Dr. Alan Paradis: So why would I want to look for a board-certified prosthodontist as opposed to a prosthodontist. what’s the difference? How can it affect a patient’s treatment?
Dr.David McFadden: Well is like any expert in any field. The commitment to education and becoming outlier if you will somebody who’s good done everything there is doing a specialty taken all the exams and attain the status that separates us from the pack. Dr. Paradis and I not right but doctor Paradis also board certified in the implant dentistry and there’s less than 20 of the people practicing dentists out there that are board certified in prosthodontics and board certified by the American academy of implant dentistry. So it’s a very small number of people that really I think care about patient outcomes.
Dr. Alan Paradis: And I think it’s important to note that implant dentistry all becoming a popular treatment option for patients is not a dental specialty recognized by the American Dental Association. So in order to perform all phases of implant dentistry doctor needs to train in the surgical and the prosthetic aspects of the treatment in other words the ability to place a dental implant and the ability to restore an implant. These special levels of training are hardly achieved in one individual.
Dr.David McFadden: And to speaking to that point is there are so many misrepresentations of specialty training and dentistry that I think it warns a little discussion here. Everyone in America knows the phrase cosmetic dentist or cosmetic dentistry not a specialty but is a general dentist who has decided he wants to attract a higher level patient by advertising that he does cosmetic dentistry Speak to that a little bit what are the requirements?
Dr. Alan Paradis: Well call yourself that there are no requirements to be able to say that you are a cosmetic dentist however everyone.
Dr McFadden: You have to graduate from dental school yet.
Dr. Alan Paradis: I think it’s important to know that most prosthodontics most prosthodontist consider all dentistry cosmetic dentistry and I think you’ll find there are plenty of patients running around with not very cosmetic dental treatment that you all for the public has noticed.
Dr. Mc Fadden: Everybody have a friend or family member who went to a cosmetic dentist and didn’t get the outcome that they expected but there’s all other misnomers or fraudulent type of phrases that general dentist used to try to attract a higher calibre of patient. Implant dentistry is one, cosmetic dentistry is another, we also have reconstructive dentist. Again is a general dentist masquerading as prosthodontics because that is our specialty. You’ve got neuromuscular dentistry you’ve got sedation dentistry. None of those phrases qualified as specialty dentistry. Prosthodontics is the only specialty in dentistry tailored for the adult patients with complex dental needs.
