Kool Smiles

Stay far, far away. It’s an assembly line, and a bad one. When i made reservation I confirmed they took my insurance. We wait one and a half hours past our appointment time. Then they say they don’t accept my insurance. I call my insurance, and they say they are wrong, they are supposed to accept it. Have to call a national call center and be pit on hold 15 – 20 minutes, then get disconnected.

They intentionally over book. When everyone shows up you are left waiting a very long time.

We recently moved to Columbia from Norfolk, VA. My kids both went to Kool Smiles there, and had no problems. So when we moved here, I found the one close to base and made them appointments. The first appointment was fine. The appointment yesterday, however, was horrendous and I will never go back. My two children, ages 11 and 12, were scheduled for 3:30pm. We arrived at 3:25. At 4:20, I asked the receptionist how much longer the wait would be, she said we would be called back within 10 minutes. At 4:35, my kids were two of a group of six that were called all at one time. As mentioned above, the chairs are all out in the open so everyone can see what goes on with everyone else. I watched the assistants walk around with gloves on, touching everything, but never changing gloves. One tech, who was sanitizing equipment, shoved trashed down into the trash can with her gloves on, then turned right around and put sanitized tools into bags. We waited for about another 10 minutes til finally someone took my daughter for xrays and began cleaning my son’s teeth. My daughter said the x-​ray tech hurt her mouth during the procedure. As mentioned in another post, nobody explained to my kids what they were doing through out the visit. My daughter had a loose tooth that was being pushed sideways by the tooth coming in. This happened before, and they gave her a shot of Novocain, let it get numb, then just slipped it out, no problem. This dentist (I don’t know her name because she didn’t introduce herself), tried to pry it out with her fingers for a good 10 minutes. I suggested she numb it and use the tool to remove it, so she gave my daughter four or five shots, which for some reason were very painful for my daughter. She didn’t wait for the numbing to kick in, she just jumped right in and pulled the tooth out. My daughter was shaking and in tears. Nobody cared. My son, who saw a different doctor who barely spoke English, had the same issue. The dentist offered to remove the tooth, put a bunch of numbing gel all around it, used the tool and wiggled it out in a split second. My son felt no pain at all, so I have no idea what that lady did to my daughter to hurt her so badly, but I didn’t like it. This place may be okay for very young kids who only need cleanings and a cheap toy, but when your kids get older, please take them to a decent place where the staff knows what they’re doing. We won’t be returning, ever.

Horrible place! I am a dental Assistant and also a military spouse, so I have been to a lot of dental clinics in my time. This place has terrible customer service and some of the employees should not be working with children because they so not seem to have the skills needed to comfort scared and/​or crying children. Instead they yell at your children or talk to them like their adults who can understand that this strange person is going to be poking and prodding around in your mouth. I brought my oldest daughter (20) here once and only once never again! Although, she is not a child we could hear the way the staff was treating the other patients that were children and what I saw and heard was not pleasant. My military counterparts I know this is close to post but please find somewhere else to take your kids.

My son’s first visit to the dentist was excellent. It’s kid friendly and the staff was very nice.

The Place is very kid friendly, has games and toys for kids to play with (although would like to know how opten these things are whipped down and cleaned). The place had a sour smell at the front a bit like pee. :/​however great svs NIkki and Heather were really nice and playful with the kids. DR Robertson was also very nice and friendly.

My 5 year old Kimberly loves them, whenever we pass them to go the Walmart, she says «mommie I want to go back there».

Great staff, short wait time. Would definitely come here again. People were very friendly. The kid were cute. The seemed like they were having fun.

This place made me sad. I made an appointment in June for 9:00 a.m. and yet in December I was the last person to get a chair at 10:15 a.m. of the whole round of people. All of the dental care takes place in one large noisy room. The staff is not personable with kids or adults, and they are very rough and inexperienced when working with your mouth. They gave a grandparent a hard time about whether they were allowed to authorize dental work for a military child. The Army employee had to come in… what if that parent was deployed? There is a kid play area but it is hardly spectacular. There are probably better pediatric dentists out there. I am not a parent or guardian so I hope some people will post reviews of other kid-​friendly dentists.