Why we insist on Consultations? – Dr. Shanaz

If you’ve ever contacted us through social media, emails, or even called our clinic with the intent of asking what is the best treatment for yourself, I’m sure you’ve constantly had this phrase/question thrown at you:

“Why don’t you come on over for a consultation?”

or

“Let our doctors have a look at you first, and they’ll let you know what’s the best treatment that’ll be fit for you”

Why the need for consultations? Well, it’s actually the first step to any sort of treatment medically or dentally. Or any sort of business for that matter.

Say for example, you needed to fix your leaky roof, would you expect the repairman to just show up and start repairing? Or if you had a car breakdown, the foreman wouldn’t just know exactly why it broke down.. They’ll have to examine it first, find out the cause, and then let you know what needs to be fixed and give you the bill after.

The need for a consultation comes from the thought process of breaking down your current complaint or concerned to What, Where, When, Why and How.

For us, as dentists, to understand your complaint, we would need to actually see you and have a look at your oral condition to identify the problem (have a visualisation), figure out why the problem occurred (coming out with a diagnosis), question you (history taking) on the duration of the current disease/condition/concerned/complaint, and then finally coming up with solutions on how to treat this problem (treatment plans).

Treatment plans can range from just a simple Filling or maybe a Scaling and Polishing to whole range of treatments such as Bridge, Implants, Braces, Whitening, Composite Veneers, Crowns and many others.

As other industries, there aren’t just one way to solve a problem. Therefore it is vital for us to have a good look at you to judge and see which treatments would be best suited for your needs. We take into consideration factors such as cost, time, value, longevity, prognosis, and others.

We understand as well, cause we’re just as human, that cost is a major issue. And that’s why it’s important for us to give you a range of treatment options! But do understand that consultations do take time, and it does warrant us to charge somewhat minimally. After all, that chair-side time with you is one chair-side less to others.

Our dentists are well trained in this particularly, so you can expect them to go through in detail, what options you have for a particular problem. But feel free to ask further if you have any doubts. I myself love it most when patients are interested in a treatment procedure. Gives me a chance to show off my knowledge, heh.

Email me at shanaz@story.drfauziah.com if you do in fact have any questions particularly. I’ll try my best to answer them!