Trust

Everyone that I have dealings with, I trust. My car salesman of 30 years, my insurance sales person of 35 years, and the 3 surgeons that performed surgery for me these past 7 years. I trust my staff and my best friends.

Why am I telling you this?

When I have a new patient in my practice, I always feel that I must gain their trust as quickly as I can.  One of the best ways to do this is to photograph virtually every tooth that I treat so that I can show my patient what is under their 25 year old crown or mercury filling. It is indeed true that a picture is better than a 1,000 words.

This is what was INSIDE the crown that I removed yesterday from the mouth of a relatively new patient:

So what the heck is all the brown stuff inside the crown?

Tooth decay and leakage. Old dentistry allows saliva to get underneath  the filling or crown and destroy the tooth. In non-dental terms, think of the 25 year old shingles on your roof that start to allow rain and snow to leak and get inside your house.

If  the dentist cannot show you a large x-ray of tooth decay under a filling or crown OR doesn't take a photo to explain why the old dentistry is being removed, then I would have a problem TRUSTING the dentist.

Think about who you can trust.