Scheduling appointments at Southern Dental

I had a bad experience with Southern dental a few months ago. I had a cleaning appointment at 8:30 am. They even called be the day before to confirm. I got to my appointment and it was almost 9 am when they called me back to get x-rays taken. I waited another 15 minutes before they placed me in a chair to wait. And I wait. And I wait. At 9:40, a person came to review my x-ray and told me I had a cavity and needed to get it taken care of before it became a root canal. I told her I had not even had my cleaning. She said, "You haven't had your cleaning?" I said no, I have been here over an hour and no one has come to clean my teeth.

She left and came back to tell me that my hygiene appointment was at 10:30. I gave her an incredulous look and said my appointment was for 8:30. She said yes but my hygiene appointment was at 10:30. I was livid at this point and lit into her. No one told me I had two separate appointments. Who the hell schedules a cleaning visit with a 2 hour difference between x-ray and cleaning. I told her it is ridiculous to expect any patient to wait over 2 hours for a dental cleaning. All this time, she was hemming and hawing and could not give me an answer. I told her I did not mean to raise my voice at her but someone should have told me the situation so that I would not have wasted my morning waiting around. I expected maybe an hour for the whole thing and already it was coming up on two hours and I still had dirty teeth.

I did not even know if the person I spoke to was the dentist but she finally took me to speak with the office manager. I wait again because she is on the phone. When she finally comes out, she has my file and tells me my balance is zero and that the appointment is paid for. I give her a crazy look and asked her what that had to do with my appointment. She looked at me crazy and I explained the situation. She took me back to the hygiene room and told George to take me next. He was still cleaning his equipment but I waited on him. It ended up being almost 10:30 before he started cleaning. George was a nice kid, looked like William Hung. I wasn't mad at him. I was pissed at the idiot who scheduled a two hour appointment for a cleaning.

The bad part was I had a cavity that I needed to get filled and I debated going back. I was told that if it was too deep, I would need a root canal. I really debated changing dental providers but went ahead and scheduled my filling. I went back a week later and wouldn't you know, the person who I lit into was the person doing my cavity. Would she take revenge on me? She looked at my cavity and thank goodness a root canal was not needed. She was good too. No pain and she said she got all of the cavity. After she finished I thanked her and apologized for yelling at her the week before. She gave me a confused look and said she didn't remember that.

So what did I learn?
*Always check the appointment times and make sure everything is back to back.
*Southern dental is not bad when it comes to dental practitioners. Their admin people need more training.
*Not to yell at the person who will have you pinned to a reclining chair with your mouth wide open while sticking sharp objects and drilling devices in your mouth.