How to Choose an Orthodontist
As you go through the process of evaluating your child’s need for orthodontic treatment, you may end up visiting two or more orthodontic offices for initial consultations. This will inevitably lead to the question of which office to choose. Clearly, there are many factors to consider. Below are some of those factors along with the reasons we believe many of our current and past patients made the decision to choose our office for their orthodontic treatment needs.
Practice type: Many offices these days are of the corporate-owned multi-location and/or multi-doctor type. Our practice is of the traditional type as it has only one location and is owned by Dr. Chapman. This means all appointments will be at this location, and the only orthodontist you will see during treatment is Dr. Chapman. Since we are privately owned and there is no pressure from outside sources to do a certain amount of business, we are always able to keep our patients’ and parents’ best interests in mind.
Practice size: Because we have a small practice, we are able to very consistently get our patients seated on time for their appointments and to finish those appointments in a timely manner without running behind due to patient volume. It brings us a great deal of pride when we hear parents say things like, “We went to another office first, and it just felt like a cattle call,” and “Wow, you guys are always so fast!”, and “I didn’t even have time to finish my coffee and read this magazine article.”
Location: Within about a 5 mile radius are approximately 8 public elementary schools, 3 public middle schools, and 2 public high schools, as well as several private schools. Our Northwestern Middle and Milton High School patients often walk over for their after-school appointments.
Conservative treatment recommendations: Dr. Chapman tries to be as conservative as possible with his treatment recommendations. Examples would include attempting non-extraction treatment in some cases where another orthodontist wanted to pull teeth, offering partial treatment (such as top braces only) rather than full in cases where that option may apply, and taking a more hands-off approach with many younger patients we see by not recommending Phase I treatment as often as some other offices may.
Treatment timing: Whenever treatment is recommended, Dr. Chapman likes to wait until what he feels is the ideal time for starting in order to have the most efficient start-to-finish treatment time. This usually means waiting for more baby teeth to fall out and more progress with permanent teeth coming in. We have found from parents’ comments that we often are more patient about starting treatment than some other offices and that many times a sense of urgency has been created elsewhere. While there is truly no right or wrong answer here, this is simply the approach we like to take to minimize our patients’ time in braces.
