We've lived in Temecula all of three months and hadn't really gotten around to seeking out our family dentist yet. Then, my kids gave me a sucker. When your kids give you a treat, you don't question them. You EAT IT. However, you're not supposed to do what I did and chomp down on the thing and pull it out of your mouth and realize, with horror, that one of your [very friggin' expensive] crowns is attached. Oops.
Better yet, this happens when my husband is currently seeking work, money is tight and lucky us - my mistake had to happen on a Saturday! While I was crying in the bathroom over how much it was going to cost to replace my crown, my husband was on Yelp 'desperately seeking dentist'. He found Dr. Do's reviews and called (thank you, fellow reviewers).
Yay! They could get us in today!
I don't know about the rest of you, but the thought of seeing a dentist starts making my stomach upset and makes me shaky in the knees. I haven't had good experiences. We've all had the MEAN dental hygienist who pulls Voldemort's 8th horcrux from your teeth and then says, "Ew, when is the last time you saw a dentist? UGH! Disgusting!" That does wonders for your self esteem after it already took you every ounce of gumption you have to get you IN to that chair in the first place.
We've also had the dentists who HATE their job and have become jaded with society in general after dealing with people, like me, so afraid of seeing the dentist that they haven't been in years and now have stalagmites and stalactites of plaque growing in their mouth (okay, so my case wasn't THAT bad).
In any case, I did not have high hopes today, holding my crown in my hand, weeping because the cost to replace my crown was going to be more than our whole Christmas budget.
When we walked into the doc's office, it was crowded with quite a few other dental emergencies. Must be Murphy's Law for teeth to raise hell on weekends. We were greeted warmly and given a tour of the office. I didn't expect this. Never, had I been greeted this way...and shown around like we were important clientele. I immediately loved this dentist.
We were shown back to the waiting room to fill out forms...and handed gift bags. YES. GIFT BAGS! Like another reviewer said, "WHO DOES THAT?!?!". This dentist. And like them, and being one of those sappy people who cry when someone does anything remotely nice for her...I was swallowing back tears. I won't reveal the contents of the gift bag. I love surprises and I'm sure someone reading this might, too, so I'll keep it that way.
We were told to make ourselves at home. There were juice boxes and drinks for the kids, gourmet coffee for my husband (my tooth was still too sensitive to even attempt putting any kind of liquid on it!). They gave my kids Christmas lollipops which made their day. I was completely in awe.
The doctor greeted me warmly and shook my hand. I liked him instantly. I apologized profusely for the length of time it had been since my last dental visit (we've moved 3 times in less than a year...and I was overseas for 3 years before that and had one mean dentist experience that took me a while to recover from). He brushed it off. When another reviewer called him a "saint", they weren't kidding. Maybe it's my Catholic guilt, but I didn't feel like I deserved that kind of forgiveness.
The chairs were massage chairs. A less dental-anxious person might have fallen asleep. Dr. Do was SO gentle I barely felt a thing. He told me to raise my hand if I needed to have him pause, but I was perfectly fine. It was great to find a dentist who treated me like a human being. That's a nice feeling. To turn THAT much fear into being completely at ease.
His assistant was great as was every single person we came into contact with. EVERYONE that worked there was amazing. You can tell care went into hiring just the right people with just the right attitude and that difference shows.
It was hard to hear much over the vacuum in my mouth, but I heard the doc tell his assistant, "You see that? This is my favorite part of my job...When you scrape that away and the teeth look awesome." If my mouth weren't full of vacuums and scrapers, I would have smiled. It's nice to hear someone who truly loves what they do and haven't become jaded by their profession. Didn't Ghandi say something about being the change you want to see in the world? Every single aspect of this dentistry practice reflects that. And prices? EXTREMELY affordable. My Christmas budget is fine.
I'm no professional reviewer, I've never met Dr. Do or his staff before today. I'm just a person who has had a rough year grateful for acts of kindness too few in today's society. We have made our kids appointments and have found our family dentist. Thank you so much!
P.S. And another reviewer said he likes OC Housewives? One of my guilty pleasures, too! Who COULDN'T love this dentist? :) read more