How to Use Social Media to Find a Good Dentist

If you are on the market for a good dentist, you have your cut out for you.  Any kind of service provider in a large metropolitan is sure to have a large market of service providers.  In many cases, it is not a question of freedom of choice but freedom from choice.  Seriously, there’s so much choice out there, it’s very hard to make heads or tails of the choices you do get.

This is especially true when you’re looking for something as basic as dental services.  In any typical American city, there are hundreds of dentists.  So how do you make a choice? 

The great news is that you can use social media to get a shortlist going.  Here’s how you do it:

Be specific regarding your location requirements

As I have mentioned earlier, if you’ve lived in a large metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay area, there’s probably hundreds, if not, thousands of providers there.  However, you can make things easier for yourself by focusing on the specific district you live in.  For example, if I lived in Los Angeles, I can type in LOS ANGELES DENTIST and retrieve hundreds of local search results.

Alternatively, I can focus on the area I live in, for example Westwood, and I would pull up a shorter list.  This is the best way you can start paring down on your retrieved list of service providers.  Be very specific regarding location because you don’t want to drive to the other side of town just to get dental services done.

Be specific about the kind of work you’d like done

Just like with the practice of medicine or law, dental work is very specialized.  There are dentists that focus only on cleaning others. There are those that focus on extractions.  Others are purely about cosmetic dentistry.  So be very clear as to where they specialized in.  Make sure that it’s the kind of work you’d like done.

You might be interested in having your teeth worked on a big name dentist but if that person isn’t really specialized in the kind of work you’re looking for, you are probably paying too much money for basically standard results.

Cross-reference recommendations with local dentists’ websites

Now that you have shortened your list, you should load all those websites and take a look at the testimonials and which people referred them.  Also, ask your friends if they recognize the names that you pulled up.  If your friends live in the same general area as you and had dental work done in the past, chances are quite good that they might have done business with the dentist on your shortlist. Cross-reference their feedback and take a look as to whether it matches up with the information listed in the dentist’s website.

Note the dentist’s training

While a great dentist from a great school is definitely a great asset, you shouldn’t get too caught up in the dental school the dentist came from unless you’re dealing with somebody just fresh out of school.  If you’re dealing with somebody who doesn’t really have a track record, it’s a good idea which school they come from.  The more prestigious the dental school, the more peace of mind you should that this person at least knows what he/she is doing.

With that said, if the person really had several years under his belt, it’s probably a good idea to just disregard school altogether and just focus on that person’s specialized training and background and experience.