Novato Smiles Dentistry

I would give this place ZERO stars if I could. I have Anthem HMO dental insurance and they were one of the few dentists in Marin taking new patients. I called for an appointment for a teeth cleaning and they make you set separate appointments for an exam and a teeth cleaning, but they have no appointments available for THREE months and they won’t set the appointments at the same time. They say they are backlogged because they only have a part-time provider, but my question is WHY are you accepting new patients if you can’t even take care of the ones you have. When I stated the obvious that they need to hire more staff the receptionist hung up on me.

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Novato Smiles is such a great office! Their team is so sweet and give great service. Definitely recommend this office😊

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If I could give less than one star I would. Not only are the front desk staff incompetent at their jobs, but Dr. Lee is incredibly rude and unprofessional. The bedside manner is nonexistent, he was not accommodating to my severe dental anxiety, and was plainly just rude and disrespectful overall when discussing my dental health. Do not come here if you are looking for a positive dentist experience. The first appointment I had at this location I had X-rays done because I had not gone to a dentist in a few years (due to autism related sensory issues as well as a long traumatizing history with dentists) and wanted to specifically look for cavities in my teeth since I am pretty prone to them. The dentist who was there at the time said I was all clear and just needed a thorough cleaning. Great. Perfect. I paid and left with a 6-month cleaning appointment scheduled for March. The March appointment comes, all of the other dentists have moved on elsewhere and I am left with Dr. Lee. He is very rude to me about my dental health saying, and I quote, "You do not have good dental hygiene. You need to fix that." Before he started the cleaning I explained to him that I am prone to panic attacks while at the dentist because of a bad history and will be wearing noise-cancelling headphones during the service. He attempted to dissuade me from wearing them, claiming he wanted to be able to communicate with me during the procedure. I flat out told him no, I will be wearing them and he simply shrugged. Come time to checkout and leave, a nurse comes up to me in the waiting room and tells me that Dr. Lee had taken a look at my X-rays from 6 months prior and decided that yes, I do have two cavities and they needed to be filled ASAP. I ask, why didn’t they find the cavities 6 months ago when I specifically asked them to look? They couldn’t give me a straight answer. Irritated, I go to the front desk to checkout and schedule my fillings and leave. I scheduled the fillings for today, April 2nd 2024 and request to be sedated with laughing gas because having to go through two cavity fillings would most likely cause me to have a full meltdown. Finally, today when I show up for my fillings I am told while attempting to check in that my appointment was cancelled. I ask why. The front desk staff claims that they tried to get in contact with me but no one answered and I was listed as a "No confirmation cancellation." I tell them that I have not received a call from them since the last appointment. I even show them my call history and have them confirm the number on file. They claim that they called me twice. "It must not have gone through." They made no attempt to e-mail me to confirm or call my emergency contact either. When I ask to speak to Dr. Lee, "he is busy and cannot talk." Frustrated after driving 45 minutes and having someone with me to drive me home after the procedure. We leave with no reschedule and nothing resolved. No apology, nothing. I am beyond frustrated with this dentist’s office and will never be returning.

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This is just the beginning of my 5 STARS+ experience. The BEST Dentist I have ever had the pleasure to meet ...Gentle /Explained what he needed to do.. Amazing very little pain .The Staff is Excellent, You open the door and are greeted with a Smile, Will include Staff names in next post. I was nervous, however walked out the door with a NOVATO SMILE ON MY FACE!!!🤗

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The staff is amazing! Professional, polite and personable. Katherine is so sweet and definitely makes you feel like you personally matter to them. Dr. Lee is very caring and considerate, fair and personable. Also office seems to be up- to-date on new tech dentistry procedures. Love this Dentist and his staff!

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