Godkin Jerry W DDS

This place, like the area it is in, has gone rapidly downhill since I first brought my daughter here back in 2006. Back in those days, this was a small children’s dental office that felt homey and cozy. The waiting area looked like your grandma’s living room — plain & outdated, but comfortable. Dr. Jerry would talk to you personally back then, and the receptionist was a friendly older lady. During that time period, they treated my daughter for several dental issues and we went there for her braces. Fast forward to 2014. No one speaks English anymore — all the clientele & all of the staff seem to speak Spanish as their primary language. The front desk staff is rude and condescending. Today was the second day I was asked to sign a consent form, yet given no form to read. I was instead pointed to an electronic signature pad, then given major attitude by the workers when I asked if I could read the form and commented on how ridiculous the practice of asking someone to sign something they couldn’t read first was. The lobby has been redone and is now more modern, but everything is already falling apart & is uncomfortable. The building is old. The only restroom the clients can use is down the hall and typically smells like sewage. (They used to let you use the bathroom in the office — but now there is a sign on it that says Employees Only.) They push nitrous and other unnecessary treatments on you. This is not the way it was in the past. I’m sad to say we will not be returning.

I grew up with Dr. Jerry. I first started going to him when I was a five year old ball of curls terrified of the dentist. Some grown-​up wants to shove their hands in my mouth and use funny sounding machines? Take me home right now, Mommy. But somehow, he calmed me and did it without shutting me up with a blast of nitrous. I saw him and his staff at least twice a year, once a month for the two years I had braces, until I graduated from college (really, they told me it was time for a big people dentist otherwise I would never have left). I still miss Dr. Jerry every time I have to go in for a cleaning, but I’m certain he’s the sole reason I don’t run screaming from dentists like most.