Dr. Amzi Rankin Sherling

Visited this office for an initial checkup appointment, and cleaning. One front office receptionist was friendly and warm; the other unfriendly and cold. The hygienist was nice, but partway through my appointment another staff member came in and they began to gossip about office scheduling and how they disliked various things. I felt that this was very unprofessional, and that negative commentary of this nature should be reserved for a time when patients are not present. It was bad enough that I felt invisible and ignored, but having to hear the details of their conversation made me feel very uncomfortable. I also felt that when measuring the depth of the pockets between my teeth and gums, the hygienist dug the instrument in too forcefully, causing pain and bleeding, and then told me I would need to have special deep cleaning done four times a year. Immediately I wondered whether this was an effort to boost the number of appointments on the books, because I have never… experienced pain and bleeding while having this measurement taken before. I will seek a second opinion, and if the next dentist concurs and tells me I need this quarterly cleaning, I'll come back to this rating and retract my statement. I don't think patients should ever need to wonder about something like this though. I have had my pockets measured many times and never experienced pain or bleeding, but perhaps my oral environment has changed. Again, I will come and retract this statement if another dentist tells me that I do in fact require this special deep cleaning. The dentist himself seemed a bit "out-of-focus" and vague, as if he was overtired or had something else on his mind. He was pleasant enough, though not especially inspiring of trust, perhaps because of my sense that the office staff was not under good control. He accepted the hygenist's findings about my pocket depths without checking them himself, which I would have preferred. I am highly unlikely to return to Dr. Sherling's office.

I thank Jesus for Doc, Sherling and staff.... a zero pain dentist !!