"Do I feeel happy about making this choice".

       What is the best kind of dental restoration I could get from my dentist? Is this a question you have asked yourself in a situation where your dentist has diagnosed an existent condition and recommends you to have a prosthetic unit placed in your mouth? Dentist are accredited by the government to perform dental procedures and they are trusted by their patients to do what's in the their best interests. It is very important that a patient makes sure his or her dentist has sufficient training and work experience to undergo restorative procedures, especially when they are accompanied by surgical implementations.
       Once the patient feels comfortable with the work ethics and professionalism of their health care provider, he or she should show interest in knowing what kind of restorations are made available to the patient by the dentist. That is, how much does your dentist know about the diverse prothesis there are and the materials these are made of. When the wrong materials are chosen, patients could develop not only allergic reactions to them, but also could shorten the life time of the prosthesis. But, if one is to trust the dentist, how can one figure when the dentist has made the right choice for us, or not?.. Prosthetic devices differ among each other based on the quality of the manufacturing materials, quality of the manufacturing facility and expertice of the dental technicians involved in the manufacturing process. Therefore, your dentist may prepare a diagnosis, and order the fabrication of the specific restoration he or she believes you need, but it doesn' t mean you are getting what you are paying for.
     Patients should be proactive and demand from their dentist a copy of the materials being used in their prothesis by the dental laboratory. This will serve to acknowledge you are getting the quality materials you were promised to have. Many people may not be willing to ask this upcoming question and many dentist will feel they do not have an obligation to answer it, particularly because almost nobody asks it. How much of what you pay for your individual restoration goes to pay for the restoration itself from the manufacturer( the dental laboratory)? If you think this is not important, consider whether you will be willing to pay over $1000.00 for a dental crown that looks just as a natural tooth, or a crown that looks like a block with chicken scratches on its top, and a tooth like, not quite right though, color. If one has never looked at a tooth this close this may be more difficult to understand; however, the bottom line message is that the quality of your crown will definitively affect whether you decide to have it placed or not. So, how can you have any control over this? Demand to see the crowns before they are placed in your mouth and ask yourself whether they are worth your investment, for you are carrying them for years to come, nobody else. Also, keep in mind that the quality of your crown depends on how much time a lab technician has available to do a good job. As a patient, you may not know what is involved in making your prosthesis at the lab, but here are some important aspects to consider: If your prosthesis is made at a laboratory which is being paid at most 10% of what you pay for individual restorations, there is no way, you are getting a crown worth your money; unless the laboratory is willing to make unprofitable sacrifices to please your dentist. Are you one of those who, by now, believe this is just another example of individual rights to attain financial success by the dentist, and it is all right... you may be wrong, because we are not talking about a pair of shoes or a tooth brush, we are talking about your health, your life. The facts are that an experienced dental tecnician (s) who can deliver the level of quality you would expect , at least the one I would expect, for a $1700.00 crown, needs a minimum of 10 years to master his or her profession, which entails mastering materials handling techniques, color theories, oral functional and aesthetics principles. Tehnicians like these are often paid more than $70 an hour by their employer. Now, if your dentist refuses to invest from what you are paying him or her, more than $130 a crown to the lab, ask yourself, what kind of dental technician is making your $1700.00 crown, certainly not the one who will do the job you expect, for the lab cannot afford it on these prices; what sort of chicken scracthes you will have rushed into your mouth during your next dental visit? Also, if your dental laboratory is given less than 5 days to complete your case, truly, how much does your dentist care about your health ..humm, try this.: how much does he or she cares about your money!!?
        The only reason heath care professionals are getting away with this and making enormous profits is because patients have failed to educate themselves about this matter, and many dental laboratories have had to reluctantly, kneel before uncooperative and disrespectful doctors who are willing to take the next lab's call if this is offering a $5.00 discount over the $130.00 maximum they pay. Dentist are bombarded with advertisement campaigns driven to help them reach their financial goals. Several of these campaigns point to the fact that dentist should limit their laboratory expenditures to 10% of their earnings per case. as you may now know, this profit does not work to your advantage as a patient; you deserve to be treated as a human being, not as an account instead. Demand to see how much your laboratory work is costing your dentist, and expect a minimum of a 30% contribution from your price; demand to see what materials are being used; look at your crown, your denture or bridge and ask yourself "Do I feeel happy about making this choice". You can help us all reach a brighter future for our patients by increaing the life time of prosthetic devices that will not turn into a hazard for patients and reducing the overall cost of restorative dentistry.