How to Find the Right Orthodontist in your Locality?

There are different specialties within the dentistry profession. One of them is the Orthodontist. Orthodontists are the experts in the proper placement of the teeth and alignment of the teeth and jaws when the patient is still in the age of growth, and is undergoing changes in the jaw shape and size. Finding orthodontists is not an easy process unless one has a recommendation to visit a particular practitioner. Orthodontists are specially trained for various orthodontic procedures like alignment of the teeth to make them look better, jaw movement modifications, and with the proper placement of teeth they produce a better smile.

Here are a few treatment procedures an Orthodontist specializes at –

• Using fixed and removable appliances to properly align the teeth, straighten them for proper occlusion
• Places braces, the normal or invisible ones for the proper alignment of the teeth
• Proper alignment of the jaws using external appliances like head gears, chin cups etc.
• Correction of gaps between the teeth, treating over bite, cross bite and deep bite
• Helping in reduction of oral habits by using various appliances

These orthodontists are skilled and well qualified, treating the patients in a better way than a graduated dentist who has not specialized in the same. They perfectly explain what the patient has to do next after a treatment is completed, so that the proper alignment guided by them is maintained in future too.

How to find the best orthodontist?

• Firstly, contacts and reference is the best. Try to ask your friends or family members if anyone had got any orthodontic treatment done with any Orthodontist and if he is good enough to visit for your treatment.
• Search online for your locality. In Google maps or Google local to find the best Orthodontists in your locality and you can contact the orthodontist. In the Google maps too, there are reviews usually written by people who might have visited them and they share their experience.
• Post in public forums or Q&A zones – One of the easiest way is the Yahoo! Answers where you ask for the information and there are many genuine users who try to help you with the best leads.
• If you are on any Dental Insurance plans, then you may contact the insurance provider to get the information about the best Orthodontists around you, and then some research about them online would give you an idea to find the best one for you.
• If at all there are any Dental colleges around your location, this is the best way to find a good dental specialist in any field. Visit the college and check for the best staff, the HOD and they are the best experienced in their field with years of experience to reach the present level.

Once you have listed out a few good Orthodontists in your locality, you should be confident enough to ask them a few questions before fixing with one. Here are a few things you can ask –

• What is the experience of the dentist? i.e. since how long is he practicing in the Orthodontic field?
• How many patients has he successfully treated till now? And if you can, ask whether he has any good success stories with the before / after photos of patients he has treated, with same complaint as you have.
• Is the Orthodontist qualified with the National association, if any (this is what one cannot ask but can research about, online)
• Does the Orthodontist provide any negotiation in the fee, based on your Dental plans and insurance coverage?

If you are from the U.S. you can just enter the search term as Orthodontist in Google, and then in the box shown in the results you need to enter your city or PIN code, and then Google lists the known orthodontists in that locality. This would help in preparing a list to select one from.