I'd written 5-star reviews for this practice in the past, been going there for over a decade, so it's really painful for me to write this review. I loved & feel indebted to the wonderful Dr. Bell who founded this practice; I still stand by my review that the dental hygienists and assistants here are wonderful. It's just that after what I've experienced, I can no longer endorse the doctors who took over the practice.
I should preface this by saying I might be what's considered a special needs patient. (i.e. It could be that this office would serve you well if you have a "normal" mouth.) Due to undiagnosed celiac disease in my childhood, I had enamel hypoplasia = the top enamel layer of my teeth did not form completely when my adult teeth came out. So my teeth practically melt & decay, under the best of circumstances. I have a mouth that has been heavily worked on with veneers, crowns, numerous root canals. This is a chip on my shoulder; it hurts me to admit my body has some abnormalities or deformities. I've told this (past health problems) to Dr. Nguyen several times. Yet, every time she reacted like it was the first time she heard about it. (This is also all explained in my chart.) When I said "I've had a lot of root canals," she was like, "Why is that, Aya?" as if I should reflect upon myself and feel guilty. Her view didn't seem very holistic, seeing she never wanted to talk about related health issues.
Another time, she was working on a filling on a tricky spot on the back of a tooth. I happen to have ample saliva production, which I have been told by other doctors is a good thing for oral health. She would complain how I had more saliva than normal and that made things difficult for her -- repeatedly. I had my mouth wide open for over 40 minutes at one point, so my jaw was getting quite tired, so I asked to close my mouth, and she audibly sighed. I felt like she had very little empathy.
All of that didn't stop me from going back there faithfully. Pre-pandemic, I was going every 3-4 months for cleaning, since I had a tough to clean mouth with lots of veneers and crowns. Much of it out of pocket. At this time I don't own a car, and with everything that's going on it made it hard to go further, so I sought out a dentist nearby (Seattle Special Care Dentistry) for the most recent exam.
I happened to have a copy of all my previous x-rays from 2019. Together with the new examination & old x-rays, it turned out not only did I have root infections under 2 molars (both of them previously had root canals), THE INFECTIONS EXISTED AND WERE VISIBLE IN THE 2019 X-RAYS. Yes, the x-rays from 2 years ago. The doctor was like, "No one mentioned this to you before?" I'd been to Seattle SmileWorks in 2020, but the answer was no.
On top of that, one of the root canals done previously had left a tip of the instrument in one of the roots, which was found through the x-ray (apparently this happens sometimes, but still). For both teeth, the previous root canals had failed (which also happens sometimes, FWIW).
So I had these slow growing infections since *at least* 2 years ago. This past week, I had to have one of the molars extracted because it was hopeless. Next week, they are going to re-do the root canal on the other molar, hoping they can sterilize the tip of the instrument that had broken off & was embedded in there. I hope they can save that tooth. (Regardless, I am spending $3-4K.)
More than anyone, my husband was horrified and was very offended I wasn't well taken care of by the dental practice that I had so much faith in since 2009. I am very sad about it. But I can no longer recommend the practice, if you have vulnerable teeth. read more