What is the difference between a dentist and a pediatric dentist in a clinic: the difference between professions and who is better to make an appointment with a child?

What do doctors do?

A dentist is a specialist with secondary education . After a new specialist graduates from medical school, he has the right to specialize in the treatment of hard dental tissues, dentin and enamel.

Therefore, he will not be able to help a patient who came to him with acute pain, but he has the right to perform several manipulations:

examines the oral cavity and finds out the cause of pain;
provides therapy for gum disease;
fills a tooth with minor damage;
Refers for consultation to a specialist doctor for deep caries.

If a dental specialist encounters a problem in the oral cavity that he does not have the right to solve, he must refer the person to another doctor with a higher education.

A dentist is a specialist who studied at a higher educational institution for six years and spent another year in internship. He has a wide medical specialization and can perform a variety of manipulations in the mouth:

treat and remove teeth;
insert dental implants;
straighten the bite.

Few people understand what exactly distinguishes a dentist from a dentist. But knowing the different areas of dentistry will allow you to quickly find the dentist you need.

Dentist-therapist

A specialist in this profile by occupation gets the opportunity to perform therapy for particularly complex diseases of the oral cavity of the dentition.

Operations are performed using local anesthesia, as well as a preliminary examination of incoming patients in order to make the correct diagnosis.

He is trained and has practical experience in performing surgical interventions to treat skull bones and other problem areas of bone tissue.

In addition, his responsibilities include sanitizing the oral cavity, whitening teeth and removing them if necessary, and performing preventive examinations at specified intervals.

If the patient is missing one or more teeth in a row, the therapist can refer to a prosthetist to eliminate this situation.

What is the difference between specialties?

Both of these professions differ in the level of training and the type of medical manipulations that they can perform. Based on the job description, the dentist does not perform certain types of therapy.

Many specialists with secondary education say that they perform therapy no worse than those with higher education and support such arguments with reviews from people they treated.
Without the proper level of knowledge, it is impossible to correctly deal with complex cases and avoid side effects.
If a specialist does not improve his qualifications, he will not have the right to offer a gentle method of therapy to a person.

The presence of a specialist’s category affects not only his professionalism, but also his salary.

You don’t need to think that when you come to see a dentist, he will be able to solve all your problems. The list of diseases is wide, so one specialist cannot treat them. Dentists come in the following areas :

Therapist. Such a doctor has the same responsibilities as a dental specialist. In addition, he has the right to solve more complex problems with gums and teeth and has a wide range of responsibilities:
installs fillings in case of tooth decay;
provides treatment for severe gum inflammation;
performs teeth whitening procedure;
carries out prevention.
Orthopedist . A doctor in this specialty restores teeth that are dilapidated or have lost their aesthetics using prosthetics. He makes impressions of the teeth, which the dental technician then uses to make dentures. In addition, he tries on and secures the prosthesis in the oral cavity.
Orthodontist. A large number of patients turn to such a doctor. Its main task is to restore the dentition and give the patient a beautiful smile.
The presence of bite defects can not only spoil the appearance, but also cause severe pathological changes in the functioning of other organs.
The main responsibilities of a doctor in this specialization:
- restore an even row of teeth on the gum surface;
correct the normal growth of permanent dental units;
provide practical recommendations for the prevention of malocclusions.
Surgeon. The specialist has the right to carry out the following types of manipulations:
deals with the extraction of healthy teeth that interfere with the normal growth of neighboring ones;
corrects dental deformations, removes wisdom teeth;
carries out various types of prosthetics.
Periodontist. The responsibilities of this specialist include:
installation of finished structures after all stages of the examination and issuance of recommendations for their care;
monitoring the patient at all stages of therapy, installing braces and other devices.

Periodontists deal only with periodontal therapy, the soft tissues surrounding the teeth.

Surgeon

The surgeon's general responsibilities include the following:

removal of diseased teeth, in the event that the therapist has declared their restoration impossible or inappropriate;
removal of healthy teeth in situations where they interfere with the growth of nearby dentition units;
correction of anomalies that arise in the dentition, as well as the elimination of teeth that erupt poorly, which interferes with the growth of other units in the row, this applies to wisdom teeth and units that grow beyond the required set;
helps in case of abnormal growth of teeth from the second row, as well as lateral incisors;
inserts implants and performs various types of prosthetics, depending on the need.

Features of working with a child of a professional with higher education

Children's health is made up of various factors, one of which is children's teeth. Pediatric dentistry is an independent branch in this field of medicine.

Pediatric dentistry is the most complex, unlike adult dentistry. In this case, both the diseases themselves and the methods of therapy are completely different.
Also, in this area of dentistry there are no adult infections.
All procedures must take place under anesthesia. You can’t do anything without it, not even treat caries. The healthy psyche of a child is the main task for a doctor.
Anesthesia should occur in such a way that children do not see or feel it; a good dentist knows how to do this.
In children, various pathological processes in the mouth develop much faster.
For example, baby teeth quickly become infected with caries, unlike permanent teeth. In just a few months, a child’s caries can turn from a dark spot into a deep formation or even completely collapse.
When treating children's teeth, it is necessary to take into account the location of future permanent elements; this is not the case in adult dentistry.
Not all doctors know how to work with children’s teeth, so the pediatrician has a separate specialty – “pediatric dentist.”

A pediatric dentist should be a sensitive and kind person who knows his job. He always knows that children are afraid of the dental office and tries to prevent this.

A self-respecting children's doctor will not allow small children to sit in line outside his office. He is able to captivate the child so that he completely forgets that he is in the dentist’s office.

Who is a dentist?

The dentist underwent five years of training at a medical university and received the appropriate specialization. He is then required to complete a year of internship or two years as a residency student.

He knows the structure of teeth and jaw quite well, having studied biochemistry, physics, molecular biology and biomechanics.

In addition, his curriculum included about a dozen different other subjects.

After graduating from a medical institution, a general practitioner has the right to choose several specializations or just one.

When choosing a pediatric dental practice, its significant differences from adult dental practice are discovered.

A dentist in the field of practicing surgery is able not only to treat teeth, but also to remove them, install fillings and apply local anesthesia.

Features of the work of a mid-level specialist

Based on the diploma received, the dentist, as mentioned earlier, can perform various dental procedures, but at the same time limits complex types of treatment, for example, treatment of pulpitis, prosthetics.

Patients should know that despite the promises made by the doctor, it is impossible to carry out complex medical procedures without the appropriate education and experience .

Only a good dentist with experience and professional knowledge can achieve a high-quality treatment result.

To improve his qualifications, after a certain time, the dentist must necessarily upgrade his category.

A doctor with a second category - his work experience must be more than 3 years after receiving an education document. He must know the theory well and have at least some work experience.
A doctor of the first category - he must have at least 7 years of work experience. He is obliged to periodically improve his knowledge in his field.
A doctor with the highest category must have at least 10 years of experience in his specialty. This category corresponds to high theoretical and practical training.

Dentist

An ordinary medical worker has a secondary medical education and is able to solve relatively simple tasks of working with hard dental tissues.

His job responsibilities do not include the treatment of complex diseases of the oral area with complications that can be handled by a specialist with more advanced qualifications.

If necessary, such a specialist is able to conduct an initial examination of a patient admitted to him and refer him for treatment to a more experienced specialist.

conclusions

There are a lot of specialists in dentistry, and the activities of each of them are different. It is important to remember that you can avoid serious oral health problems and trips to dental clinics if you follow the basic rules:

brush your teeth twice a day;
visit the dentist once a year, even if there is no reason for this;
Do not delay your visit if your gums become sensitive or inflamed.

By following these conditions, you will protect yourself from problems in the future. Do not be afraid of doctors; many diseases begin completely asymptomatically, and only a specialist will be able to identify the threat in time.

Legal basis

Providing services to children requires particularly careful adherence to safety and hygiene standards. The implementation of such activities is strictly controlled at the state level. The basic requirements for pediatric dental care are formulated in the following regulations:

Federal Law No. 99-FZ dated May 4, 2011, containing general rules in the field of licensing in the Russian Federation;
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2012 No. 291, which defines the procedure for issuing licenses to conduct various types of medical activities;
Order of the Ministry of Health dated November 13, 2012 No. 910n, which provides standards for the provision of dental care to minors.

Who is eligible to obtain a license

In accordance with paragraph 1 of the regulation approved by Resolution No. 291, both companies of any legal form and individual entrepreneurs have the right to obtain permission to provide dental services to children. At the same time, of course, they should take into account the list of requirements for a pediatric dentistry license: permits to operate are issued only to those applicants who meet the established standards.

Who issues licenses

The regulation on licensing of pediatric dentistry, given in Resolution No. 291, indicates that the issuance of permits is carried out by different authorities:

if a company provides high-tech care in the field of dentistry, Roszdravnadzor issues a license to it;
in other cases, it is drawn up by the relevant department of the executive body of the subject of the Federation in which the company operates.

Questions and answers

, Order of the Ministry of Health dated 07/31/2020 No. 786n comes into force . Do the changes apply to children?

The procedure for operating dentistry for minors is regulated by Order of the Ministry of Health No. 910n. It has been in use since 2012 and continues to operate. Nothing will change in this area.

What is the validity period of the license?

In accordance with Part 4 of Article 9 of 99-FZ, the issued license is unlimited.

Re-registration

In some cases, the holder of a dental license needs to re-issue it. The list of situations is given in Article 18 99-FZ. It includes the following changes:

organizational and legal form of the company;
its names;
range of services provided;
addresses of the place of activity;
regulatory framework governing the provision of services.

An application for re-registration must be submitted within 30 days from the date of occurrence of the relevant circumstances. To do this, the applicant will have to contact the regulatory agency with an application, attaching the original license and documents confirming the changes that have occurred.

This is interesting

Did you know that dentists and dentists have a professional holiday? And not just one, but several!

Congratulate your beloved doctor:

February 9th. International Dentist Day.
March, 6. International Dentist Day.
April 24. Russian Dentist Day.
July 25. Dental Technician Day.
12-th of September. World Oral Health Day.

Now you know the difference between a dentist and a dentist. If your teeth are in poor condition or have complex cases of dental disease, do not refuse to consult a specialist. Only a professional will perform prosthetics, bite correction or complex tooth extraction.