Finding Dental Answers

There are a number of sites that operate on a similar basis, requiring an account and a payment method. However, there are many others that will provide answers at no charge; however, it's a good idea to make certain such answers are provided by those who are qualified to answer them.

The two highest-ranked websites providing dental answers at no charge on most of the major search engines (including AltaVista, Dogpile, Google, HotBot, Lycos and Yahoo) operated and maintained by the University of Mississippi Medical Center at (URL: http://info.umc.edu/AskTheDentist/) and Dental Directory (URL: http://www.ask-the-dentists.com/). Unlike the fee-based service, neither of these websites offer immediate dental answers. One may submit a dental question, and there is no guarantee as to when or even if it will be answered; however, both of these websites maintain massive, searchable databases of the most frequently-asked dental questions as well as questions asked and answered in the past several months.

There are a number of websites offering dental answers that are owned, operated and maintained by practicing dentists. Like most businesses with a presence on the World Wide Web, such websites exist primarily to promote a particular dental practice or clinic. At least one such site which has been online almost since the beginning of the Internet Age offers a chat room at certain hours of the day, although as one might imagine, this chat room can get mighty crowded.

When seeking dental answers online, it is important to understand that while dental professionals can certainly provide general answers, it is impossible for any professional to provide specific answers without having knowledge of a patient's medical history or the opportunity for a direct examination of the patient's teeth.