Dr. Donald F Larson, DDS

The entire team is less than accomodating when it comes to scheduling appointments. It seems as though they fit you in when they prefer, regardless of yours or your kids' schedule. Instead of being understanding about our availability due to my children going to boarding school, Dr. Larson himself suggested we transfer to a new practice. I was shocked at the suggestion, but there was no point in staying somewhere that wanted to get rid of me and my family. The worst part came when I needed to transfer records. It seemed as though they were dragging their feet on purpose. I called and came into the office several times to check the progress and was at one point left in tears in the front desk area. It felt like I was being bullied by the whole office. Don't come here if you want to be treated with respect, especially if small conflicts occur. They will escalate beyond anything you want or expect.

Although Dr. Larson is good at what he does, the relationships he builds with his patients are less than genuine and are not his priority. I have read in other reviews how patients have met unnecessary conflict with him if they question anything or do anything he may not agree with, which is true. He will dismiss a patient midtreatment or even refuse to schedule potential new patients if they do not perfectly align with him. He is exceptionally unprofessional behind closed doors when he and his staff frequently talk/complain about patients or parents inappropriately, despite being polite enough to their faces. He will also talk to other practitioners about patients in the same way. Patients will often get rescheduled multiple times due to his procrastination of Invisalign prescriptions or due to his several spontaneous vacations. The point is he runs his practice his way and less so for the patients themselves. If you are relatively nondescript or typically have a good, tolerant… disposition, you can get good work done here if you don't rock the boat. If you want genuine patient care, considering treatments typically last a year to two years, I highly recommend going elsewhere.

My experience w/ Dr Larsons office was less than stellar. I went in for the initial consult for my daughter as I was referred by her dentist. The appointment went well... the treatment coordinator was great with my daughter. However, it got to the part of explaining and things went downhill. First, they didn't have my daughter's pano from the dentist (who is a major referrer) we we sat there for 15-20 minutes waiting for that to come through by email. It never did. I asked the treatment coordinator and Dr Larson why they didn't have it set up that if someone was referred in from a major referrer they would automatically send over the pano? He explained that not all administrative staff are technically competent enough to handle such a task. I basically looked at him like he was crazy but it was here nor there, they told me they would have it by the next appointment where we get our treatment plan. Sounds good. Well, then we got into the next appointment and it got… confusing. The treatment coordinator was unclear about the process required. She ended up offering to send me a breakdown of the plan via email and I told her that would be very helpful. I made the next appointment. A few weeks later, my referring dentist's office called me and asked if I had gone in for my ortho appt yet (yes, I had) and if I was happy or if I was interested in seeing a different orthodonist (I said it went fine and that I had a follow up appt w/ Dr Larson a few weeks from then)... They said great thanks, hung up... life went on. So, the day of her second appointment, where she was scheduled to get impressions and more x-rays, I got an email a few hours before it letting me know the next few steps and that there would be a 395$ records fee. I emailed them back and told them I didn't appreciate the email a few hours prior to the appointment and wanted to know if my insurance would cover any of the records fee. About an hour and a half later, I got a call from Dr Larson. Dr Larson stated that he didn't feel our first appointment went well and that he was surprised I had scheduled to come in for a follow up. I told him I had no doubt in his abilities to treat my daughter. He continued to talk about how he had called Dr Austin to make sure I didn't want a second opinion. Interesting, because I hadn't even got his opinion yet (that doesn't happen until appointment #3). I let him know that I was disappointed that the treatment coordinator told me she would email me that day (of the 1st appt) that she would email me the next few steps) and that I didn't get them until today. He said "well I told her to wait because I didn't think you would come back". He continued to tell me that he felt like his office had dropped the ball with me too many times and thought I should go get a second opinion. After much debating with me about how he thinks I feel, I told him I would take him up on his offer to get a second opinion. WOW! Apparently that is how you run a business now-a-days. So, if you go see Dr Larson's office in Alexandria, make sure you don't question any of his processes. I wouldn't recommend it. This whole processes wasted two months.