Southern Smiles Family Dentistry

Reviews 7

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Vignette Berkeley

This dentist has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. They call to confirm your appointment, which many companies do. But if you dont respond, they have their unprofessional front office staff call and threaten to cancel your appointment if they dont hear from you. There is no other business that I deal with I my life that assumes you arent coming if you dont confirm. And if they do, they sure as hell dont tell you about that policy on the day of your appointment. The first time it happened I was annoyed but figured it was the fault of the receptionist. Today, Im incensed. I manage the appointments for my family and all of the communication happens through me. Never heard of anything like that before, right? I got a call at 845 asking to confirm a 2pm appointment for my partner. Hes a teacher and in class so I tell them we should be fine but Ill let them know. I get a call back at 945 from another woman telling me that if they dont know by 10, theyre canceling the 2pm appointment. They reference a text message sent two days ago, which I never got, and that they shouldnt be talking to me anyway because HIPPA. Both ridiculous. After the receptionist continued to talk over me as I tried to explain that 5th grade math teachers cant leave the kids to confirm dentists appointments on demand, we agreed that we are better off finding new dentists. If these ridiculous confirmation rules are your policy, fine. Give me an opportunity to agree upfront and understand the consequences if I dont. But dont expect me to be your customer when you decide to go against industry standards and use terrible and unprofessional staff who dont listen to implement your rules. You may be a doctor but Im a customer with choices. And Im exercising those to move on and recommend that others do as well.

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Kiya Moore

My daughter and I were patients at Southern Smiles for a little over a year. I had been pleased with the medical care I have received but had not enjoyed at any point the customer service and the level of competency of the administrative staff. I often had to walk office staff through and at times debate the fact that I have 2 insurance plans that are used for my dental care. I have had wait times in excess of 15-20 minutes more than 50% of the visits I have had. Additionally, on the day of appointments I am interrupted various times while at work to be questioned about if Im interested in a last-minute time change for my appointment. This is quite distracting while I am trying to conduct business and complete work prior to my scheduled appointment. Finally , I had an appointment which I was running behind due to the weather, and spoke with the staff about my arrival time. I was very disappointed to learn upon arriving that I would have to reschedule my appointment especially considering how long I have had to wait beyond my scheduled appointment during previous visits. I wrote an email to the office manager similar to this and no one ever contacted me to address my concerns. Unfortunately, Southern Smiles addresses concerns by simply ignoring them.

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Christine Rivera

The doctor and staff really dont do anything to make the patient (one who has been terrified of going to the dentist for 10+ years) feel at ease. Getting my first ever fillings in my life from them was a borderline torturous experience. They just tell you to calm down and deal with it, rather than offering any sort of help. I do not trust that the diagnosis they gave was accurate either. Most likely trying to get more work out of their patients than what is actually necessary. They made me buy this special $30 toothpaste which I had never heard of before and no one in my family has ever needed it. Seems like a scam. I will be getting a second opinion from another doctor. Edit: Went to Dental TLC, got a full exam, a simple cleaning (while Southern Smiles pushed me to get a more expensive "deep clean," Dental TLC did not even mention needing it.) and they did not find any cavities, although Southern Smiles already drilled out 3 of my molars and stated that I still needed 4 more fillings after that!!

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Nicole LeBlanc

I was walking my dogs through the neighborhood and was excited to see a dentistry practice within walking distance from my house. I need a cleaning, so I decided to walk in to see about making an appointment. The first thing out the receptionists mouth after I said I wanted to see about making an appointment is, "Dogs are not allowed in here." I was fully aware that I wouldnt be able to bring my dogs to an appointment but just walking in to see about an appointment for the first time, I think a more friendly and appropriate approach would have been to greet me nicely, listen to why I was stopping in and then kindly thank me for stopping in, explain dogs are not allowed in the facility, period (including the waiting area), apologize, and offer a business card and ask if I wouldnt mind calling to make an appointment. Instead, the receptionist was extremely rude. I will not be going here ever. Id rather drive into midtown to go see my AWESOME dentist at Feather Touch Dentistry.

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Th Wh

The office is incredibly nice and the staff couldnt have been more friendly and helpful! They accept Care Credit and have an awesome in house dental plan that makes them extremely affordable, and they also accept most dental plans. They have a playroom for kids off of the main waiting room, so it was definitely kid friendly, but quiet in the main room. Im so excited I found such a great local dentist, I saw Dr. Hollyfield today and she was awesome! The chairs were comfortable, so was the overall atmosphere. All of their equipment is top of the line and brand new. I really hope they get a lot of neighborhood clients and stick around for the long run. I wish I would have known affordable they are and I would have gone much sooner. I dont have one negative thing to say about my experience. I did a lot of research about dentists in the area based on their reputation and affordability, people kept recommending Southern Smiles and I see why now :)

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Melissa Uppelschoten

I was a bit scared going here. I had a great recommendation from another parent at our elementary school, but when I looked at the Google reviews and saw the used car salesman comments and the couple of positive reviews with no comments - I got nervous. However, we had a wonderful experience. First, they saw us at the last minute on a Friday! Calling around all day Thursday to find a dentist who would see my son was a nightmare. It seemed like no dentist works on Fridays! Also, the decay in his tooth was pretty bad, so he would need a root canal and crown. I told them we wanted to talk to our orthodontist first to see if we should just pull it since it is a baby tooth and he has tons of overcrowding issues. They were completely fine with that! No pressure to use them whatsoever. We will be back!

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Adam Allen

Went in for an evaluation because it is right next to my house. Like someone else said, it reminded me of a used car dealership in how they push expensive procedures on you, and this is the entire staff including the dentist, who walked up to the desk with me hoping I would schedule the procedures. Overall it was just an uncomfortable feeling and I did not trust them. I went to my partners dentist office and turns out I did NOT need the volume of work they suggested (which was thousands of dollars including crowns, etc.) but only a series of fillings. To bad because they are so close, but I now gladly go to Promenade Dental Care in Midtown, the staff and the Dr. Harris are AWESOME and will be honest with you about what you need.

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