You’ve just found a new dental practice in town. Something you’ve noticed is that this dental practice has dental associates in Seattle. It’s a term you never noticed with your previous dentists.
Now you want to know the difference. Is a dental associate good enough to work on your teeth? What’s the deal with the different title? Here’s all you need to know.
A Dental Associate Doesn’t Own the Practice
Dental associates in Seattle know what they’re doing. They’ve been through training, but there is just one thing different to the other dentists you’ve come across.
A dental associate doesn’t own their own practice. In other words, they’re employees of the dentist who does own the practice. The dental associate doesn’t run the business and has no say over how much people are charged or how the books are run. They turn up for their work at their scheduled hours and that’s it.
In some cases, this can mean better work. After all, the associate doesn’t have to worry about the running of the business. In other cases, it can mean you’re pressured into getting dental work that you don’t need. The associate may be pressured to encourage this by the owner of the practice.
When it comes to finding a new dentist, you’ll want to look into the owner as well as an associate who may become your dentist.
Dental Associates in Seattle Have Still Gone Through All the Same Training
A dental associate still goes through all the same training that a dental practice owner does. There is nothing different about this part of the process. That means you’re still getting great work.
Of course, you will want to find out just how long the associate has been out of dental school. The owner will have been out of the school longer and may have gone through more specialized training. The associate may be working their way up to that.
There’s nothing wrong with the latter. You just need to know before you agree to become a patient of the dental associate.
Dental Associates May Move Onto Other Practices
Something to remain aware of is that as an employee, the dental associates in Seattle may end up moving onto other practices. They can be fired from their jobs, or they may just not like working for their current boss. In some cases, they can decide to open their own dentist practice in the local area.
You’ll then need to decide what you’re going to do. Will you follow the associate to their new place of work, or will you stick with the same practice and try another associate? In more case than not, people get attached to the dentist that they’ve come to know.
Also keep in mind that you may not even end up seeing the same dentist or associate all the time. You can end up changing to different associates even if they’ve not moved on depending on where there are openings in the diary. Is this something you want to do?
Dental associates in Settle have still been through plenty of training. The main difference is that they’re employees and not owners.
