General Dentist or Dental Specialist?

A conundrum often faced by patients is- when should we visit a General Dentist and when should we approach a Dental Specialist?

A General Dentist can usually perform all basic procedures and specialist procedures to a certain degree. These procedures might include root canals, crowns, dentures and basic surgeries. They often self-determine which specialized treatments they want to perform themselves and when they would prefer referral to a specialist. 

A Dental Specialist spends a longer time in dental college to receive additional training in performing more specialized oral care in a particular field of study. Besides performing all basic procedures, they can perform highly specialized procedures in their field.

It is always best to first visit your family’s trusted General Dentist for your treatment. This will generally result in you receiving the care and treatment you need while being easier on your wallet. ;)  If a complicated procedure is needed, you will be referred to a specialist anyway.

From my Clinic Diaries:

A week back, a young patient came into my clinic with a fractured wisdom tooth and an associated lemon-sized swelling. Though she accepted that the best course was to eventually extract the tooth, she was terrified that she was due to visit a specialist for major surgery. She had heard that wisdom teeth had to be removed surgically and envisioned a dramatic and painful scene involving drills, hammers and rivers of blood.

She was misinformed in this case. A general dentist would commonly refer a patient to an oral surgeon for a wisdom tooth extraction when the tooth is impacted. An “impacted tooth” is a tooth that has not completely erupted, or a tooth that is positioned awkwardly in the jaw and not erupting in a normal manner. A surgeon would usually have to perform a minor surgery which would involve minimal drilling of bone, wedging out the tooth with simple leverage and suturing of the gum.

My patient had a completely erupted wisdom tooth and I proceeded with a simple, uneventful extraction of the tooth. And of course…I used local anesthesia too! ;)