I took my 3 year old for his first dental appointment and he was completely traumatized. The staff refused to let me back into the examination room with him, but assured me if he became distressed that they would retrieve me from the waiting room. After they completed the service the presented me my child in hysterics. The hygienist informed me that he cried through most of the procedure, had to be restrained, and was crying "no no" repeatedly. She said they "couldn't stop" so they put a device in his mouth to prop it open and continued through his cries. At no point was I ever alerted to what was happening with my child. I drove home listening my 3 year old sob and whimper "dentist is NOT nice!" Hours later he still was extremely shook up about it, so I called and spoke to Dr. Clark. He claimed my child was never restrained and didn't seam all that upset to him, a completely different story than I was originally told. When I told him how upset my kid was, he replied that "most kids get over it." I asked him IF we were ever to return if he would allow me to witness how my child was being treated in the examination room, and he continued on with his mantra of "in my experience, kids do better without their parents present" and "it's our office policy."
The procedure should have stopped when my child became upset and I should have been brought in immediately. So now I have a young child who had a terrible first dental experience and is terrified to go back to the dentist and I have no clue what really happened. I will never bring my child somewhere where the parent is not allowed to view the procedure again. I should have listened to my gut when the policy felt like a giant red flag. I just hope the experience doesn't color his future dentist visits when we go to our next dentist. read more
