***PROTIP*** You do NOT have to get the oral cancer screening. Don't let them lie to you. Don't let them wear you down. Don't let them play stupid. It's not "required." You can sign a waiver to opt out. I swear, I have to fight every time I come here. I schedule early morning appointments so I can get to work. Somehow they always find a way to waste my time. First visit: I sat through an Invisalign pitch. They could have saved time by opening with the $5k price tag. Second visit: I said up front that I wasn't interested in the Invisalign pitch (I'm trying to save time here). Dismissively, the dental assistant insisted that they would still have them come offer the pitch. Before I could cuss her non-listening behind out, the main dentist came through. He took a look at my scans and realized that I'm not a candidate for Invisalign. Great! Now I never have to hear about Invisalign again. I'm still dropping a star for her dismissive attitude. Third visit: I come in for a standard cleaning and X-rays, both covered 100% by my insurance. As I'm sitting in the chair the DA says that the cost will be $75. I ask her why and she says it's $45 for fluoride and $30 for oral cancer screening. I told her I was fine with the fluoride, as that's optional, but I didn't want the screening which I did last year. Here's where things get stupid... She tells me that the oral cancer screening is "required." I asked since when, and in broken English she said it's always been that way. It protects the dentist from being held liable if a patient later develops oral cancer. On my first visit they offered the screening, and I accepted because I wanted it. Now they're telling me I'm required to have it? The Devil is a liar! So I'm pissed at this point, because, as stated before, I always have to fight with these people. I told her that I will not have the screening, and she again said that it's required, and that she'd get the doctor to come talk to me. She came back and said that the doctor was seeing someone, but would be there shortly. She offered to get started with the cleaning. Chick, are you crazy? Me agreeing to start services is tantamount to agreeing to any "required" services and their respective costs. You're not going to trap me! While we waited for the doctor, I demanded to see some documentation that shows where the law requires additional services that aren't covered by insurance. Maybe when I said 'documentation' it broke past the language barrier in her brain. Her response was that the screening is required by the doctor, and that I have to sign a paper if I don't want the screening. Mother, father, sister, brother... So NOW we get the truth. This isn't required. It's heavily recommended, and can be opted out of. I asked for the paper which she brought promptly. That proves she always knew I could opt out, and how I would opt out. She was trying to press me into the screening. Another star off. It didn't have to be this way. They do good work here. They wasted ten minutes of my time trying to weasel $30 out of me. Another star off. Let's see what happens in another six months... read more

I wasn't particularly sure how to perceive modern smiles, as it sounds like a chain name and they sank quite a bit of money into their advertising. Being that I have a sales background I'm often a little skeptical of places that spend a lot of money on a franchise name and then throw in advertising money at it immediately. My son had been to a pediatric dentist on multiplications and add one of them had an incredibly horrible experience due to a very old and antiquated drug that they used for him to be sedated. Dealing with children with sensory or autism spectrum issues is not an easy task. It was absolutely not an issue whatsoever at modern smiles. I don't like to admit it, but I've often thought the dentist would at least advise to do excess of treatments. My boy was having overcrowding of his adult teeth trying to come in and the baby teeth were just too tight of a fit. All in all there were a total of eight teeth that needed to be pulled. The problem being was that they really didn't need to be pulled, He could've pulled them out himself. It seems that what happened was the government had slightly attached to the tooth which was completely disconnected and only being held by the jump itself so, what is this all mean? The dentist actually said to me I will leave you should give him a few weeks give him taffy other things in your sticky see if you can repeat that himself. I said please can we just pull these today and get this over with? Dentist said absolutely not, we need to just let them pop out have them twist them but I don't feel right taking your money for something that doesn't really need to be done. He advised if they did not come out in three or four weeks to come back and see him and he would simply pop them off like soda tops. That's exactly what he did. We came back around 3 weeks later and he just popped them off. The skin got a little attached but they were ready to come out, so 10 minutes and he was done. They don't actually specialize in pediatrics year, but they do a really good job with it and if they're able to handle a sensory child then these people are pretty on point. I decided to use them as my dentist is well we live in Laureate Park and it is very convenient. If you're in the area is a lot of Dennis I tried this one and I liked him. And I don't like very many dentists....sorry dentist they got I have good teeth!! read more

i finally found an amazing dentist who cares about his patients and listens to you. Dr Shawkat has a great personality who will make you feel at ease if you're nervous about the dentist or if you just prefer a dentist who has a friendly demeanor. The office personnel is great as well. They are friendly and helpful and caring and make you feel welcome. The dental assistants are awesome and make the appts go smooth whether it's a cleaning, x rays, or something more extensive. The whole office is amazing! My daughter gets nervous and anxious going to the dentist and Dr Shawkat really made her feel comfortable and she said her anxiousness was gone with him. I love love love Modern Smiles Dentistry! i highly recommend them. read more

I'm new to this office and everything seemed perfectly fine from the beginning. Everyone is polite and welcoming from the front desk to the back staff. I had only come in for a cleaning and I felt like they offered me more than what I had intended to get done. Things that I have never heard before were offered to me and I told the lady I didn't want to get anything else done besides my cleaning. A little while after, Dr. S came to talk to me and I felt like he didn't understand that I just wanted to get a cleaning. I feel that there is a major lack of communication between the staff and not to mention the language barrier. When the doctor was talking to me, I felt like he was incompetent because he could barely finish his sentence with multiple pauses and seemed unknowledgeable when explaining my "diagnosis". This made me a little uncomfortable because I had a budget and felt like I needed to do what they kept pushing on to me. Shortly after, Jaime in the front came and presented the price quote for all the extra services that were offered to me. He seemed to be the only person that truly understood how I felt and the only one that is fluent in English in this office. But don't take it the wrong way. The people in the office are really nice, but communication needs to be worked on as well as manner of speaking to patients from the doctors end. I wish I could say that I will continue coming to this office as it's most convenient for me, but it's sad that a trip to the dentist just to take care of my oral hygiene has become such a marketing scheme without the honest care of the patient in mind. read more

We've been customers here for several years but are now looking for another place to take care of our family dental needs. My daughter went in with tooth pain we assumed was related to her wisdom teeth coming in. Modern Smiles took X-Rays which showed her wisdom teeth coming in sideways. However, they told my wife that our daughter's tooth pain was related to a cracked molar next to the incoming wisdom tooth. They referred them to a specialist to get a CT scan to determine the exact location of the crack. They went to the specialist and the CT scan was performed, however they determined that there was no crack in the tooth, and the incoming wisdom tooth was pushing on her molar. The bottom line is they misdiagnosed a simple evaluation which cost us $500 out of pocket for an unnecessary trip to a specialist and haven't bothered calling us back after we've tried to contact them for two days. Clearly not the best customer service experience we've had. This location seems as though it may be under new ownership as many of the staff has changed. We used to love the service here but Lake Nona has no shortage of dentists so we'll take our family elsewhere from now on. read more

I went to this Dental Clinic just for a dental check up. Dr. Margarita Rivera recommended me to change my dental bridge. After, she put in my new bridge I started to feel pain in the area of my bridge. For several days, I had pain in my jaw, ears and developed headache. I went back to her clinic several times to adjust the malfitted bridge. She did adjust it but failed to acknowledge my pain. I went to several urgent clinics to lessen my pain by taking pain meds and muscle relaxants. I developed Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction , TMJ as a result of malfitted bridge. I hope no patient like me ,again would suffer in the hand of this dentist. I hope every dentist would take extra care and concern to their patients especially if they feel pain in any dental procedures. read more

I have had horrible experiences in the past with dentists. A friend recommended Dr. Castellini and I'm so happy i went to see him. I can probably write a 10 page paper on how great of a dentist he is! He is the most amazing dentist i have ever been to and I've been to many over the years! His bedside manner will make you feel calm and at ease and him and his staff clearly explain everything they are going to do and work closely with billing so you know what to expect. He truly is a dental genius! I would recommend Dr. Castellini to anyone looking for an amazing and honest dentist. read more

Unfortunately this dental office went from being a very good option for our family to the "must avoid". Their dental care quality overall is good but administrative/billing staff quality is absolutely headache inducing. Either deliberately or by incompetence, billing department will send inaccurate bills, sometimes months after the visit and after the original bill has been paid. Trying to resolve that is a futile endeavor. I've been dealing with them since February of 2018 and people working in administrations there, make the game of "Broken Telephone" seem like modern technology. Absolutely horrendous. Too bad that administrative & billing staff is giving this business such bad reputation and dragging it down. read more

Dr.Marco Castelini's expertise is beyond compare. I don't trust my teeth's health to any other professional. He Makes sure to follow my philosophy of least amount of dentistry is the best dentistry! Also, His anesthesia shots are PAINLESS. I did not feel a thing. Beyond grateful to have him around. You're the best Dr.Castelini !! read more

Unfortunately this dental office went from being a very good option for our family to the "must avoid". Their dental care quality is good but billing is absolutely headache inducing. Either deliberately or by accident billing will send inaccurate bills sometimes months after the visit and after the original bill has been paid. Trying to resolve that is a futile endeavor. read more

I came in for a dental cleaning this week. My Dental Assistant stated that she had to take some X-rays and perform oral cancer screening. I told her that it was ok to do the X-ray but I do not want to have oral cancer screening because I do not smoke or chew tobacco. She told me that I had to have oral cancer screening at least once a year and it was covered by my insurance. I told her no thank you and her attitude,initially pleasant and cheerful, to completely despondent and almost rude. She went on the examined my teeth with another individual in the room recording ...during the examination she stated that the numbers correspond to the tooth sockets as we went front the top to bottom row. I kept hearing bleeding...my assumption was bleeding gum when in fact I have no signs of it. Purely false documentation. She told me that that have deep sockets to my molars which I knew. She stated that I have infection to the molar sockets and needed antibiotic injections. I told her that that's interesting because I have no symptoms of redness, swelling, pain or fever. I received no response. After taking the X-rays, she had Dr. S, the dentist, who came in and talked with me. He seemed cordial and nice. He examined my teeth and said that my teeth was healthy looking. He spoke with DA and left. The DA then tells me that I needed deep cleaning to my molars and the office individuals was going to come back and give me some pricing. The cleaning and X-ray with my insurance plan was supposed to be $50.00 turn out be a proposal for cleaning well over $1000.00 dollars. I asked them both if I could talked with Dr.S the dentist...they walked away and came back to tell me that he is busy. I have now been in the dental office for 2 hrs. I politely told them no thank you and wanted to leave. When I walked out, they told me I had to pay a portion of my visit even though I had no cleaning done...this is the exact reason why I came in ...dental cleaning. I am passing this information on so that others are not taking advantage of by this dentist office. read more

Very new dentistry office, and just right across the street. So we decided to go in December 2013, only for a cleaning. Everything looked fine, state-of-art-facility, a lot of personnel and very kindly doctor and clerks. PEOPLE BEWARE!!!! IS A HIGH PRESSURE SALES CORPORATION!!! I'm agreed with the first reviewer. They performed the cleaning procedures and 2 of them were to put on a special fluoride JUST for $20 and the oral cancer exam FOR $35 (actually the dental insurance carrier does not cover these procedures)I felt it were necessary, so they "warned us" but here's the thing: the clerks and doctor told us it does not cover by our dental insurance carrier, so you have to pay for a flat fee, (do the math) $20+35=$55 by 2 that would be the total amount to pay, and voila, everything was wonderful! Two weeks later we received our dental bills so the total due is HIGHER than EVER, and now we have to pay almost a $1,000, JUST for a cleaning. The clerks and Dr. NEVER told us about the real amount and copays that we had to pay at the moment they rendered their services. After the whole cleaning, they asked us to do other treatments and they wanted us to meet them up in a second room to perform other treatments according to our previews assessments. BE CAREFUL, they LIED to us!!! Get a second opinion, this place is not worth it!!!! read more

First time I didn't feel nervous or have butterflies in my stomach! Very welcoming, very friendly hygienist and dentist, and professional. I felt so comfortable throughout my visit. I left smiling and happy. I'm returning even though it is a good distance from home. Very worth it! read more

We brought in our 2 year old for his first cleaning and they made him feel so comfortable that not once did he cry or was afraid. He was all smiles. The doctors and staff are extremely friendly and very accommodating. Made sure to ask about my day and my children on my second visit. Very refreshing. read more

Find it extremely rude when the dentist, techs, and other employees talk to each other in Spanish in front of non Spanish speaking people.

I have supported many Dentists and their teams in the past three years and I must say, Dr. Margarita Rivera and Dr. Marco Castellini are truly the MOST talented and caring Dental Professionals I've partnered with. I see a team that is always looking out for the patients' best interest; two Doctors that are constantly looking for ways to improve on their skills; and a patient base that truly trusts this dental office with their care. I hope to serve our patients with the same compassion! read more

I really like the Modern Smiles Dental office. From the smiles and welcoming attitudes of the front staff to the professionalism of the back staff makes coming here an easy decision. The office is clean, relatively quiet and provides coffee and water to drink, which makes waiting for your family members easy. Great job and great office. read more

I am an Invisalign patient of Dr. Rivera. I had to have my case transferred over to her after a HORRIBLE experience at another dentistry. After accepting my case, my previous dentist began to focus on fixing areas of my teeth that were not a concern of mine, which compromised the area I was concerned about. When I asked to fix the problem he created, he was unable to with a rebuttal for every COMMON SENSE suggestion I made to keep the integrity of my upper teeth. Dr. Rivera addressed my concerns and was able to move my teeth to correct what he did and finish correcting my other teeth. She pops in to see my progress even when Im there just tp pick up trays. She clearly cares about her patients progress & wants to make sure they are getting the best outcome possible. It is such a relief to be in this office. The staff has been so accommodating and pleasant from day 1. I am not easily impressed, but I have had such a great experience thus far. Dr. Rivera is saving the mess my teeth were about to become. So grateful!! read more

Was very excited to see that their website says they offer in office zoom whitening! Unfortunately, when I called to make an appointment, they said they don't do it there. read more

I tried Modern Smiles Dentistry hoping to find a place where I was not just another dollar sign. When I walked into the office I was quite surprised. The receptionist actually smiled and greeted me like I was a friend and gave me a long lost warm small town friendly atmosphere. Then something surprising happened... I was actually seen on time, something almost unheard of these days in dentist or doctor's offices. I was introduced to the Dental Technician that was going to take my X-rays and clean my teeth. She was top notch, very polite, gentle and very informative about what she was doing and why.. She talked to me like a friend instead of a patient and explained to me why my teeth's health was important in a way that I actually listened to her. Then the Dentist came in to look at me teeth and my Technician introduced her to me instead of the Doctor just telling me. When everything was completed I was escorted to the front to schedule a new appt. and pay what I owed, again I was introduced to the financial ladies instead being left there to introduce myself. What I'm getting to is that throughout the entire procedure I was treated by them like one would a good friend, everyone knew their jobs and took pride in themselves and their work. I have not received such good dental work in I don't know how long. My teeth feel better than they have in years and I'm looking forward to my next visit for more fillings. I was so impressed that my who family will now get all their dental needs completed here. I'm actually proud to say I'm one of their patients, and if you want to feel like they care about your dental health more than your money.... I would rush there also. read more

I did'nt feel listened to and was made to feel like a child concerning my choice of dental work.

Dr. Rivera is very dry in the way that she communicates. Her staff does not like each other and the tension can be felt as soon as you walk in. The young lady who made my appointment was very nice on the phone and when I walked in I was greeted by her, that was a nice touch. However, that is where is ended. The young lady that came to the waiting room to get me was rude and acted as if i was keeping her from something else. When Dr. Rivera came in to introduce herself she seemed nice, but her smile and friendliness seemed fake. I am looking for a warm, fun environment. This is not it read more

bad experience. dentist and staff uncaring for my tooth emergency even though I was a patient there. also too expensive, always gave wrong estimates and I ended up paying much much more out of pocket. money grabbing attitude. dentist and staff too careless, and unsympathetic. read more

I went in the office I do not have insurance at this time. I know I need a lot of work that needs to be done but I have put it off also for just being in fear of going to the dentist with all my past experiences. I'll start first with the office. It looks great brand new " I think?" The ladies in the front were real nice I've never had anyone introduce me to the people in the back. Most off the other places you go to they open the door and scream your name. The little young lady in the back was great. I'm real embarrassed about my teeth and how they look but she made me feel comfortable. She took my mind off the fact I was in a dental office getting all these xrays and pictures she was taking of my mouth. She made a great personal connection with me that will make me go back for life. She took the time to explain the importance of all my stuff that they said I will need for my smile to be where and what I want it to be. Before the doctor came in another young blonde lady came in. I think she will clean my teeth. She was a little rude. The blonde was snapping her fingers and telling the other young lady that she needed to hurry because she has another patient. I just thought it was very distastefully done. The first young lady who helped me made me feel important ,comfortable and now this other young lady came in and was rushing to get me done so she could move on to the next. I tried to speak to her some to get to know a little about who is in my mouth and she cut me off and said to the other girl "come on we got to get going here" while rolling her hand in a hurry up motion. She's very rude she made me feel like I was a number to her. The Dr. came in his name is Dr. Wen. He was great. He told me what's more important to treat in my mouth and what order I should start in. Down to earth guy no pressure what so ever. The nice lady's at the front went over my fees and even offered me a discount plan to help me being I have no insurance. Big dollar amount but I put it off so long my fault. I will be going back but not sure if I want to see the blonde again. read more