How to Prepare For the Dentist

Health & Fitness

Do you have a dental appointment coming up? Are you feeling a little nervous and unsure how to prepare for it exactly? There are two different ways. If it is your first time going to that dentist you will want to prepare a little more and a little differently. If you have been to the top Waterford dentist before, there are a few simple things you will still want to do. Keep reading as our experts explain how to prepare for the dentist. 

The first list we are going to talk about is if you have already gone to that dental practice before.

First, you want to make sure that you show up early. Show up around 10-15 minutes before your appointment. If you show up late and they still can see you (there’s a chance you’ve already missed your chance then and need to reschedule), you will end up pushing the entire dental practice schedules back and everyone behind you will then be late. That is why it’s important to always be on time. 

Has anything inside of your mouth been bothering you since you last saw the dentist? If you have taken any notes about any pain or discomfort you are experiencing, make sure you bring those to the dental office. If you don’t have any notes, the night before your appointment, sit down for a couple of moments and think if anything unusual has been going on inside of your mouth. This will help you communicate and remember to share any of your concerns with your dentist during this time. 

If you have any questions in general about your oral health or something that you can be doing better, make sure that you write those down then. You don’t want to get home and realize that you meant to ask them a specific question. If you want you can also bring a pen so that you can write down any answers that the dentist says so that they are fresh in your mind. 

If there is anything else you want to show the dentist or ask them, make sure that you have it all ready to go before your appointment. Once you go to your appointment, you will be all ready and feeling prepared. 

Those were the steps to prepare yourself for the dentist if you have been before. If you have not been before, keep reading as we share those preparation tips. 

Many of these will be similar to if you have been before with a few additions. The first is that you want to show up a little longer in advance. You will have a couple of steps when you get to the dental office. One of the main ones is filling out paperwork. You will fill out any issues you have been experiencing, you will fill out anything you are allergic to, and they will ask you some more questions so that they can have an overall sense of where you are at. You will also need to sign a couple of forms. 

When you go to the dentist for the first time you will want to bring a couple of things with you. The first is identification, Most dental offices request a copy of your driver’s license or a form of government identification. If you have insurance, make sure that you bring your insurance card with you to make it a lot easier for them to work with your insurance and find you. Your identification will also be to verify that your name is the same as on the insurance card. Another thing that you will want to bring is money. You typically can bring cash, a debit card, or a credit card. Most insurance plans still require you to pay $20, sometimes you pay that to the dental practice and sometimes you pay that to the insurance company. If you do not have insurance, this is especially important that you bring money with you so that you can pay for your visit. 

You are most likely transferring from a different dental practice. You can beforehand call the previous dental practice and ask them to transfer all your records to the new practice. If this is uncomfortable for you or you have run out of time, you simply can ask the new dental practice ahead of time to contact your old dental practice and have everything sent to them. This way, it is prepared for your appointment and has already been sent. We recommend trying to get this process started as soon as possible before your appointment. 

Just like a regular appointment, you will want to write down anything that has been bothering you since you last saw a dentist. Since that dentist doesn’t know any issues you have had in the past, you also can let them know any problems you have experienced over the years so that they can be caught up. The more you are able to communicate with the dentist the better your experience will be.

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How does No Win – No Fee Work in professional negligence claims against Solicitors?

Health & Fitness

Emma Slade, a solicitor and partner specialising in Solicitors Negligence cases removes the mystery from no win, no fee agreements in solicitors negligence claims.

In a flummox, a client once asked me what a “no fee, no win” agreement was. I had to chuckle at that: if you don’t pay our fees, you certainly won’t win!! But I cannot blame that client. There is a lot to take in when talking about No Win, No Fee agreements – or to give them their correct title, Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA) – and to confuse it further, there is the added complication of understanding After The Event Insurance (ATEI).

Litigation can be expensive and in solicitors negligence cases, a client will have already suffered a financial loss so may struggle to afford the financial burden of having to pay lawyers fees on a monthly basis. By entering into a CFA, the solicitors take on that financial burden. The solicitors’ fees are deferred until the conclusion of the case. Whether the lawyer gets paid will depend on whether or not the claim is successful. If you win, you pay the costs, plus an uplift known as a Success Fee, if you lose, the fees get written off – hence the name “No Win, No Fee”.

There is obviously a risk for the solicitors when they agree to deal with a case on a CFA basis. They face the real possibility that the case will be lost so all the fees get written off and even if the claim succeeds the solicitor will have to wait until the case is over before getting paid. Because of this, the CFA provides for the Success Fee. This is a percentage uplift on the basic fees. The percentage is calculated on a whole host of issues, but it all really boils down to how we perceive the risk. The riskier the claim, the higher the success fee.

If you are successful in the claim, you will have to pay the Success Fee. If the other side have agreed to pay (or have been ordered to pay) your basic costs, you will get a large contribution towards those basic costs – hence the principle that “the Loser pays the Winner’s costs”. But what if you lose? The solicitors fees will get written off (no win – no fee) but what about “the Loser pays the Winner’s costs” principle? Are you going to be faced with a huge legal bill after all? That is where insurance comes in. If you don’t already have Legal Expenses cover, you may be able to buy insurance to protect you against an adverse costs order. Because we specialise in claims for solicitor negligence, we have an arrangement with an insurance company that provides designated insurance cover that enables us to provide you with an After The Event Insurance policy in cases where we conclude that the claim has merit.

Unlike your usual car or home insurance, you do not pay the policy premium up front. Like the CFA, the premium gets deferred to the end and will only become payable if you win your case. The amount to be paid for the insurance will depend on what stage in the proceedings the matter concluded and will be calculated as a percentage of the damages recovered. The closer to trial you get, the higher the percentage. The percentage cost can start from as little as 2.5% and rise from there as the case proceeds. The insurance premium cannot be recovered from the other side, so if you win the case you need to bear this in mind.

If you lose though, this is where the policy really comes into its own. Provided sufficient cover is purchased, it will pay the other side’s costs and reimburse you any expenses that you have had to pay out to third parties (eg. experts costs, court fees etc). Coupled therefore with a CFA, if you lose, the aim is to leave you no worse off financially than you were at the outset of the litigation. Wherever possible, we will always offer to fund dental negligence claims on a no win, no fee basis and with our facility to offer you specialised insurance protection, it is our aim to safeguard you from a large legal costs bill.

If you feel that you have a claim for compensation and require no win, no fee representation, please contact our solicitors negligence team.

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How Often Do You Really Need to Visit the Dentist?

Health & Fitness

Visiting the dentist is one of many people’s least favorite things to do, all that drilling and digging about in your mouth is hardly enjoyable and as such, keeping your teeth in great condition is worth doing. It’s not just the visiting of dentists that can cause problems, even finding a good dentist isn’t easy, especially if you are looking for a dentist with not just great skills, but also a calming bedside manner. I recently had an issue when I was traveling and spent an age searching for dentists in Fremantle, thankfully the one that I found was friendly, helpful and got the job done.

As much as you may want to avoid it, and even if you do have healthy teeth, you do need to get your teeth checked up on from time to time, just to make sure that everything is healthy in your teeth and gums, so how often should you really be visiting the dentist?

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Problem Free

If you look after your teeth through regular brushing and the avoidance of foods or activities that can cause damage to your teeth then an annual check-up is all you will need at the dentist. This annual check-up will just be so that the dentist can spot any changes in the way your teeth are growing or if any small problems are developing. IF you do look after your teeth then this check-up should be quick and very painless.

Possible Problems

Some activities that you can do to risk the health of your teeth included smoking, not brushing regularly, eating a lot of sugary foods and drinking a lot of things like coffee and red wine which will stain your teeth.  If you fall into this category then you are at a much higher risk of having dental problems and you should be going for a check-up at least twice a year if not 3 times. If you are high risk and you are getting regular check-ups then this will allow your dentist to spot any problems which you may develop early, the dentist can then start any treatments that he needs to make before the problem becomes bigger. Also if you are pregnant or are undergoing chemotherapy then you should also be getting regular check-ups.

Children

If you have children then it is important that you take them to the dentist at least twice a year, this is the time when the teeth are growing the most and if any corrections need to be made to straighten the teeth, then these should be done at an early to improve the chances of success. You don’t need to take your child to the dentist every time one of their baby teeth fall out but staying in regular contact with your dentist throughout this time will help your child best when it comes to the future of their adult teeth.

Nobody loves going to the dentist and the best course of action is to live a life then helps you to keep your teeth healthy, this way you can have an annual check-up that should be problem free.

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