First, I want to say that at the end of filling out paperwork, there was a sheet that said in big letters "Review us on Yelp and receive 10% off your next visit!" On the one hand, I had to tip my hat to her in that she's paying attention to online reviews. Plus, it's not like she's saying "and give me five stars or else." But I did feel a little off about this because if you're going to a service person and have to claim your ten percent off, you're probably not going to want to score them less than five stars. Or maybe four stars.
It was a little bit different for me. I am a cash patient with a dental discount plan. She wasn't familiar with mine and told me to bring it in and she could probably match the prices. The prices ended up being around $14 cheaper than her cheapest cash price and so she said if I wanted to cancel it was okay. I figured I needed a teeth cleaning/exam/xrays so did it for $99.
One plus: The place is new, easy to find as a building, but took me a couple of minutes to find the right door upstairs. There's a lot of "new" stuff to it, and it looks like thought went into making it look upscale with the furniture and the paint job, how the walls were laid out as well as the fishtank.
However, after filling in my paperwork which took me maybe five minutes, I had to wait twenty minutes despite scheduling my appointment right after (and I mean right after) their lunch break. I could have swore no other patient was there, and I was surprised to find that there was one guy way back that she was working on. So I felt kind of lame that I had to wait a good chunk of time after my appointment time.
I also got a chance to listen to the young man's telephone manner who was manning the desk. He wasn't rude by any means. He was quite friendly. It just made me laugh a little bit to hear some of his informal handling of people who were clearly patients or calling for information.
Anyway, so I still think I'm the only patient in the office still at this point, and I get taken back to the xray machine which is pretty nifty because you stand and it spins around you. Then I went to sit in my chair and I could hear the doctor with the other patient finishing up so that took maybe another five minutes. Not that big of a deal, but at this point I think I'm like 40 minutes past my appointment start time and have only done like 10 minutes of actual stuff that needed to be done.
She comes in, and I ask her to check my pockets at some point during my appointment. Now, I've always had my pockets checked after a cleaning, and another dentist told me that they check for pockets after cleaning as well so as not to shove plaque down into the gums. However I haven't been to a dentist in awhile so maybe I'm misremembering. Due to remembering it this way though, I was slightly put off by her checking my pockets before cleaning. She was considerate to pause several times, but I was surprised that she didn't even stop to rub some topical on my gums since we both knew it was going to hurt.
Anyway, I got my pocket readings, and she went on to clean. She used that type of non-waxed floss that gets stuck between your teeth. Now, my previous dentist in CA uses waxed floss so I don't think it's some choice that was done because she thinks wax is bad for teeth. She actually had a hard time flossing my teeth and asked if I floss my teeth (which I do almost every day with little flosser sticks and never have a problem.) She said that I had really tight contacts, but I replied that I had no problem with waxed floss.
Why does she have a really nice office and then not even spring for waxed floss?
Anyway, so she cleans, and I could have swore she left out a step, but hell, my teeth were a lot cleaner than when I went in, so I just chalked it up to "whatever."
She then tried to look at the xrays but unfortunately, the machine had been really wonky, so I have to take them again. I should have just said no because it was another 15-20 minutes of stuff I didn't need since I already knew I was going to be going to another dentist. She was certainly apologetic but I just got that feeling like all the kinks hadn't been ironed out with this office and having new technology wasn't working out in their favor. I don't know. Maybe it was this day.
I did find it interesting that having listened to her finish with the other guy, she offered him a fluoride rinse after the cleaning, and didn't offer me one. Now, I wouldn't have taken it because I'm anti-fluoride in *most* cases since I think we overuse it, BUT she didn't know that. So I didn't know if she didn't do this because I was a cash patient, or she thought I was never going to come back (if so, way to garner return clientele), or something else.
I can't complain over the $100 because I needed the cleaning/exam/xrays, I wasn't impressed enough to feel like I'd ever want to go back, or even let my boyfriend (who needs like 5K of work) go. read more