Gentle Dental

I didn’t keep up on my cleanings and checkups for a couple years, when a dental emergency forced me to come in. I wasn’t looking forward to it — who WANTS to go to the dentist???
Dr. Shakiba and her team fixed the main problem and found a couple more cavities during the exam. They answered all of my questions, and clearly explained my options, the associated expenses, etc. I won’t say I enjoyed my time in her chair, but it really wasn’t that bad, and now I can chew! Thank you!

Time for a house cleaning at this place. The admin staff are awful, disorganized, inefficient and lazy. I made a new patient/​cleaning/​filling appointment 3 months ago that was canceled by my doctor, 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there, when I had requested the time off work and was already driving to the office.
I had to wait 3 months to get back in because 1) the 2 dentists that work there took 10 day long vacations back to back (I was willing to see either), 2) they are off Monday’s and Thursday’s, days of the week when people who call themselves medical professionals should be working (would you trust a lawyer that only worked weekends?), 3) they claim Saturday hours but are only open 2 Saturday’s a month at most, for 3 hours at a time, 4) they are booked silly back to back, 5) they don’t have any late days where they are open past the time the rest of the world gets off work.
I finally make appointment number 2, and it falls through today. Although I called and gave them my insurance info way ahead of time (same coverage since 2007 and it covers dentists 100%), they called me yesterday to tell me they called my carrier and I am only covered for accidents and nothing else. The troglodyte at the desk called my medical insurance carrier, not dental. I call the dental insurance carrier, confirm I’m covered, call Gentle Dental back and speak to a woman who assures me all the info is corrected in the computer, noted in my chart, and the office will know I have coverage from my dental insurance when I arrive for my appointment the following day. Mind you, I am at work on a busy sales floor having to deal with these phone calls because they waited allllll the way til the day before my appointment to check my insurance coverage.
I get there today and the office staff claims they have no notes in the chart but they did call my dental insurance carrier and insist I’m not covered. I have now requested 2 days off from work for this, lost money, lost time, my teeth aren’t clean and my chipped tooth is still there. In order to avoid getting arrested for pile-​driving a receptionist into the concrete, I left. The mediocrity of the staff here is staggering, especially with so many people out there still looking for jobs. I guess you get what you pay for. I will never go to a chain medical business again, especially Gentle Dental.

I had a problem at this location, however, the new Manager Kim called me and we happily work out my concern and misunderstanding in my best interest. Thank you Kim. Please go see Kim.
Moises

I must say giving a dentist a five seems a bit off for me, since I hate going.
Yup, I hate going to the dentist. Hate it.
But, blasted if Dr. Molly Marshall hasn’t been the best. Because Dr. Marshall and her staff are sooooo good, I took care of a dental issue that has plagued me for decades. The fact that I now love my smile is entirely her fault.
Yup, now I LOVE my smile.
I even took my smile with me on a trip to Hawaii as a reward for getting my teeth fixed.
I won’t go long on the tooth here, but if you are as reluctant to go to the dentist as I was, try this office.

The staff are caring, kind, warm, upbeat, and work really well together. I had a lot of dental work completed at this office recently (including a root canal) and I barely felt a thing.
Molly Marshall and her team are everything I was hoping for in a dentist’s office.

I love going to the dentist! said no one ever… but i do really enjoy coming here. Dr. Marshall and her team are wonderful. they are super friendly, quick, and make the process a bit less scary. if you’re in need of a dentist i’d suggest coming here.
I wanted to edit this review for the reason that the above mentioned review was during my «drill and fill». Today I had my teeth cleaned and wanted to give a shout out to the hygienist Amanda. She takes the extra time to really get between the teeth and doesn’t jam things into your gums. I schedule all of my cleanings with her and will continue to do so. Yet again, a great experience!

Still in love with this office, and I’m bumping it up to 5 because of the changes they’ve made.
At my last cleaning a week ago, the hygienist remembered who I was and ALSO remembered that the last time we had tried to do x-​rays it didn’t work out so hot — lots of forceful shoving of machinery and horrible gagging. (She let me know that the intern who did them last is «no longer working there».)
The new tech who did my x-​rays was a magician. A professional, kind, lightning speed magician. She was lovely.
I also can’t rave enough about their new orthodontist, Dr. Alcazar. Again, procedures before used to involve a lot of gagging. My first 10 – 12 months of Invisalign trays were torture. Dr. Alcazar took some new molds for my refinement trays and they are SO comfortable. Again, pure magic.
The whole place is so professional, from front to back. These guys are great!

The administrative staff here needs to get it together. I made an appointment for a cleaning and check up at 3:00. The day before my appointment, someone calls to confirm my appointment for 4:00. I tell them that I have it written down for 3:00 but can do 4:00 if that’s what they have down.
On the day of my appointment at 3:15 I get a phone call asking if I was running late or needed to reschedule, because I hadn’t showed up at 3:00. I told them that I changed my calendar to meet theirs and they said, «Oh that’s fine, we will see you at 4:00.» I showed up at 4:00 and wasn’t on the schedule. The dentist told me, «Good thing I didn’t go home yet!» They took a bunch of x-​rays and the dentist did a check up. Then they told me that I was too late for a cleaning and had to reschedule in a couple weeks to come get the cleaning done. So frustrating!
The dentist, Dr. Shakiba, seemed fine. Nothing especially wonderful or terrible to say there.

First, the positives – the front desk staff is great, and both hygienists did a great job with my cleaning. However, I’ve had a few negative experiences with Dr. Sirisha. On my first visit, she told me that I had a cross-​bite and strongly suggested that I get braces. When I asked why, she said I would have «a more efficient bite.» (My teeth are perfectly straight and I have no problems with my bite.) When I politely declined her referral to an orthodontist, she got very short with me and seemed almost offended.
More recently, I developed a canker sore and asked her to refill a prescription for a dental paste that another Gentle Dental dentist has prescribed to me for years. After first forgetting to call the pharmacy for two days, she finally phoned in a prescription for a rinse that I didn’t ask for or want. The front desk explained that she has never prescribed the dental paste and didn’t feel comfortable doing so. They said my only option was to see my medical doctor or find another dentist. Which I guess I’ll be forced to do.
Pretty disappointed, since I’ve been going to other G.D. locations for years and have always had a good experience.

Kind staff. But they seemed to not have their act together. I’ve definitely had better cleanings. Considering I was there for an hour and a half, my teeth definitely should have felt more clean. So, not bad, def not good.

Dr. Sirisha is amazing! I had had a terrible experience with a dentist down in Sellwood that was trying to tell me that I needed $ 28,000.00 worth of dental work done! I went to Dr. Sirisha for a second opinion and I’m so glad I did. She walked me through all of my x-​rays and was very thorough in explaining to me what was going on with my teeth and my gums, and she came up with a comprehensive dental plan that was not only very reasonable price wise, but was also specifically tailored to do only the work that was needed to keep my teeth and gums healthy and clean. She has a new patient for life now. Thanks, Dr. Sirisha!!!

Dr. Marshall is the best. I’ve seen her twice now — once for a general exam, etc and then I just saw her yesterday for what I was assuming was going to be a fairly complicated extraction of a broken molar.
I was extremely nervous, and she made me feel so comfortable. Not to mention, she is extremely skilled. Novacaine shots are everyone’s worst nightmare, but mine were over before I knew she started. My extraction, which I thought was going to be a long, drawn out process, took about 20 minutes, once she got in there. She even gave me stitches and I barely flinched. I’ve had extractions before, and none were as easy as this one was.
I highly recommend her!

Absolutely terrible customer service. I requested a refund for services I had paid up-​front for but never received (~$ 800). I was told they would send the proper request to the corporate office and I should receive a check within 2 weeks. Well, it’s now been two months and still NOTHING. I’ve called back numerous times and without fail I get the same line «well it looks like we’ve sent the request and corporate has received it. I’ll have the office manager, Cassandra, call you back with more information». I’ve still yet to receive a call back… not one! From other reviews I’ve read this seems to be quite common practice with Gentle Dental. At this point it feels as though I’m going to have to seek some sort of legal action to get my money back.
It’s rather unfortunate as my experience with the doctors and staff was excellent, as was the work they did on my teeth. But after this nonsense with the refund and absolutely horrible customer service practices I’ll never go back, nor would I recommend Gentle Dental to anyone else.

I’d put off going to the dentist for a few years longer than I should have, so was obviously a little nervous going back, but Dr. Sirisha and the staff at Gentle Dental Lombard were awesome. They were very thorough, and explained everything very clearly. I was especially impressed with the way Dr. Sirisha went through the x-​rays with me, explaining exactly what each part of the image represents, and the kinds of anomalies she looks for (and luckily didn’t find).
Lots of smiles and good senses of humor lightened the atmosphere, and I got a good checkup, cleaning, and some good advice. I also had the first appointment in the morning (8am) and didn’t have to wait at all. So glad to have this place close to my house, will definitely keep up with the checkups and cleaning from now on! Thanks Gentle Dental.

Gentle Dental Lombard is a great place to go! Molly Marshall is kind, thoughtful, VERY skilled and very professional. Dr. Marshall’s assistant Connie is great too, I really love the interaction between them while they are working away. They don’t pester you with questions when you have your mouth full of instruments. They get the job done as quickly as possible, I got two alloy fillings replaced with white plastic in about a half hour. I’ve also given her some trouble with a difficult extraction, Dr. Marshall never gave up and still only charged me the price for a simple extraction. By the way, they do take cash (and give a discount!), handle short notice appointments (like 45 minutes after my phone call from out of the blue!) and are super nice in every dealing so far. The office is right next to Fred Meyer so you can easily fill a prescription if she gives you one and it’s also close to Light Rail so you don’t have to drive! Top Notch staff and service.