Roughly a month ago I decided to go see a dentist – for the first time in five years. Yes, I know, it’s appalling, but what’s a broke college grad who works a ton of odd jobs supposed to do? Pay for the dentist himself? Thank you, no. I’ll just stop drinking soda, skip the sweets after dinner, brush twice a day and floss every once in a blue moon.
Yes, I also realize that I haven’t been out of school for five years, so I probably should have seen the dentist while I was still covered under my parent’s insurance and that I did work a full time job that covered me for a little over a year, but unless your teeth actually hurt, how often does it cross your mind?
This time around, however, I will be taking full advantage of every health benefit offered to me – and, with that thought process, I started looking around for a dentist in my area.
First stop: my dental provider’s website to see which dentists are part of their network. Turned out I do not have to choose a preferred dental practitioner, unlike for my medical coverage, and can even bop between dentists if I desire.
Obviously, the first criteria in my search was location. Other than that the only other requirement in my book was that they speak my language. Honestly, what else do I know about dentists and their credentials? I mean, they at least need a college degree, right?
The deciding factor for me became scheduling and when they could see me. The first dentist I called, even though they said they spoke English on the website, answered the phone in Korean and then had trouble finding someone who actually spoke English. Next. Called a few more, no openings. Finally, I found one that could fit me in within the week, so bing-bang-boom, sign me up.
After reflecting on this whole process, I realized that I obviously must not be the only person dealing with this sort of thing, and, unless you get a referral from a family friend (I have no referrals in my city), how else do you make these types of decisions?
Ironically, it took me a few minutes to connect the dots, but I obviously work for PriceDoc and the fact that dentists are listing their prices is really the only other factor that I could have considered with my laymen’s knowledge. Unfortunately for me, at the time we were only connecting providers and consumers in the Seattle, WA area. Now however, we are nationally launched and there are over 60 dentists available in the Los Angeles area.
I wish I had more criteria to offer when considering a provider, but at least now we can take price into account. If you have other suggestions, leave them in the comments!
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