How to Choose a New Dentist, and What to Check Before You Switch
Choosing a dentist comes up at awkward moments — after a move, after a change in insurance, or after an office you have used for years stops feeling like the right place. Whatever prompted it, most of what you'd want to know can be worked out before you ever sit in a chair, and a short list of checks and questions will get you most of the way there.
Start with the practical fit
Start with the parts of the decision that have nothing to do with dentistry. Where is the office relative to the places you actually set out from — home, work, school drop-off? Can you get there at the times you're realistically free? An office you can't reach on a weekday afternoon is an office you'll find reasons to put off. It's also worth thinking about what you're likely to need over the next few years: someone keeping up with regular visits is weighing different things from someone who knows a larger piece of work is coming, and the latter will care more about how much a practice can handle in-house.
Sort out insurance before you book
If you have dental coverage, the network question is worth settling early in the process. Check with the office directly rather than relying only on a directory listing, and ask what it would mean for you if your plan isn't in network — paying out of network can be the right trade for the right office, but that's a choice to make knowingly rather than discover after a visit. It's also fair to ask how an office handles the paperwork: whether it files claims for you, or leaves that to you.
Check the license
This is a check you can do yourself, before you book anything. New Jersey's official state license-verification system, the Division of Consumer Affairs License Verification System, lets you look up a New Jersey dentist's license information online (New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs).
Questions worth asking before you book
Once a practice is on your shortlist, call and ask:
- What will a first appointment cost, and how do you handle my insurance?
- How do you handle it when a patient has an urgent problem?
- What happens at a first visit?
- If I need treatment, how will you explain the options and the costs, and when?
How the answers come back matters as much as what's in them: you're listening for whether someone is willing to explain, and whether the explanation makes sense to you. If it's been a while since your last appointment, what a first visit back to the dentist involves is worth reading separately.
If you're switching from another dentist
If you already have a dentist, switching mostly comes down to your records and any treatment that's already under way.
HHS says that, under HIPAA, a patient has a right of access to copies of their records, including X-rays or other images in the record, from a provider covered by HIPAA (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)).
In practice, ask the new office how it prefers to receive records, and follow that. If treatment is already under way, tell both offices and ask how they'd like to hand it over. Both conversations are easier to have before a first appointment than after it.
Signs a practice may not be a good fit
None of the following is a judgement about anyone's clinical work. They're the things that tell you a practice isn't a fit for you:
- Pressure to decide on the spot.
- Findings or costs that aren't explained in terms you understand.
- Questions brushed off, or answered as if you shouldn't have asked.
Any of these is a reason to slow down, ask again, or keep looking. None of them obliges you to book.
The next step
Dental Associates of Lodi is at 147 Main St, 2nd Floor, Lodi, NJ 07644, and the dentist named on the site is Dr. Steven Liao. If you want to put the questions above to this office, the first-visit page is the place to start, and the phone number is 862-247-8030. On insurance, the practice's insurance page says it verifies insurance before treatment and files claims; the practice's insurance and payment options are set out there.
Sources
- New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. "License Verification System (welcome page)." https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification/
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). "Do individuals have a right under HIPAA to get copies of their x-rays or other diagnostic images, and if so, in what format?" Updated 2016-06-24. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/do-individuals-have-a-right-under-hipaa-to-get-copies/index.html
