I'll start with the shred of hope: My hygienist was kind, thorough, and answered all my questions. Everything else, though, was very poor:
1. THE WAIT: The reception is extremely unorganized and unprofessional. When I walked in, I was not greeted nor instructed how to sign in, despite there being two receptionists sitting at the desk. There was no clipboard or anything, just ~6 piles of identical forms sitting on the desk. After standing at the reception desk for a few minutes, I asked how to proceed, and only then was asked my name, appointment time, and instructed to fill out the forms. They apologized for having to fill out the forms since it was a new system, but that was hardly the issue (forms are a normal part of going to a new medical practice.) And when I returned the form to the desk, neither receptionist picked it up to process it for ~10 minutes. I should stress that the waiting room was incredible quite (and empty) when I arrived.
Then I sat down to wait, next to the only other patient, who was already there when I arrived. Aside from us, the waiting room was empty. About 20 minutes into my wait, the other patient asked when she could expect to be seen, and was told "just a few more minutes, but it's your choice if you want to leave," which seemed like an odd thing to tell a patient/customer, and also made it seem as though this was not the first time she'd had to ask how much longer she'd be waiting. Two other patients showed together up shortly after, and the teenager was called in a few minutes later. Twenty more minutes later, my name was finally called. The initial other patient got up and left, clearly frustrated that she'd waited more than 40 minutes with literally zero explanation from the office.
Upon finishing my appointment and checking out, I had to, of course, schedule my actual cleaning (see #4, below), and try to schedule an appointment with the oral surgeon. Even the dentist shared this information with the receptionist when she dropped me off there, I literally had to prompt the receptionist to do so, and to ask all the relevant questions ("So... can I schedule a cleaning?" Sure. .... *wait*... "Okay, when is there an opening?" Does tomorrow work? "...when tomorrow?" etc.). And then I asked about scheduling with the oral surgeon and was told "he only works at the other office, and it's closed, so you can't schedule it now." So I asked when I could schedule it and was told "You can try tomorrow at your cleaning appointment, if the other office is open then." ?!?!?
2. THE EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF X-RAYS: Every time I've had x-rays done at a dentist (at least 4 different dental practices in the past 5 years, due to moving), there have been 4-5 x-rays taken. This office did 15+! The technician even made a comment about it: "People always say they don't remember getting this many x-rays, but we always do this many! I tell them it must have been a while since they've been to the dentist, and they're just forgetting." Although dental x-rays are relatively safe, this was at least 4x the typical exposure, and in the long-run, additional exposure is not actually good.
3. POOR BEDSIDE MANNER: I had next to zero verbal communication with the dentist, who displayed poor bedside manner. When she entered the room, she was in the middle of a private (friendly) conversation with the technician, who also came into the exam room. The hardly broke off the conversation to introduce herself quickly, then resumed the her conversation as they looked together at the computer screen for a few minutes. The conversation continued as her body language (but not her words) indicated that she needed me to open my mouth for the exam, and then switched into her listing off a series of three-digit numbers as she looked at each tooth (without explaining what was going on, or what each number meant). Upon finishing the exam, she told me I could consult with an oral surgeon about my wisdom teeth, and promptly left the room.
4. SCHEDULING: It seems unnecessary to have to have A) a consultation before having B) an annual cleaning. At the "consultation," they took x-rays and did the aforementioned exam. And told me to schedule a cleaning, which is what I actually wanted in the first place. I understand that an exam might end up indicating that a patient needs more than just a cleaning (for example, a referral to an oral surgeon), however, they're still going to need/get the cleaning regardless, so why bother separating the two? It just creates inconvenience by requiring someone to come back twice -- especially since you can't schedule the cleaning until you're at the consultation, at which point there might not be another opening for weeks. read more