keep informed about advancements in dentistry?

Extent of Computerization

Thirdly, the digital world has strongly emerged into the world of dentistry. Probably one of the greatest boons to the modern dentist is digital radiography; i.e., digital x-rays. In years past, x-rays were taken on film and processed by chemicals to give the dentist an idea of what was going on in a patients mouth where things could not be seen. These film based x-rays were great for their time, but they are small, and the detail they show is, therefore, limited. They are also difficult to take and time consuming to process, so if the dentist might want another x-ray of the same area, it just might not get done.

Digital X-Rays

Digital x-rays have very many advantages to them. They are easy to take, so the dentist can always get a better angle or better resolution if wanted without having to wait long for the results (which are pretty much instantaneous digitally). More importantly, however, digital x-rays can be enlarged and even digitally manipulated to make decay and other problems stand out for the dentist. And, because they are digital, they do not decay, nor get lost very easily.

Intraoral camera

The photograph taken by an intraoral camera is pretty much like any other photograph, with the exception that it is designed to take a closeup picture inside the mouth of great detail. This picture can be of a tooth about to be worked on or was already worked on, or anything else in the mouth that may need to be recorded, or even just to show the patient.

An intraoral camera is similar to an x-ray in one sense: it takes a digital photograph of an area that is — especially for the patient — difficult to see. By taking an intraoral picture, the dentist can show the patient what he sees, then be better able to discuss what the problem is. In this way, the patient is more of a part of the of any treatment decision made, because the patient can also see what the problem is.

Digital photographs from an intraoral camera lead to greater trust between dentist and patient as well, since the patient can also see the problems the dentist sees, and then to follow up a before and after picture to show the patient what exactly was done.

For these reasons, we feel strongly that use of an intraoral camera is a good measure of a modern, state-of-the-art dentist, which any top dentist in the top 10 dentists should be.

Digital records

All record keeping should be done on computers now. A lot of good dentists still didn't have computers in their offices just 5 years ago. But today it may just doesn't work anymore without digital records, so any modern dental office needs to be computerized with respect to patient records at a minimum.

Patient Feedback Mechanism

How can a dentist improve if no mechanism exists to report a patient's poor or unpleasant experience? The ability to tell the dentist and the staff about the experience — good or bad, and anonomously if desired — is critical to improving the overall patient experience in a dental office. It can be an important way to make a good dentist a top dentist.

Patient Referrals

Finally, we think a great way to determine if you are a top 10 dentist is to look at the patients you have who refer their friends, co-workers and family to you. Why? Because dentistry is much more than just drilling and filling. It is listening and hearing too. So, if people think you are hearing what they are saying, they will trust you.

In the end, it's all about trust

After all is said and done, the question boils down to who the top dentist is for you. Is your dentist the best dentist for you? If you can say yes, then we say this dentist is in the top 10 ten dentists.

Now, that may mean that there a lot more dentists than 10 in the top 10 dentists, but in our experience that is just fine. No one is really the authority anyway on who is the best dentist.