Gentle Dentistry – Cottage Grove Office in Cottage Grove | Locations, Category, Services Offered, Prices List, Top Ratings, Prices, Reviews & More

I’m not one to write bad reviews but there have been several bad experiences here and something needs to be addressed.

First off, this location is very short staffed. It is hard to make an appointment and sometimes takes 2-3x of calling/texting to get anyone to call back. When you are able to schedule they are sometimes months out. Not the end of the world, but when you are needing to schedule a follow up for filling your child’s cavity it can sometimes be much worse of a problem due to the long time passing.

I have several bad experiences with Dr. Sara (poor bedside manner and attitude) but will just speak on the most recent. We were at an appointment to pull a tooth because of the problem above (length of time between appts) and we’re heading out of town the next day for a week. My daughter had an abscess that was draining and either needed a pulpectomy or tooth pulled and this location was the only one that could do it that day. We arrived to our appointment early, were brought back 5-10 mins after scheduled and sat in the exam room. The hygienist and Dr came in, said that there was another patient that needed more care than my daughter and that there may be a 20 minute wait. Not a problem! 1hr 30 mins later I finally went out to reception where I had seen the ladies chatting on and off during this time (not one update or person came in during this period to communicate). I said to the doctor, did you mean one hour and twenty minutes? Is there a time that works better today where we can be seen or can we at least go get lunch and come back? She was very dismissive but begrudgingly apologized. I told her that communication means everything in all types of businesses and that I wouldn’t be frustrated if any person would have given an update at any point. Apparently that was too much confrontation for her to accept and she decided at that point that she wouldn’t see my daughter. The receptionist gave me the number of the Plymouth location and said they could maybe get me in but I’d have to call myself. Unbelievable. We had spent over 2 hours of time there, were leaving the next day for a week and the doctor herself said this needed to be done before we left. I was definitely mad at this point and left.

We were so lucky to get in with the Plymouth location an hour later where they were so professional and had us in and out in 30 mins. Otherwise what would we have done? Dr Sara definitely didn’t care and wouldn’t be bothered. I have talked to other dental offices about this location and they have heard the same feedback and if you look at the last year of reviews on here you’ll find a common theme. We go to this location because it’s close to Hastings but we have decided we would rather drive to Plymouth and get great service and professionalism over convenience and bad attitudes.

My experience at this office.
– They were milking me as much as possible. I caught on that they dragged out providing services so they can bill you more by increasing appointment frequency; they’ll wait every other visit to mention a new cavity, for example, when it was there all along. I kept track of this by buying my own dental tools and taking pictures of my teeth.
– During one appointment, I called out that they didn’t mention an obvious cavity and didn’t provide a treatment plan for it. This call out was after 2 visits where they made no mention of that cavity. The dentist became condescending toward me and finally said they’d fill it during the next appointment. The next appointment wasn’t for a filling though, it was just for a cleaning. During this appointment, they mentioned 3 “new” cavities. They were specks, and they weren’t new. The 3rd “cavity” looks like barely noticeable discoloration and nothing like the specks. It didn’t look like a cavity at all. I called this out, and the dead-eyed, soulless hyg stared at me blankly. She didn’t say a word, didn’t review the picture with me that they took, nothing. After 10 seconds of just staring, I said “I’m out of here.”
– They let a wisdom tooth get so bad that by the time they filled it, the cavity was so deep that half the tooth was chipped away and the filling caused pain for over a month.
– The last cleaning I had, the dead-eyed, soulless hyg was extremely rough with the ultrasonic scaler. I said ouch multiple times, and the hyg seemed unfazed and kept going. Days later and my teeth are still sensitive from the cleaning. That’s never happened to me before.
– I’m currently booking an appointment with another dentist to get a second opinion. I will not be going back to Gentle Dentistry. I only went to them out of convenience – close to home and they accept my insurance.
A note to Gentle Dentistry: Answer your phones consistently, stop milking those that go to you for help, provide FULL preventative care, and get better people to represent you. DO BETTER. If you don’t truly care about helping people, get out of the business.

Gentle Dentistry – If your issue requires effort go somewhere else. I went in for multiple cavities and the dentist was testing my teeth and I was in so much pain that I yelled. The female doctor said; “You can’t do that I have other people in the lobby.” She then proceed to belittle me and scold me like a child. (I only yelled for a split second by the way.) I regained my bearings and calmed down and said can we please just continue? She told me no I think you need to go somewhere else and thus I now have no thing done wasted a half hour of life and was referred to someone who by the way was nether the right place or the right insurance. Its clear they will not do their job and honestly hope they get shut down. Go somewhere where they actually want to do what they are supposed to and maybe don’t expect you to feel good when your getting hot cold and hooks on clearly bad teeth. I went in with a problem and still have a problem. (Don’t you dare bother to make things better doc because I no longer trust you period.)