Expert: Rafael Mosery,D.D.S. - 7/5/2006

Question
i have this dentist who is about 60 years old. she seems to take a long time for filings and bonding work. filings take about 1 hour to say 1 hour 10 minutes. the work that she has done has lasted without problems. she also has 2 dental assistants. perhaps her drills are outdated? she is just being carefull doing a better job? thats an acceptable amount of time?



also on the visit which was 2 years ago i need a filing but it was not done to be done later. now why would it not be done when found? if you left it would nt just get bigger and biger and more serious?

thanking you in advance.

Answer
It sounds to me like you have a very caring and good dentist. Would you prefer she get you out in 30 minutes and then find yourself with all kinds of problems because of rushed work?Drills outdated? Good dentistry has nothing to do with which drills she uses. Most of the technical improvements in dentistry you wouldn't even notice if you weren't made aware of them. She could get flat screen monitors and wow you but that wouldn't make her a better dentist .As far as the 2yo lesion, very often a conservative dentist would prefer to watch a particular lesion and restore only when necessary. Ofcourse that's a judgement call on behalf of the dentist and 2 dentists might have 2 different opinions that's why dentistry is an art not just a science. Stick with your dentist if this is all you have against her.
Good Luck,
Dr.Rafael Mosery