Oral Health Practitioners
aka mouth care coaches
These valuable dental professionals are passionate to help and coach you how not to need dental services beyond a twice yearly checkup and clean if they can. Oral health practitioners have studied less about complex dental diagnosis and restorative smile engineering and more about mouth disease prevention, maintenance and initial management. They’re not dentists or dental specialists, but can be more willing to listen to your situation!
Oral health practitioners are especially excellent with kids, the anxious and the elderly. These lovely therapists will likely hold your hand while they work with you to brighten your smile, take care of your gums, or help manage your preventive oral care needs. They often support general dentists or dental specialists such as orthodontists and periodontists. They can be:
Dental hygienists - specialised in teeth cleaning and gum care management for all ages;
Dental therapists - specialised in kids dental care, including fillings and some extractions, you may know them as “school dentists”. Some have done further study to extend their services to adults in certain situations; or
Oral health therapists - qualified in both dental hygiene and dental therapy
Yes, it can be confusing! Not currently available for ViDe online consults, these mouth care coaches will ideally become an integral part of your yearly mouth care management, just like a fitness instructor does with your fitness or a financial advisor does with your finances.