Diagnosis

Accurate diagnosis is vital to treatment success.  A good dentist should be able to correctly diagnose the cause of the dental problem and decide on the most effective course of treatment. 

Incorrect diagnosis often leads to incorrect and unnecessary treatment, and the patient may endure more pain and distress.  The lack of proper treatment due to incorrect diagnosis may cause or create more severe dental problems in the future. 

It is, therefore very important that you choose a good dentist who is knowledgeable and has the experience to provide precise diagnosis on your dental problems. It is most distressful to hear people say that, ‘the dentist has worked on the wrong tooth’!

Professional diagnosis at Bondi Dental

With 30 years of experience and constant upgrading of knowledge in dentistry, Dr Andrew Sih at Bondi Dental is well known for providing patients with ‘accurate’ diagnosis vital to treatment success.    

Dr Andrew Sih provides professional diagnosis by:

• Observation
• Listening to the patient
• Questioning the patient on details of his/her dental problems
• Studying a patient's medical and dental history
• Understanding a patient's needs
• Careful examination of soft tissues
• Charting
• Radiographs
• Study models

When a patient walks into Dr Andrew Sih’s dental surgery, Dr. Sih will first talk and listen to the patient to understand the patient’s complaint.

 Dr Sih will look for signs of abnormality on his face, study his medical background and dental history, then Dr Sih will carefully examine his oral condition with detailed charting.  In most cases, Dr Sih will use radiographs to identify problem areas.

Sometimes (when a patient does not know where the pain comes from), besides using radiographs, Dr Sih will do a ‘cold’ test on his patient’s teeth to identify the correct tooth causing the problem.

There was a time when an emergency patient came in during Christmas holidays with tears in her eyes because of severe toothache from a new dental bridge performed by another dentist.    Dr Sih was quick to diagnose that her pain was caused by an inaccurate bite of her bridge. 

Dr. Sih used a simple procedure to adjust the bite, which only took a few minutes, and the pain was gone.  The patient walked out with a ‘smile’ on her face.

If you have chronic dental problems that cannot be solved, or toothache that has lasted for a while, but are not able to find the correct treatment, please contact  Dr. Andrew Sih at (02) 9365 3988