I was a loyal patient of Dr. Pacleb's practice for 4 and 1/2 years up until a couple of years ago. The main draw was Tom, the hygienist, who is very sweet and does an amazing job with cleaning and in general just being a kind, calming presence. Over the years, Tom and I have bonded over toothpicks and interesting data he knows about through his leadership in a professional association of dental hygienists. Unfortunately, Dr. Pacleb does not convey the same sweetness and respect I've received from Tom. I've tried to tough it out because Tom is the best, but my last visit a couple of years ago was the last straw. I came in to get two fillings in my teeth. I had gotten another filling previously that was more involved than Dr. Pacleb expected in terms of decay beneath the surface - which led me to ask at that time whether we should take care of the additional two teeth on our "watch" list. Dr. Pacleb suggested that it would be a good idea to not let these additional teeth go any longer. So I came to an appointment to do just that. I do tend to get a little anxious around fillings - especially when it comes to the Novocaine shot. After waiting 15 minutes for Dr. Pacleb to come in, she comes in and starts looking in my mouth and says that she hopes these teeth we're taking care of today aren't like the last one because that would not be a good way for her to start to her weekend. Didn't feel very good about that comment and started to feel a bit more anxious. Then she starts administering the Novocaine immediately before saying anything, i.e. letting me know that she was going to do that. Last time we had talked at length about how much Novocaine was necessary since I'm very sensitive - oh, well, too late as the needle is already in. She then takes it out and says she'll be back in 10 minutes to make sure I'm numb. I remind her that I'll be numb in only a few minutes based on past experience. 20 minutes later she comes back and in the meantime my anxiety is growing a bit with all the waiting. She puts in this thing to prevent me from biting down along with a "wall" to keep my tongue from going over to the place that she's working on. Unfortunately the wall pushed my tongue back into my throat and that has the effect of making it difficult to breath, which I let her know. She takes everything out and stops and tells me effectively that it's all in my head that I can't breath and to try breathing through my nose and to raise my left hand if I have trouble breathing again. So we put everything back in and she starts drilling again. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble breathing again even through my nose so I raise my left hand. She takes everything out, seemingly very bothered, and says she doesn't want to pressure me at all so she'll give me some more time and is just going to go say hi to another patient. Before I can say that more time won't help, she's already left the room. And she obviously is doing a lot more than saying hi to the other patient, which I can tell, because she's right across the hall and I hear her making small talk and doing a whole exam with that patient. The assistant was very nice and talked to me during this time about the breathing issue, but I think it was really more Dr. Pacleb's role to do that instead of just leaving me there to wait and let the anxiety build further. What felt like another 15 minutes or so passed and she came back and asked me if I was ready now. Frustrated, I told her yes. She said if there was any trouble breathing again to just raise my hand. I told her I wouldn't be letting her know if I was having trouble breathing and would try to tough it out as I would prefer not to have additional delays - she didn't seem concerned. So I did my best, I listened to music and I got relaxed and was fine for the rest of the filling. One time I did grunt a bit with pain when she was polishing and she said she was "just polishing" but said it in a really annoyed tone. Then suddenly she said "...and you are all done." And was gone. Without saying what she found or good-bye or anything. I could tell the assistant tried to compensate for this abrupt departure and said some nice things like she was sorry it was a stressful experience but hopefully I won't have to do anything like that for awhile and she hoped I have a great weekend, etc. I walked out feeling like my moderate anxiety around the filling was a real inconvenience and was made a lot worse by Dr. Pacleb. I felt like I never wanted to go back there. I'll definitely miss Tom but I will definitely not miss the cold shoulder and insensitive manner of Dr. Pacleb. read more
