I was a patient of Dr. Smith's for five or six years in Fircrest and liked his office a lot. Then a few years after he moved to Puyallup, I got the idea that I should try another dentist who wasn't so far away.
Big whopping mistake. I have quite a tale of woe...not all of which I have room for here...but the low points provide specific examples of why Dr. Smith is a wonderful dentist.
I realized too late that the other dental place was too big for my taste, with a lot of employees doing specific things. That was okay for something simple like a cleaning, but I didn't like it so well when I had to go in and discuss having a tooth crowned. I thought I'd talk to a dentist - I'd always talked to Dr. Smith about these sorts of things - but instead was shown to a small office with an employee who told me what the dentist had written for her. When I said that I'd had prior experience in this area and a different approach worked better for me, she had to go run it by the dentist. It felt like health care by playing telephone.
At Dr. Smith's office, he's the one to tell me what he thinks should be done. And he always gives me as much science geek info as I want. I always feel well informed working with him.
The other dentist almost worked on the wrong tooth. That would never happen in Dr. Smith's office: he pays attention.
And let me rave about Dr. Smith's skill with a hypodermic needle. It took the other dentist three tries to get my mouth numb, and even then, it wasn't complete. It's not much fun to have a tooth worked on when it keeps twinging. Dr. Smith always gets my jaw numb with a minimum of fuss, and he never, ever worked on a tooth until it was completely numb.
All the trauma at the other dentist left me with nasty jaw hinge pain for two weeks (relieved only when I saw a skilled acupuncturist). I've never had that kind of complication when I've had work done by Dr. Smith.
The final straw with the other dentist was when he glued on a permanent crown that was too short. To the other dentist's credit, his office credited my money back the next day. But still, the dentist never said a word to me at the time, even though I knew that something was not right. Nope, he was too busy moving on to the person in the next chair. I've had crowns done by Dr. Smith and I've always been happy with them. In fact, I went back to Dr. Smith to get a new crown to replace the botched one.
Now I know that a 30-minute drive is totally worth it to get a skilled practitioner. Dr. Smith's office staff is friendly and helpful when I'm making or changing appointments. His assistants know what they are doing, and have competently cleaned my teeth at cleaning sessions, and ably done their work (taking impressions, etc.) at other appointments. It's worth the drive to have things done well, and done right the first time. read more
