Puget Sound Pediatric Dentistry — Local services in Lake Stevens

My four children have been attending this office since they were born and three of them are under the age of 10 and have plenty of years left to be patients with the Marysville and Lake Stevens offices.

The Practice Clinical Lead for all locations, Carisma, broke my daughters bottom permanent retainer, tried to fix it herself, and the office told us that we would have to cover the expenses ourselves with our Orthodontist should any complications arise, which they did. The cost to get the retainer fixed was quoted at $250.

I was given the run around several times when speaking with the dental office, trying to pin point a solution. I called and left voicemails and most replies came in the form of a text, which isn’t professional or appropriate in the context of quality control. The Orthodontist even had to step in and communicate on our behalf, in which I still never received a courtesy or follow up call with the Dentist and never actually spoke with the Dentist.

I received a call from the Orthodontist himself letting us know that the dental office would not be covering the charge even though it was their mistake. Needless to say, I had my daughters retainer corrected by her Orthodontist and it wasn’t covered by the dental office after the mistake they made and wasn’t handled properly.

I voiced my concern and the relationship we have had with them since they were all born (my oldest being 16 and youngest being 5) and our original dentist (Dr.Lugo) who retired years ago and the fact that the person who broke my daughters retainer is someone we know personally since our daughters play soccer together and she felt horrible and owned up that it was her fault. Unfortunately, she has no control of the offices decision to not want to follow up or cover the expense.

I followed up with the Ortho and this dental office, and are now in the process of transferring to a different pediatric dentist. The ball was dropped and there was no accountability and lack of care in the relationship established with this office. They couldn’t even tell me why they wouldn’t cover the expense. The only apology received was from the practices Clinical Lead that broke it at the time (because our kids play sports together). Nothing else, not even from the office staff after coming in for a filling for the same child when I was sitting in the office for over an hour right in front of them and addressing it upon arrival to ask where the disconnect was in communication and why they wouldn’t take care of it or why I never received a phone call back. I even asked the Office Manager to speak with the Dentist present which as Dr. Farmer and she never came out to speak with me. My last appointment was scheduled at 10am, we arrived at 9:30am, and the procedure lasted until 11:15am and no one came out to speak with me about the incident as I was sitting in the lobby.

With that said, we are respectfully moving on after almost 15 years and establishing...

We love this place! All three of my children have had positive experiences here. The dental assistants and staff are welcoming and skilled at helping kids not to be nervous about dental care. I especially appreciate how the dentists are concerned with encouraging and supporting parents as they try to teach their children good dental hygiene. They do not try to blame or shame anyone for imperfect dental health and don’t quickly jump to doing procedures or fillings unless truly necessary. For example, my daughter is on the milder end of the autism spectrum and she was nearly 5 years old before we were able to get her to allow us to properly brush her teeth or even let a dentist look in her mouth. Dr. Lugo at PSPD (Lake Stevens office) was her first dentist and though he did find two cavities, he recommended that as long as these teeth weren’t bothering her we should leave them alone and not do expensive and possibly traumatizing fillings in them unless and until they did present a problem. We stayed on top of brushing and flossing and my now 10 yr old daughter has been able to let those teeth fall out on their own rather than having them filled. I truly appreciate this less aggressive approach to dealing with “baby teeth” when there is no pain or infection involved! We’ve also worked with Dr. Johannsen and Dr. Slaven in the Lake Stevens location and have had the same positive experiences. They all follow the same approach and are very good with nervous kids...

My child had an appt with Dr. Farmer today. We LOVE the dentist but the rest of the staff sucks! In the past two weeks, I’ve had 5 emails, 5 phone calls, and 6 texts reminding me of this appointment. I’ve confirmed most these appointments. Like how many times do you need to say yes I’ll be there? It’s overkill.

We were running late. I called we’d be 5 minutes late. Was told by Ali the receptionist anything more than 10 we’d need to reschedule. Ok. We got into the town of Lake Stevens 8 minutes into that 10 minute window. I called to see if we could still come in since we drove from so far away. No answer! I called 9 TIMES, yes 9 TIMES in an hour and a half, before Scout in overflow answered at 4:50. We purposely stayed in Lake Srevens before driving back home to see if there was a remote chance we could be seen.

Scout rescheduled us for tomorrow with Dr Farmer. As she claimed she’d pass on the lack of customer service and not answering the phone during business hours. Why have front desk staff if they don’t answer? But then again, I’m going to see the dentist, not the hygienist or...