I have met with Dr Nikolas and he is a very sharp dentist and business man. He has a group of good dentists working for him. My little sister is an orthodontist who works in one of his clinics.
Let me start by saying that I am a dentist so my answers will be from a dentists perspective.
One comment that you made makes me wonder about public perception of dentistry. First of, let me say that we too take the hippocratic oath, and the first thing we learn is to do no harm. So I highly doubt anyone would drill before asking questions.
I love educating my patients, although most patients say that they trust me with my decisions and they let me do my job, I still want them to take an active role in their treatment. I tell them to think of me as their coach, I will show them what I believe is best. if they need more Clarification we talk more, show more pictures and articles possible. I wouldn't start any procedures until we both are on the same page. What I am trying to say is that I want people to take ownership of their problem.
I hear stories everyday that the patient had a small cavity but the dentist had to do root canal. Sometimes what may seem small to people is a very big problem.
I hear people say, yeah but my tooth doesn't hurt. I understand, but if you wait until it hurts, it generally becomes more expensive, more painful and more time consuming.
I hear people say: I am old for all this. I had a patient celebrate her 100th birthday. When she was 92 I had to replace a few crowns, her son wanted me to pull her teeth, when we say down to talk about it we decided on fixing and keeping the teeth. She lived 7 years after that, she thanked me every time she came back because she said she can chew her food very easily and that's the only thing that is easy for her now. I have done implants on 80 years Old patients just because we are living longer and last thing we want is to have more problems when we are older, crankier, and with less patience.
People say, well I just broke one tooth why are you telling me that I need work on more than one tooth? Problem is that most dentists just fix the broken tooth and never look at what caused the problem to begin with. Grinding, faulty bite, incorrect design of restorations, wrong material .... These could all contribute to more
Problems down the road.
One thing that is very important is the level of education that each dentist has had and also the level of their continuing education that they take. That can determine their level of understanding the whole mouth approach rather than a single tooth fix/patch.
Generally after my exam I hear patients say, I have never had such a thorough examination. I work closely with Ear nose Throat docs, with Gastroenterologist, sleep specialist, physicians, there are just too many medical problems that have oral manifestations that could very easily go undiagnosed.
Find a dentist that has many hours of continuing education, one that can do more of preventive dentistry to avoid future problems.
Sorry about the long post. Hope it makes sense.
