Blue Ridge Pediatric Dentistry

I truly wish that I could give this dentist (Dan Knechtel) zero stars. Or negative stars? Yes, that would be nice. This man turned us away from his practice while my child was in the chair about to get a filling, because I told him that we were choosing not to go with the Nitrous Oxide and molar sealants that he had suggested. I told him that we had chosen to go simply with the local anesthetic over the nitrous (since she was only getting ONE small surface filling in a tiny baby tooth), and that we would revisit the idea of tooth sealant when her baby teeth fell out and she started to get some adult teeth. (Note: while researching child molar sealant, I found that most dentist do not suggest this until the baby teeth fall out. $350 to seal baby teeth on a 7 year old with only one small cavity, who is loosing teeth left and right, seems a bit superfluous). I also told him that we as a family had decided to all begin the habit of brushing three times a day to ensure healthy teeth between visits. He promptly turned to me and told me "I don't feel comfortable seeing a patient under those conditions." Then he suddenly stood up, with tight lips and a set jaw, and told me he would concede to transferring our records to another dentist. End of story. When he had brought up the nitrous usage to me the week before, and I was skeptical but said I would think about it, he told me it was an "OPTION that was available to us to ease the child's stress". But clearly he can not do a tiny surface filling in a calm and well-behaved child (who incidentally wasn't even scared, just curious) without knocking them out first. His demeanor after I had informed him of my decisions for MY CHILD seemed like he was poorly suppressing a temper tantrum. When I was on my way out (without the filling), I asked his assistant if it was the practice's policy that both molar sealant and nitrous usage during fillings were mandatory, and told her I was confused as to why he had made them seem like options to me merely the week before. She refused to answer any of my questions, which pretty much confirmed to me that it was NOT in fact mandatory for all patients and procedures, and he WAS actually having a temper tantrum. NOT professional. I had taken off of work for the day and kept my child out of school in order to get care for her teeth. Not to mention driving to the next town and back. It would have been wonderful if he had informed us that we didn't have the choice not to use nitrous BEFORE we showed up and were in the chair, or we would not have wasted our time with this unyielding practice.

Don't even try it. I should have ran out when I first entered the door, no toys, books are old/deteriorating (only eight), and there is no other simulization for children in waiting room. Dentist didn't seem interested in building any sort of relationship with my child, will NOT go back!!!