Byranna,

How does one go about finding the top rated dentists. 1-800 dentist does not have ratings that I could find.

Hi Shelley,

I'm going to tell you a secret......... Top rated dentists and doctors generally get that title from their peers, not patient reviews. Which is not necessarily a bad thing because many patients often have somewhat of a distorted version of their dental experience because they were not informed properly to begin with. However, for the most part the rating system is similar to a popularity contest and the contestants are drs who wish to participate or those who have accepted the nomination. Not necessarily drs who have done anything special or practice any differently than anyone else.

In my opinion based on my experience in the field........it is wise to seek out a dentist who belongs to organizations other than the conventional ones or in addition to the ADA or the AGD because this indicates a person who is educated beyond the typical dental school arena. One who offers the latest techniques like CAD/CAM dentistry, laser dentistry, non mercury restorations, safe mercury removal......these dentists are somewhat more educated than others and tend to offer less invasive treatment options. Sometimes they are also a bit more informed of the mouth and body connection, but not always. However, someone could have the knowledge and all state of the art equipment and still be unskilled in what they do. There is no way to know the quality of their work unless you work chairside with them!!

The organizations that I would start with are....
IAOMT.org..... International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
and Holistic Dental.org

Seek someone who belongs to one or both of these organizations who also offers some of the techniques that I mentioned above. Terms like Biocompatible are also key notes to keep in mind because they indicate advanced education most of the time.

Shelley, I know you have been through hell....... at this point it will be hard to trust anyone...... and I so understand what you are going through. I have often thought to start a program of some sort that offered the public a list of competent dentists ....... I just have no idea how I would go about doing that since it is not practical to determine quality craftmanship without actually seeing it.

Let me know what you come up with and if I can help you somehow.... ~'.'~

Bryanna