The Smile Suite

4 years and counting that I’ve been a patient of Dr. Ellis! I just love her. I will say Everytime I come in which is usually every 6 months she has a new crew which is strange but back to her work, Dr. Ellis is a perfectionist in her craft. Gentle when doing procedures such as teeth extracts and wisdom. I recommend my friends for her services.

I have nothing but bad experiences with Smile Suite. Not only do they have horrible book keeping but they’ve hired a new office manager that is more rude than Dr. Ellis. Both my daughter and niece had their braces done here. To see their teeth, you wouldn’t believe it. We complained several times and it fell on deaf ears. To complain will have them questioning your account; whether you’ve paid your bill in full or not. Lastly, I sat next to a family in the mall food court and some how Smile Suite came up in conversation… OMG, this family seconded the same issues. One daughter had her braces removed a month ago, have impressions made for her retainer and she is STILL waiting! Her teeth are moving BACK and Smile Suite has not suggested the braces go back on to correct problem. PLEASE DO NOT DO BUSINESS HERE!

I cannot recommend the Smile Suite. This practice has shown time and time again (read the other reviews) a lack of respect for patients’ time and, by proxy health, and that is inexcusable.
Once I’ve been seen, the service is acceptable, but throughout the years I have been consistently subjected to wait times that have exceeded 30 minutes. That in itself demonstrates a callousness about patients’ time, but the past few months have demonstrated a lack of regard so blatant That 1) I can no longer use the services at the Smile Suite, and 2) I feel compelled to inform (warn) other consumers and patients.
I had an appointment scheduled at the end of last year, and found out that it was cancelled only because I walked up to a locked dentist office. There was no phone call to inform me that the office would be closed; there was no effort to reschedule my appointment. I cannot stress enough that I learned of the office closing only because, after making the effort to get there, I was greeted by a dark and locked office.
After several efforts to reschedule («We’ll call you right back.»), I was able to make an appointment for mid-​day on a Friday. I normally avoid mid-​day appointments, but at this point I was 3 months overdue for my cleaning. Note that I scheduled my work day around this appointment.
Once again I made the effort to get to the office, and once again I was unable to have my cleaning. This time my appointment was canceled for failure to confirm.
1. I confirmed when I got a text message from the office saying «Please Confirm Your appointment». The receptionist said that they no longer used the service, which is fine, but I take issue with 2 things:
A) If you no longer use the service, why is some random third party using my private information (name, phone #, date of appointment)?
B) If I receive a message that says «Thank you for confirming your appointment,» why on earth would I think that I am not confirmed? Did the office send out letters to inform that text message confirmation wouldn’t work? No. Did they make calls to the same effect? No. Again reckless negligence with my time.
2. At no point did anyone on the receptionist staff leave a voicemail to say «Please call and confirm.» Nor did I receive a phone call /​voicemail when they decided to cancel. At some point between the time it was decided to cancel, and my 11 am appointment, a phone call would have been courteous. The Smile Suite has not operated in that manner.
As frustrated as I am about the disregard for time, what frustrates me even more is that this has impeded a crucial preventative health procedure for more than 3 months. That is unacceptable for a health care provider. Be warned.

Terrible. I’ve never gagged so many times while getting x-​rays. On top of that, the girl doing my x-​rays had no compassion about the situation. She actually gave me an attitude about it. Every other x-​ray assistant I’ve had in my life has either tried to remedy the situation or I just haven’t gagged. Then there was my cleaning– so rough and painful. I could possibly get past all of this if the doctor had been great, but unfortunately I just felt like she was trying to sell me a lot of work I didn’t need. Now, on top of all of that, they didn’t send my x-​rays to my new dentist as requested. I do not recommend Smile Suite which is unfortunate– their location is great for people who work in Silver Spring.

I came in for a cleaning since they are on my insurance. I try to avoid places like Super/​Amazing/​Brite smiles since they tend to do unnecessary work just for the $. I was wary when I saw the name of the company (my insurance only provide the dr name). The cleaning was ok, but the dentist recommended thousands of dollars worth of work and 4 crowns that I knew were unnecessary because I had visited my usual dentist within the past 6 months. Then came the front desk folks who were so pleased to find out that my insurance has a $ 10K max. So of course, they recommended the most expensive crowns. I told them I didn’t need any additional work. Oh and just like a previous reviewer, they took an hour doing xrays and more xrays and … I won’t be back.

Had a bad experience with my root canal; still in pain. I went to see another doctor and I was told that nerve was not cleaned all the way.

I unfortunately had a very negative experience yesterday at The Smile Suite — so negative in fact, that I don’t think I will be able to return. It began when I walked in on time and the receptionist told me that the office had tried to contact me to push my appointment time back (which they had not). Then the dental hygienist asked me, «So you haven’t been here in 2 years, huh?» This being untrue, I responded that I was in fact, there less than a year ago. He again insisted that I hadn’t been there in two years in an extremely accusatory tone. Finally, he looked more closely at my record and said, «Oh, you haven’t had x-​rays in two years. That’s why i said that.» It was an unnerving way to begin my appointment. After he took my x-​rays, Dr. Ellis came in and scolded another dental hygienist for not doing a good job on my x-​rays, and asked her to retake them (this was never done). She spent all of 30 seconds examining my teeth and told me that I had to have a tooth pulled and that she would give me a referral (she never gave me a referral — at check-​out, the dental hygienist told the receptionist to give me one because I brought it up). Dr. Ellis only explained to me why my tooth needed to be pulled after my questioning. She seemed frustrated about other things happening in the office and came across as unfriendly and unprofessional. The cleaning itself was rushed, unthorough, and even painful at times.

They took 500 (ok, more like 20 — still is a lot) x-​rays of my husband’s mouth — this took an hour to do. My 2 year old had his cleaning by the hygenist then we waited over 30 minutes to be seen by the dentist — we gave up and left without being seen because you know — toddlers. My husband apologized for our rushed departure on his way out, the office staff acted like «hey, it happens to us all the time, no big deal!». Very strange behavior, they obviously do not care about patients at all — they’re in it just for the money. DO NOT COME HERE! Very understaffed and over scheduled, there were people waiting in the waiting room for over an hour.

It’s interesting that people have such mixed reviews of this place. I’ve been to the Smile Suite twice, and both times have been pleasant. I’ve gotten my teeth cleaned and looked over without having to schedule an extra appointment, unlike some people on Unilocal.
The office seems very new, and is clear. I will say that both times I was there I’ve had to wait — the first time was just 10 minutes, but my second time was more like 30. There wasn’t anyone else waiting, so it just took that long to get to me. I think the problem is that there just isn’t a large staff, so they can get behind quite quickly. I like that you can enter all your information online, as well as schedule appointments online — it makes the actual office visits go quicker.
I’ve twice had the same male dental hygienist here, and he seems quite knowledgeable. He does talk a lot, though, which makes it tricky especially when you can’t really respond back. Maybe it’s just because I’m a bit of an introvert, but I don’t really want to make small talk during my dental visits any more than I have to.
One odd thing is that The Smile Suite x-​rayed my teeth on two consecutive visits, just six months apart. Nothing had changed in that time — my wisdom teeth were removed years ago, and I’ve been lucky enough to have no cavities or other dental problems — so I’m not sure why they did this. They had my old pictures still, as well. My insurance covered this (as far as I know), but perhaps other ones would not.
Dr. Ellis is professional and I feel comfortable with her. I’ll definitely come back to The Smile Suite.

Absolutely do not go to this location. My wife and I had the same experience as a previous customer. We were new to this location and went in for a routine cleaning. We had the «examination» and had to pay $ 30 each for the co-​pay, but did not get the cleaning we asked for during the initial visit, which is covered under our dental plan. This office did not tell me until I came in a second time for my cleaning that I would have to pay another $ 30 for an «office visit.»
The more serious issue is that the dentist said that my wife and I would need at least 4 fillings each, one of them into a tooth which had never been drilled before. We thought this was highly suspect and so we got a second opinion a few months later at a dentist back home trusted by family members. We were told that absolutely none of these fillings were necessary. We would have had to pay over $ 1000 in dental fees and drill unnecessarily into our teeth had we taken this dentist’s recommendations.
Do not make the same mistake we did.

If you are a first time patient BEWARE! My spouse and I made our respective appointments as new patients at this office for Teeth Cleaning, both of us requested this service. When my wife had her apt today she went in at her appointed time and waited for 25min (pretty long considering she was supposed to be the first appointment of the morning). Then the Dentist came to see her and looked in her mouth for about 2 minutes — she though it was odd that the dentist would see her before the cleaning, but thought «it’s a new office maybe they do things differently here». The Dentist then asked her after her 2 minute eval if she had any questions to which she said «when am I getting the cleaning I came in here for?» — the Dentist then told her she would not be getting a cleaning since she was a new patient and that is not what they did on the first apt. So after taking an hour off of work waiting to see the Dentist for 25min and then having a 2 minute exam — she left with no teeth cleaning (as requested) and having to pay a $ 30 co-​pay. At no point before the appointment did anyone explain that she would not be receiving the service she thought that she had made an apt for — she even made the appointment over the phone, clearly saying she wanted a teeth cleaning. DO NOT go to this office — this is a scam to waste your time and get more money out of you since you’ll have to pay the co-​pay every time you go. Very disappointing and will not be returning or giving this office our business.

I like it here. Dr Ellis and her staff are not only beautiful but extremely professional. I’ve been coming here for a year not and my smile is sweet, no pun intended.

Found these guys after doing a random web search. Soo thankful I did! Made appointments for all 3 of my children who hadn’t been to the dentist in years.
So it took me forever to saddle up all the kids and get them out the door, we were running late as usual. When we finally made it we were 10 minutes behind and I didn’t know where to park because the office is located downtown and since I am new to the area I wasn’t familiar with the parking logistics. Anyway, I called to let them know that I was aimlessly circling the vicinity trying to find a parking space and the receptionist referred me to a garage that was only like .75 an hour (or something like that) and that accepted debit cards (had no cash smh). By the time I parked and paid I was expecting to be turned away because by this time we were super late (at least 25 min)! Approaching the receptionist desk I began to apologize profusely and the receptionist was very understanding. I was shocked that we were not turned away after being so late.
I could go on forever! The swanky ambiance, the tea for clients, didn’t have to wait for an eternity, this place is great!

Was pleasantly surprised when I walked into this modern, beautiful and clean office that looked liked it should be in a magazine. Staff we are all amazing and knew exactly what they were doing, very knowledgeable, and professional. I also appreciated that they were down to earth and not that fake nice that a lof offices seem to have these days where you know as soon as you walk out they are talking about you.
Dr. Ellis was quick, knew exactly was wrong with my tooth and took care of it all in the same visit. I definitely wouldnt mind going to the dentists again if it means coming here!

Extremely relaxing and soothing environment. Receptionist was very pleasant and knowledgeable. Location was great as it was easily accessible (~ a block from the Silver Spring Stop off of the Red Line). It appears that all of the dental equipment was the latest cutting-​edge technology (loved how the x-​ray imaging displayed on flat screen).
Dr. Ellis has a very congenial disposition. She took an active role in my appointment. I’m normally a skeptical person but felt very confident in your knowledge, explanations, and conclusions.