My Philosophy of Practice

Our Mission
Our goal is to help all of our patients become healthy by providing state-of-the-art care with minimal discomfort, and then showing them how to stay that way.  We want to develop meaningful, long term relationships with our patients.  We value health-centered, wellness-focused, optimum care dentistry, and seek to serve those who are like-minded.  Only ignorance, indifference, or neglect can prevent our patients from having a future based on choice instead of chance.  Our commitment to our patients is to take the time to listen so that we may better understand their wants and needs, and  help them to be as healthy as they choose to be.

We understand that choosing a new dentist and a dental health team can be a challenge, leaving you with some uncertain feelings. We are writing this to share more specifically our beliefs concerning the types of services we offer and why. Some time ago we wrote a belief statement which clarifies the purpose of our practice. Briefly stated it is this....

"We believe each person has the right to become as healthy as they choose to be. Our desire is to help our patients achieve a higher sense of self-esteem and well-being by enhancing their appearance, their comfort and ability to sustain health. We achieve this by providing dental health care of the highest quality each patient can accept that is consistent with their dental needs and individual value for health."

In short, our goal is to help you become as healthy as you choose to be. This is a major departure from the way in which we were trained. Instead of telling you how healthy you should be, we try to help you understand your choices about dental health and let you make an informed choice regarding health and treatment needs.

Your first decision in this regard is how you would like to begin your relationship with us. 

There are FOUR LEVELS of care in which a person may wish to be treated in any dental practice.  Which one are  you looking for?

People in crisis or with an emergency or accident need immediate help. We see emergencies immediately, whenever possible. This is not the primary focus of our practice. We are happy to see emergencies, but do not maintain patients in a long-term emergency or crisis-only status.

Patients who choose this level of care desire treatment only when something breaks or becomes uncomfortable. Generally, patients at this level prefer short term cursory type examinations, screening for more obvious advanced problems. They usually want to correct immediate problems with as little effort and cost as possible. Folks at this level are not yet ready for either thorough or preventive treatment. They live by the adage, "let's do as little today as possible and let tomorrow take care of itself."

People who choose this level of care want to take an active part in the prevention of present and future disease problems.  They choose repair solutions that are more short range in duration, knowing full well that the dental treatment performed today will have to be repeated again in the near future. This level of patient participates in dedicated preventive efforts to prevent problems in the future, but takes care of today’s needs in less than an optimum manner.

Patients at this level are similar to people described in Level 3. They choose to have comprehensive examinations, Master Planning, and the formulation of a long-term treatment plan for health and repair to achieve a future based on choice, not chance. Like the Maintenance Care Patient, these patients are very concerned about treating the causes of dental disease and not simply the effects, except they want all treatment provided to be completed in the most lasting fashion possible.

I hope this clarification makes sense to you. It is not uncommon for people to begin at one level and progress to a higher level over time. Please note that I draw the line between level 2 & 3 care. We have no desire to become an emergency only practice, or a "drill, fill, and bill practice", whose primary focus is on "mechanical treatment" of disease instead of prevention and wellness. My job is to get you healthy, and teach you how to remain that way. This doesn’t mean we won’t treat emergencies. I am just a phone call away should you have an emergency, but my goal is to raise the level of health of my patients to the point that emergencies are a rarity, instead of commonplace.

All Insurance plans, Capitation plans, HMO plans, and Government plans place their emphasis on Urgent Care (Crisis Care) and Remedial Care, both of which in our judgment are not preventive in nature. These plans emphasize/encourage a disease-centered approach to health ("wait until it's broken, and then just fix it"). Rarely is the effort of the Insurance system, or the people involved in the system geared towards preventing disease from occurring, or if it has occurred to allow treatment of the problem in an Optimum (long-term) manner.

Please be comfortable in asking us any questions that come to mind. We want you to share your thoughts and ideas with us in an open, comfortable manner. You deserve to have the level of dental care that is consistent with your value for health. When communication and concern for each other’s welfare is high, successful results are more likely to occur.

As you might suspect, all dentists are focused on providing care at one or more of these four levels. 
Now that you've decided what level of care you want to receive, the next step is to choose a dentist who can best meet your individual needs.  What level of quality, care, and concern are you looking for?
For a look at the Four Levels of Dentists, click here.

  Copyright ©2008 Daniel T. Quevedo
  All rights reserved