We strongly advise against going to this dentistry. They traumatized our four year old and caused…read morewhat we believe will be irreparable psychological harm.
Summary:
-The dental assistant restrained our child as a first resort and without consent.
-They never checked for numbness before drilling and refused to stop when she screamed that it hurt.
-The treatment plan we created with Dr. Phillips was contradicted at the actual procedure.
-Because of our experience, we worry that many children are told they don't need a numbing shot, and then this dentistry holds them down and ignores their screams of pain
-They did not communicate what was going to happen or ask permission
Dr. Phillips was nice and patient. She explained two options, reassured us we could change our mind, and told us our daughter would not need to be numbed.
When we returned, Dr. Phillips was on maternity leave. The assistant, Angela, was upset by our choice of a filling. She insisted the filling would likely become infected and cause sepsis. She repeatedly stated that she had never seen a cavity that big treated with just a filling. She gave so much medical advice that we thought she was a dentist.
We said we still wanted the filling. She then said our daughter would need numbing, contradicting Dr. Phillips. While upsetting, in hindsight we are glad they numbed her, because they would not have stopped to see if she was in pain.
From there, the assistant was unnecessarily controlling. She forced our daughter to wear sunglasses for 20 minutes before the procedure, refused to let her hold a toy, denied adjusting headphones that hurt, and snapped at her when she whimpered after seeing the vaculux.
When the dentist arrived, he did not introduce himself to our daughter or prepare us. The assistant forced the vaculux into our daughter's throat, choking her. The dentist noticed it was too large and asked for a smaller one, but the assistant said they don't have a smaller size. The assistant grabbed our daughter's hands and arms and physically restrained her before any instruments were being used that our daughter could interfere with. This made her panic so she started screaming through the vaculux. Despite this, the dentist began drilling.
We begged them to stop. The dentist asked for a bite-block instead, but the assistant said they didn't have any. She huffed and acted annoyed, but returned with a "mouth-gag".
After forcing it into her mouth, the dentist started drilling again and the assistant held her down again. We tried to comfort her, but the assistant constantly spoke over us. Between screams our daughter kept trying to yell, "It hurts!" through the mouth-gag. We demanded that they stop so we could see what was hurting her. We were scared that her tooth wasn't numb since they had never checked. After she stopped sobbing she told us that the mouth gag was cutting into the roof of her mouth.
For the remainder of the procedure, the Dentist asked the assitant to let our daughter open her mouth herself. When finally given the chance, our daughter immediately complied and stayed calm.
Afterward, the assistant excused her harshness by saying she was scared the procedure wouldn't be finished.
They treat children less-than human. We cannot imagine a dentist for adults ignoring screams of pain and/or restraining a patient because they are scared of choking. Yet, it was completely normal here to treat the most vulnerable people this way.
Now, our little four year old is terrified of dentists. She draws pictures of children screaming at the dentist and playing games where children are tortured by them. She asks nightly why we didn't rescue her from them.
We can't say if this would have been different with Dr. Phillips there, but the culture of this office where assistants restrain children, dentists drill through screams, and parents are silenced, makes us think it was not an isolated incident.
