Thanks yelp! I was looking for a new dentist that was part of my delta dental plan, and luckily found Dr Daisy thanks to her rave reviews on yelp. I'll admit I was initially skeptical, but my experiences with her thus far have definitely merited 5 stars. I know it's long, but take the time to read through my review, and then go to Dr Daisy (seriously).
Key points (for those of you who wont take the time to read the rest):
- Dr Daisy spends a lot of time with you, and actually listens to you
- amazing technology (tools that detected a cavity I had complained about for years)
- no wait time (literally, less than 5 minutes)
- friendly staff
- really reasonable cost
- no pushing of extra products at jacked up prices (e.g., electric toothbrush, mouthwash); in fact, I wasn't offered any :)
The technology in this office is amazing. When I came in and sat in the chair I was a bit confused because the protocol is usually to go get x-rays first. At Dr Daisy's, they can take x-rays while you're in the chair, and they go to a large TV screen for you to see. After the hygienist took the x-rays Dr Daisy came in. In the past my experiences with dentists have been of the "zip in, zip out" variety. The dentist will pop in, check out my teeth for 1-2 minutes, and leave me with the dental hygenist for a "cleaning." This is definitely not the case with Dr. Daisy. She thoroughly inspected my teeth, and actually listened to me. I told her about a tooth that has been sensitive for years, with deep grooves on the surface that are stained. In the past dentists had told me it was just a stain, and no evidence of a cavity (using the typical poking method to check for softness - I don't know the technical term). So, even though my tooth passed the "poke" test, she went back to my x-rays and was able to zoom in on them to view possible cavities. She noted a small black dip on the tooth in question, and then looked through all of my teeth and identified an additional black dot.
*** This is the cool part, I've never had a dentist do this. She used a camera wand to view my teeth up close, and this was displayed on the large TV screen so I could see as well. The wand took pictures of my teeth for easy future reference. She then turned on a special mode on the wand that emitted a red light - if you have a cavity, it will usually show a black dot. That method indicated a couple of black dots in the places she had identified on the x-rays, but only momentarily. She then made the wand emit a green light, and the cavity on my tooth (the one I had pointed out) turned into a large black spot, as did the other one she had identified. Finally, a dentist that listened to me, and had the resources to investigate my claims! The cool part was that this entire process was visible to me. I had my appointment on a Thursday, and was able to schedule an appointment for the fillings on the following Tuesday. Random aside - I mentioned earlier in the visit that I had been told by my previous dentist that I needed my wisdom teeth removed, but had delayed doing so because they said my portion of the cost would be $2,000 (ridiculous!). I guess she realized I don't want to spend money unnecessarily, and said the cavities on my teeth were really small and I could probably get the fillings done without the use of novocaine, which would reduce the cost. Delta dental only covers silver fillings, but of course I opted for the tooth-colored resin. My cost? About $85 for both of them! In the past I had paid $130 for each filling (with novocaine). Dr Daisy also spent a lot of time sculpting the fillings, and then made sure that the color matched my existing teeth.
Dr Daisy also took the time to show me how long the roots were on some of my teeth (ideal length), and pointed out that the roots of my top front teeth had dissolved, and that I should take special care to notice whether they ever feel loose (she said this may have been due to my braces in the past, or always been that way). She was really surprised that this was new information to me, and that other dentists hadn't mentioned this.
At my old dentist, a "cleaning" consisted of the dental hygienist simply polishing my teeth. With Dr Daisy, a cleaning means using a tool to scrape the surface of my teeth, followed by polishing by the hygienist.
Minor points:
- It was really easy to make an appointment: no need to schedule weeks ahead of time.
- I've been to the office twice so far, and have waited under 5 minutes each time
- Billing: you can pay your share at the time of service, instead of waiting for them to bill you later (I probably find this a huge plus because of the billing screw ups my previous dentist made)
- your chair faces a window - it's nice to look out and see something other than the fluorescent lights and bland decor of typical offices
I can't believe my review is so long, but when someone impresses me as much as Dr Daisy, I'll take the time to let others know. read more
