Overall, I was unsure about Lake Mary Dental until today. I went for my first visit about three months ago, to set up a new patient account. I was very impressed with Zenaida who took my xrays and pictures of my teeth. After all the xrays and the oral exam were complete, I was told I could be squeezed in for a cleaning. Of course I obliged and went in for a cleaning with Marilyn. While Marilyn was very straight-forward and thorough, I was not overly happy with the periodontal exam that cost an extra $15.00 and the ""specialized cleaning"" for my gums (another $40) that was recommended. I felt as though my gums were in pretty good shape (seeing as they explained during the exam that if the hygienist says between numbers 1-3 you're in good shape, and 4/5 means you're in the red zone, and I had all 1-3). I really didn't want someone ""irrigating my gums with a peroxide-like substance"" to kill the ""infection..."" especially not for another $40.00 that my insurance wouldn't cover!
To their defense, they did explain that if my gums bleed a bit that they would always want to irrigate, and after arguing with Marilyn for about 10 minutes (literally, I felt REALLY uncomfortable, but it was definitely an argument) she finally went ahead and just cleaned my teeth the old fashioned way.
Overall, I am glad that this dental office really understands the dangers of not taking care of your mouth, gums, and teeth. Although I was really uncomfortable with the gum cleaning argument, Dr. Lall saw me, showed me a spot on my xrays, and recommended that I come back and get an old filling drilled because there was decay underneath it.
Today I went for the filling, and Dr. Lall was amazing. He was so comforting, very personable, and gentle. While I questioned whether or not I wanted to come back after the gum treatment argument, overall, I'm glad I did. In the future, if it is recommended that I have my gums irrigated, I may go for the treatment. For now, I'm making sure I floss and use mouthwash to hopefully avoid going back and needing the treatment.
The skinny on this place: they are definitely trying to up-sell you as much stuff as possible. Just remember as a patient (and as a consumer) you always have the right to say you don't want something, whether it be the toothbrush, invisaline, zoom whitening, etc. Lake Mary Dental is in a very high income area, and there are customers who walk in and want these things. Though I'm not one of those folks, I understand why LMD pitches the sales to everyone regardless of who you are. I know if I were in the dental business and had a ton of student loans, I'd do the same thing.
HOWEVER, if the owners of LMD ever read this review, as a person who isn't in a place to spend a lot on my dental work, it does make me feel a bit uncomfortable walking into an office that is trying to sell you things left and right. It made me feel like I might not be able to trust the dentist, and perhaps that the office might recommend superfluous procedures to get an extra buck out of me. Not that that is the case with this practice, but in this day and age there are a lot of dishonest people running businesses and the modern day consumer is extremely skeptical of any and all sales pitches.
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