(MONEY Magazine) – As a practicing general dentist, I have had some experiences that support your advice in December's Money Newsline on the importance of checking out a dental HMO. For more than two years, I was associated with a pair of managed-dental- care companies. I dropped out of both because of their continued inefficiency and inconsistency dealing with patients. Hardly a week goes by without an offer for me to work with a managed-care program. These offers come simply because the companies are looking for a warm body to do dentistry. You say not to join a plan if the wait for nonemergency care is more than four weeks. But the contracts with participating dentists usually give the plans little control over how promptly a patient will be scheduled for nonemergency treatment. This flaw leaves the dentist free to postpone care for "plan patients" while giving "full-paying patients" scheduling priority. Such preferential treatment happens quite a bit. J. Douglas Wooddell, D.D.S. Annandale, Va.

You advise readers to look for dentists who "belong to the American Academy of General Dentistry. . ." This gives the reader the impression that only dentists who are members of the Academy of General Dentistry are worthy of providing treatment to patients. However, you overlook two important facts: 1) The American Dental Association is the largest dental association in the United States, representing 140,000 dentists; and 2) a vast majority of the 33,000 members of the Academy of General Dentistry are members of the American Dental Association. In effect, you have told readers that there are 107,000 dentists who are not providing adequate oral health care. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both ADA and AGD members are educated at the same accredited dental schools, are subjected to the same rigorous licensing requirements, and pursue continuing education to keep abreast of trends in treatment and technology. James H. Gaines, D.M.D. President American Dental Association Chicago

Members of AGD are required to continue their education. By contrast, the ADA simply recommends that its members do so.