Atlas Dental — Local services in Toronto

Tl;dr: great for one-off emergencies and only if you’re seeing Dr. Nguy, not for ongoing dental cleanings. I’m looking for a new clinic ASAP that provides more consistent care. Dental health shouldn’t be a “luck of the draw” type of situation.

Full review: While in my previous review four years ago I give Atlas Dental a 5/5 in terms of an emergency visit with Dr. Nguy, in this updated review, I can’t recommend choosing it for ongoing dental cleaning, and my latest visit was the last straw.

It’s a new dental hygienist every time I visit, which isn’t a major problem, but it’s the lack of consistency that IS an issue. Some are great, working miracles to polish my teeth to get stubborn tea stains out and being super careful. Some are super rushed and I’m always surprised to be out of there in 30 minutes with teeth that visibly don’t look or feel clean.

This latest visit was the first one at their new office, which is much more spacious than their previous one. Again, I got paired up with a dental hygienist I didn’t recognize but that’s par for the course here (which wasn’t the case at the dental clinic I went to before I moved to Toronto).

When she started to clean my bottom molars in the back of my mouth, I felt a searing pain cut across the side/underside of my tongue. I had to stop her because it was so painful. I’m like…I think you’re just aiming at my tongue, I feel a lot of pain. And she’s like, “oh sorry” and continued on.

Then, when she was using the scaler on my front teeth, i had to stop her AGAIN and was like you hit my lip. And she’s like, “I don’t see any blood.” 🙄

As she continued cleaning, I’m just staring up into the light thinking about all the closer dental clinics near my condo that I've walked by and should check out lol. And of course, during that time, the dental hygienist hit a few areas on the gums too and later that day, I felt a couple ridges in the flesh and it just felt hyper sensitive.

Polishing was super rushed, and was like 10 seconds of lightly tracing a line across my teeth while previously, more thorough hygienists spent time on each individual teeth, at least a few minutes total to carefully and thoroughly polish the front and back of my teeth.

I thought this was an isolated incident until I spoke with my brother, who had a cleaning appointment in the time slot before mine and had the same dental hygienist. I was like, “man, you won’t believe the cleaning I just had. She was super careless, nicked my tongue and my lip.” His response? “Oh, you too?”

I was thinking, what do you mean “you too???” lol 😂 I went from thinking it was just a couple isolated accidents to us understanding it’s just incompetence at that point. We talked about the cleaning and found that for both of us, she didn’t bother using the mouth mirror or her finger to move our lip away from our front bottom teeth, which is how his bottom lip got nicked, and mine as well. I’ve literally never had a dental hygienist just eyeball the scaler without using their own finger to move my lip away from my front teeth or to hold my tongue away from my back molars (which is why she was “aiming” at my teeth but hitting my tongue instead). I'm always careful with where my tongue is during a cleaning because I want to make it as easy as possible for them.

To make matters worse (yes, it continues 😭) I was due for x-rays. She just roughly shoved the x-ray guard into the back of my mouth, triggering a severe gag reflex and making my stomach roll and my eyes were tearing up because it was so bad. I’ve literally NEVER had that reaction before.

And something I only realized later was I never saw my X-rays. At other dental clinics I’ve been to, the dentist always took time, even if it was a minute, to show the x-rays and explain what they’re seeing, even if there aren’t any issues.

Overall, a really REALLY bad experience. My gums and the side of my tongue are still tender & it's been a few days. The night after my cleaning, brushing my teeth resulted in bleeding gums which again, hasn’t happened to me in well...

Not bad in some areas but also not good in others. It becomes clear soon enough that Dr Nguy - despite the surface facade which costs him nothing - is motivated more by profit (plus retaining a 5-star rating on Google) than actual care. Therefore, will veer into areas with little experience and over-promise but underdeliver resulting in - with hindsight - sketchy decisions and uneven results. Because of this one begins to question if his suggestions/recommendations for further procedures are actually needed or only done for money-making purposes. Obviously, trust starts to break down from there.

This is made worse when materials that are needed for a particular procedure, that Dr Nguy clearly does not normally do, are missing so you end up booking multiple appointments and he keeps making excuses for why the materials are still not available and blames the manufacturers or demand/supply issues for this. To add insult to injury, he tells you this while you're already there and not prior to the appointment. Why even offer, let alone suggest, to do a procedure in the first place if you are not in possession of tools/materials to perform said procedure?

The primary problem is that because Dr Nguy is the only Dentist in the office there is an absence of proper checks and balances including accountability that would otherwise be there when colleagues/partners (by this I mean other Dentists) are present and have an equal stake in the running of the office, in terms of ethics and otherwise. It is a different story when you only have one Dentist, under whom the Hygienist and Staff are beholden to (both of which, by the way, happen to be fantastic in this case).

It would be false to claim that Dr Nguy is not skilled in certain areas of Dentistry but please proceed with caution because there is definitely something off here in terms of trust/ethics (which is difficult to explain fully unless you've had...

I recently had the opportunity to visit Atlas dental clinic for the removal of my wisdom teeth, and I must say that the entire experience surpassed my expectations in every way. From the moment I entered the clinic until the completion of the procedure, I was incredibly impressed with the level of professionalism, care, and expertise showcased by the staff.

First and foremost, the receptionists were warm and welcoming, immediately putting me at ease as I arrived for my appointment. They efficiently handled the necessary paperwork and provided me with all the information I needed for a smooth process.

The dentist, Dr. Nguy guided me through every step of the procedure, ensuring I was comfortable and well-informed from start to finish. Their approach was friendly and reassuring, and they patiently answered all my questions and addressed any concerns I had.

During the extraction, I couldn't help but notice the exceptional level of skill and precision displayed by Dr. The entire process was virtually painless, thanks to their expertise. They took the time to explain the post-procedure care instructions thoroughly, providing me with easy-to-follow guidelines to aid in my recovery.

The clinic's facilities were clean, well-maintained, and equipped with state-of-the-art technology. This, combined with the staff's professionalism, created an atmosphere that was both sterile and comfortable.

my experience at atlas dental clinic for the removal of my wisdom teeth was exceptional. Dr. Nguy's expertise, coupled with the caring and attentive staff, made what could have been a stressful experience into a smooth and painless one. I would highly recommend this clinic to anyone in need of a dental procedure, particularly wisdom teeth removal.

I will undoubtedly return to this clinic for any future dental...