Spectrum Dental

Pros: Very friendly staff, no wait.
Cons: Quality and price or services.
I take very good care of my teeth, however I hadn’t been to the dentist in a couple years. My experience at Spectrum was less than I expected. My cleaning only took ~20 minutes. The buccal and lingual surfaces of my teeth were cleaned well, but no one even touched the occlusal surface. The doctor did not even inspect this surface on any tooth. I am worried that they missed a cavity. Also, my bill for a total of 25 minutes of service (cleaning and x-​rays) was $ 250 (national average is ~$ 127 for the same services). At least my insurance will pay for 80%. I will be looking elsewhere for my next cleaning.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed my experience at Spectrum Dental. I say ‘surprisingly’ because dental visits are rarely enjoyable, but mine was. The admin staff was friendly and inviting. My wait time was approximately five mins, not bad at all.
I had to get two cavities filled. Everything was explained to me before they began. and Dr. Collier reminded me of each step as she went along. The procedure was pain free and quick. Dr. Collier kept checking on me to make sure my pain was minimal. They let me hang in the exam room for as long as it took me to feel comfortable to leave.
Like I said, it was enjoyable considering I was getting cavities filed. Not sure why others had such a bad experience, but mine was great.

Absolutely terrible service. 2+ hour wait. I think i’m going to leave right now before they schedule getting my cavities filled with them due to the other reviews on here
sorta scaring me. Wow, just disrespectful of my time.

I had a very pleasant experience at Spectrum Dental Clinic.
I had to go in a very short notice, [made a appt a day before] because my impacted wisdom tooth on lower left jaw was hurting so much during my finals week at JHU.
I booked the appointment in the morning 9:30 am; so there was only one person before me. When I was in the examination room, it was very cold due to ac but Dr. Collier was very kind enough to get me a mini heater in the room when I told her. For the extraction, Dr. Collier would kept on checking on my pain level during anesthetic injection and the procedure. I did not feel pain that was intolerable for a dental treatment, [so i’m curious of amanda’s experience.]
after the procedure Dr. Collier went thru the aftercare precautions and steps thoroughly with me.
The front office staff was very kind and patient with me. I am very thorough and bit anal when it comes to billing or anything involving money. And the office staff was very understanding and made sure the copay was correct, and it was.
I would highly recommend Spectrum Dental. I’m assuming amanda and andrew had bad experiences there due to their lack of experience in dental office and weren’t prepared or didn’t know what to expect.
so when you go to any dentist;s office, be sure you are prepared or you’ll probably had such bad experiences as above.

My experience was similar to some other people’s.
Although I didn’t need to wait long, I should have run at the first sight of the examination rooms. The equipment is extremely out-​dated. The dentist I saw immediately started poking around in my mouth and informed me that she had to fill cavities without even asking me if I wanted them filled. Next thing I know, I already had a novocaine injection going into my gums. If that wasn’t bad enough, the injection didn’t go into the right place and I had to have another one given to me. THen, during the whole filling process, my tooth HURT. I’m not too big of a baby (I’ve had fillings done without novocaine), but these were painful even WITH the novocaine.
To top it all off, after my mouth hurting for a good 2 days, the tooth I had filled continued to hurt and was very sensitive to cold and even chewing. I eventually went back to my old dentist to find out that I had a nerve exposed during the process.
If I could give negative stars, I would as well.

I wouldn’t go back. They were able to see me on very short notice for an endodontic evaluation (tooth abscess) which many dentists will not do «same day» but to say they were sketchy is an understatement. The «bed side manner» was non existent and absolutely perfunctory in application. The doctor never even told me her name until I asked (Caldwell) and you won’t find a listing of their doctors there anywhere. At one point, to cure the temporary filling insert, the doctor used a BIC LIGHTER TO HEAT THE DENTAL INSTRUMENT and cauterize the the material. I mean WTF was THAT! They also opted out of my program with Concordia DHMO in March, though they still appear in lit that says that are in the program (not their fault) but they did charge me a reasonable co-​pay of $ 200 for the «same day service». I felt kind of «man handled», certainly not the best dental visit, but it was utilitarian at least I suppose.

Wow. This place was insane. I wish I could give negative stars. The first time I went, for an 8:30 AM appointment, I ended up waiting for literally 3 hours! The atmosphere was extremely unprofessional. Why I stayed, I don’t know. They found 2 cavities, and because of my wait, waived the copay for filling one of them. And I went back. Again, I don’t know why.
When the dentist gave me the novocaine injections, it hurt so badly that I almost couldn’t stay in the chair. This was my first time getting fillings but I’m no wuss. I braced myself for the worst when I had to get the damage repaired, but I barely even felt the injections at the other place.
So. The dentist missed the nerve like whoa. The side of my face went paralyzed. I couldn’t even close my eye. When he came back, I tried to explain but he just laughed and said it would be fine. Given that my mouth wasn’t numbed at all, I had to protest. I endured another horrific injection. The job still wasn’t done. I couldn’t speak well, but I still had sensation. When I tried to tell him, he ridiculed my slurred speech, implied that I was being a drama queen and said it wouldn’t be an issue. He went to start. It was definitely an issue. Another round of shots.
Finally I was numbed. I had to hold my eye closed with my hand because otherwise it stayed open. He also made fun of me for that. He «didn’t understand» when I told him why I was doing it and just laughed some more. «What are you talking about? A cheetah?» being his memorable words.
By the time he was done, my face, hair and shirt were soaked from the water they sprayed in my mouth. The fillings were enormous, jagged, and stark white. My frozen eye was still watering all over the place.
The coup de grace came 5 days later, when one of the fillings fell out! Like, out into my hand, to be saved in a baggie. I called to try to get my money back. They volunteered to fix it if I came by the office, for free! What a deal!
This went back and forth for many, many phone calls. At one point, the receptionist asked who my doctor was. I told her it was Dr. White. She was surprised. «We don’t get many complaints about him. Some of the others, yes, but not about him.» Finally, when I told them I was reporting them all to the Maryland board of examiners, I got a call from the «CEO», a one Katherine Collier.
They sent me a check, signed by «Katherine Collier, DDS CEO». It was for substantially more than my copay. I was confused but decided to take the money and run. When I got my insurance statement, I saw why– they’d falsely billed my insurance company. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.