Before I discovered Smiles in the City Centre, I had really struggled in Birmingham to find a good dentist. When I was a student I had scoured my local NHS dentists, only to have my teeth butchered and then be robbed by the cost by the one most local to myself. The whole experience left me pretty traumatised and (I'm sorry to say) led me not to go to the dentist at regular intervals for a few years...
On hearing about a fantastic private dentist (that just happened to be over the road from my old work), I decided it was time to get back on it and have my first appointment with this so-called magician...
Well, they weren't wrong. I came across Dr Ruth in 2011 and haven't looked back. Smiles dental in the City Centre sadly closed down, but I was relieved to hear my favourite dentist had moved to a new practise in Solihull. Now, Solihull is a bit of a trek from us, but after some deliberation we decided we would make the journey (it is only about 30 minutes by car, after all) to go and check out the new clinic and get our 6 monthly checkups.
First thing to note is that Smiles is now Oasis Dental care. Cue us, in the carpark very confused... We weren't told that Smiles had been bought out and wondered if we had come to the right place, luckily (after a brief phone call), we wandered inside in the nick of time for our appointments.
The new building looks like an old converted Manor house. It has a little conservatory on the front of the building and the reception area has a TV and is clean, modern and fresh. We were greeted as if we were old friends and I was shown through the labyrinth of a building to the examination room.
Unlike many dentists, these guys have a tool to "sandblast" your teeth with a nice tasting lemony concoction. I got the all clear and had my scale and polish within about 25 minutes (with Dr Ruth checking every aspect of my mouth for any warning signs). She explained every part of the process as she went and supplied me with warnings and tips as to where I might see work needing to be done later on.
Once I had been sorted, I went to reception to pay. A scale and polish is £65 and the guys always supply the correct paperwork to enable a claim on health cover. The receptionist was helpful and friendly and we made our next appointment straight away. The venue gets bonus points as we were told we could leave our car in the generous car park whilst we pootled about Solihull (saving us a fortune in parking). This dentist may be a trek, but it's worth the journey for excellent care, great staff and a fantastically kitted out surgery. Bravo, Oasis. read more