Awful experience during and even worst after an appointment for my 3 year old. To preface this review, I will say this was my second appointment, my first one went well as expected and I happily returned for a 2nd appointment. Sometimes it takes another look to realize what you're really dealing with.
As a parent you typically expect pediatric Doctors, let alone dentists, to understand the reluctance of a child to race into a chair so he can be poked and prodded. My kid is no different, and silently protested by refusing to get into the chair at my requests and pleading, and I admittedly, tried very carefully not to ruin an experience or scar my kid for future visits (to any dentist) by forcing him into the chair. Dr Eddie Jackson (who was leaving for vacation the next day), didn't seem to have the time to wait for anything or anyone and to my shock and amazement was very patronizing towards my son as if he was some attitude filled teenager child of his own. After finally sitting down on the chair, crying with embarrassment for upsetting people and being tugged and poked in a very hurried and rushed manner, the nightmare appointment ended with a prize box taking the place of a pity gift. After mentioning to the Dr that I was hoping that the appointment went a little differently mentioning I didn't want to traumatize my 3 year old, I was told flat out by Dr Eddie Jackson himself that "if you think this is traumatizing, you're full of yourself". I was speechless mainly because I just did not expect that after clearly a difficult appointment.
After discussing this with my husband, he felt as if he needed to hear more and hear the Dr's side of the story. So he called him the following week when the Dr was away on vacation and relayed the message to a very lovely and assuredly sympathetic individual who assured me the message would be relayed. ( Lucky for him he's got great staff) Well weeks and months went by, and no call back came (Dr said he had allegedly tried calling, yet no message or missed calls were received from my end or my husbands phone). Then the e-mail with the 'schedule your next appointment' reminder came, and we were forced to respond to the e-mail saying we would not be re-booking based on a lack of response from the Dr on this issue.
Finally, this e-mail stating that we would post my honest reviews of the experience got his attention and then after a few more weeks of phone tag, Dr and my husband finally connected.
For full context, the following was my husbands take of the phone call: "From the start of the call the Dr was in defense mode, denying every account of the story and denying he ever said anything that my wife recalled from her visit. I had mentioned that knowing my wife the way I do and any of her co-workers and family would know her to be, she's not one to make up a story let alone one to get me involved with her problems or interactions. That statement alone seemed to make him even more defensive since he just assumed I believed my wife and not his word (call me crazy). He went on and on in an extremely unprofessional manner and at one point throwing his hands up and saying verbatim "what would you like sir, how can I help you? Would you like to hit me, would you like to kick me, would you like to spit on me?". In complete and utter disbelief at his abrasive tone and his way of talking, I was completely turned off from continuing a conversation, but to my own fault we talked for about 15 minutes with nothing being accomplished besides furthering my resolve to never book another appointment with this doctor and sharing my (and my wife's) thoughts with other potential patients. Yes I was upset, yes I was annoyed, however I never raised my voice and I never once thought about any retribution or retaliation to what he disrespectfully urged me to do. As a grown-up, all I wanted personally, was a man-to-man discussion, and a resolution towards a potential 3rd appointment that I personally would attend with my child so I could first hand experience it and say you know what maybe it was just a bad day for everyone involved, we're all prone to those. Instead, there was no sign of remorse or accountability from the Dr on any part of this, with the exception of "sorry if you're wife was too emotionally disturbed by the events to hear me properly".
Long story short, I will NOT be booking a third appointment and will be happily discussing this review with anyone who is interested in my opinion on this matter. I fully expect a full defense of this review at some point, but I feel like I've exhausted this topic and just want to move on from it personally. I have no other words to explain this ordeal as this is my absolute first bad experience with the doctors that we've gone to and have personally never felt like he saw me (nor my husband for that matter) as an equal to him in any way! read more
