Sunrise Dental of Bellingham

The nicest part about this office is the actual office. I didn’t feel like I was being very well *cared* for, the dentist barely saw me and I spent most of my time with the assistant. Who by the way, was lovely, and I wish she had been the dentist. It’s not that they didn’t do their job, they did, but it felt a little rushed, and not very personal at all. The cleaning I received was just perfunctory. I feel there are better places you could go for a more personal experience with a dentist. Then again it should be noted that I’ve been with a family dentist for the past decade who had no assistant and is a very chatty, helpful, and thorough guy. So I think if that’s the kind of place you’re looking for, go somewhere else. If you just need to get something done there’s nothing *wrong* with this place, its just not very special I guess would be the best way to describe it.

My Dad broke his front tooth few months ago, so he asked me to find him a good dentist, because we recently move to Bellingham and our dentist in Chicago. so I did some research, then a friend highly recommended Sunrise Dental. She told me she was so happy with her dentist, so I took my dad to them, and the doctor was very informative and he told us we need to take the tooth out and place a dental implant. My dad agreed. So the doctor pulled the tooth and placed a bone graft, and after 6 months he placed the implant. Today Dr. Ahmed put the final tooth in! My dad is so happy for his tooth, and we like the technology that they have, the staff are so friendly. I really recommend this place.

Had one of the worst dental experiences of my life here.
I’ve been to a good amount of dentists throughout my life, all over the Pacific North West, but I’ve never had an experience like I had at this one.
After missing a few years of dental visits while being a lazy college student and knowing that I was in for an expensive visit, I decided to go with Sunrise since they were close to where I was living and much cheaper than other dentists.
We had an awful time getting any information from them after my check up. I was on my parents insurance and my mother ended up having to call her union just to get the bill corrected after several months of calling Sunrise. I also never knew how many cavities and work I needed and how many visits I would need to complete the work. It just felt like they couldn’t give me a straight answer. I would just find out after a visit «ok, so you have another visit, so lets schedule that.»
Then I ended up having THREE different people work on my teeth across my three visits (not counting the first check up). Apparently the first one quit, the second was a temp, and the third one was the new guy.
The first guy didn’t seem too bad at first but he wasn’t friendly and scolded me instead of trying to make me comfortable if my jaw was hurting or if I needed to swallow and so on… but I was pretty optimistic at my check up with him. I just kept telling myself that I was just being a big baby.
At my second visit, the temp guy was a nightmare. He was pretty much training the hygienist over me and bragging about how he could make shortcuts on the filling. He also kept complaining about the time and made it clear he was hurrying.
The third guy, who I’m guessing is their regular dentist now, had a bit of an accent and seemed to take it badly if I didn’t understand him the first time so I ended up pretty nervous about asking him to repeat himself. It was a better experience than the first two, but still not a great one.
After my third visit, I finally decided that I wasn’t just over-​exaggerating and that this wasn’t a normal dental experience. It took me a year to get the courage to find a new one after the Sunrise fiasco, but after finding one with good reviews, it was so worth it! It has been amazing realizing how important the dentists’ attitude can be.
To be fair, when I experienced those three visits, this particular office had only been open for a few months and I can’t blame them for the dentist switch. That aside, the hell we went through with the paperwork, the lack of communication, and having such a terrible experience while getting my teeth worked on was awful. This was back in early 2010, and like I mentioned, they were a new office at the time, so there’s a good chance that things have improved, especially with the permanent dentist.
Oh, and to finish my Sunrise Saga… when I went to a different dentist, they discovered that the root canal preformed at Sunrise was done so poorly that an entire root was left unfilled. I ended up having to pay to get the entire thing redone.
On the bright side, since my experience with Sunrise, I’ve been scared into taking care of my teeth like never before.