Orca Family Dental Centre
5 reviews 370 Davis Rd Suite 27, Ladysmith, BC +1 250-245-7151 orcafamilydentalcentre.com suggest an edit
26 November 2023 10:23
If you are fearful of dentists this office will put you completely at ease! From the reception desk to the chair! I am so happy I found this place!
22 November 2023 12:09
This dental clinic makes extra efforts to ease patients fears or concerns. I do not have dental insurance and the clinic explains costs and gives you options to save a little money. It is the best dental clinic i have attended in my 60 years of dental appts.
08 December 2022 23:26
My 2 year old needed a few small fillings done, and every single staff member went out of their way to make her comfortable and happy. She is literally the only person I've met who left after fillings smiling and happy. Thank you for everything!
17 July 2022 5:58
Orca Bay Dental has been great for our family for 3+ years. Never had any issues with staff or either of the dentists. My four year old was treated for some cavities and had a happy experience all around. Would recommend.
21 May 2022 2:32
This place advertises itself as being sensitive and accommodating to allergies and dental anxiety. It's all lies.
I called their office looking for a dentist, as I had recently moved. Knowing that my allergies require some minor accommodations but that they had the equipment to accommodate, I discussed my concerns with the receptionist. She was lovely and said that it wouldn't be an issue, but suggested that I fill out the intake forms well in advance so that they could be reviewed by the staff before the appointment. I booked the appointment for a month and a half out. She mailed the forms to me and I returned them to the office a month before my appointment.
On the day of my appointment, I had an appointment immediately prior in Victoria and had to rush back rather than running some errands in Victoria while I was there. The first person I dealt with was the hygienist. She began asking questions that were covered in detail on the intake form, so I asked if she had read it. She said she had not. I began to try to answer her questions, explaining how I had been accommodated at multiple other dentist offices. She was dismissive and completely ignored me, instead making overblown assumptions about my restrictions. When I tried to correct them, she interrupted me. At one point I told her four times she could absolutely use a certain product because she wasn't listening.
She left for a while and came back with the dentist. The first words out of his mouth were, "We're not going to be able to accommodate you at this office. " I asked questions to understand why, and he repeated the hygienist's overblown assumptions. One of those was that they couldn't use that product that I mentioned. I told him that I'd told her four times that she COULD use it, and he said, "Sometimes you need to tell people new information six or seven times. " I told him she hadn't been listening to me, and he said, "You need to be able to communicate with all sorts of people. " He then accused me of being defensive as a reason he would not be able to develop a proper doctor-patient relationship with me and thus couldn't treat me. Well, between doing everything I possibly could to make communications clear from the moment of first contact with this office, the total lack of consideration for what I was actually saying by the hygienist, and the dentist's immediate dismissal of me without ever having spoken to me, I was feeling plenty defensive by this point. I explained that. He told me he couldn't treat me because they didn't have the kind of dental cement I could use in the office. I told him the last dentist had ordered it in, and that that was minor because the biggest issue was the other equipment, which they had. I had admitted some anxiety about scraping being done right around the interface of my tooth and the dental work, and it seemed like (though they say they make special effort to reduce dental anxiety), he used it as yet another reason to say he couldn't treat me. In other words, admitting anxiety was punished. I asked how it was possible that three ordinary dental offices had had no problem whatsoever treating me and yet one that bills itself as being good with allergies felt they couldn't, and he claimed that as another reason he didn't feel comfortable treating me (because I had said that). Everything was turned into an attempt to blame me for being there and him being "unable" to be treated by him. I explained that I didn't want to be blamed for everything when I had done everything in my power to communicate everything properly with his office, his staff, and him. He eventually said I would have to leave, he would review my intake papers, and get back to me at the end of the week about whether they could take me on. After I'd waited that long for an appointment.
For a place that says they are good with allergies and anxiety, they are neither. I now have a new dental anxiety around being rejected by dentists. Luckily I contacted a dentist in Nanaimo and, after a consult with the dentist, they have no problem working with my allergies.
I called their office looking for a dentist, as I had recently moved. Knowing that my allergies require some minor accommodations but that they had the equipment to accommodate, I discussed my concerns with the receptionist. She was lovely and said that it wouldn't be an issue, but suggested that I fill out the intake forms well in advance so that they could be reviewed by the staff before the appointment. I booked the appointment for a month and a half out. She mailed the forms to me and I returned them to the office a month before my appointment.
On the day of my appointment, I had an appointment immediately prior in Victoria and had to rush back rather than running some errands in Victoria while I was there. The first person I dealt with was the hygienist. She began asking questions that were covered in detail on the intake form, so I asked if she had read it. She said she had not. I began to try to answer her questions, explaining how I had been accommodated at multiple other dentist offices. She was dismissive and completely ignored me, instead making overblown assumptions about my restrictions. When I tried to correct them, she interrupted me. At one point I told her four times she could absolutely use a certain product because she wasn't listening.
She left for a while and came back with the dentist. The first words out of his mouth were, "We're not going to be able to accommodate you at this office. " I asked questions to understand why, and he repeated the hygienist's overblown assumptions. One of those was that they couldn't use that product that I mentioned. I told him that I'd told her four times that she COULD use it, and he said, "Sometimes you need to tell people new information six or seven times. " I told him she hadn't been listening to me, and he said, "You need to be able to communicate with all sorts of people. " He then accused me of being defensive as a reason he would not be able to develop a proper doctor-patient relationship with me and thus couldn't treat me. Well, between doing everything I possibly could to make communications clear from the moment of first contact with this office, the total lack of consideration for what I was actually saying by the hygienist, and the dentist's immediate dismissal of me without ever having spoken to me, I was feeling plenty defensive by this point. I explained that. He told me he couldn't treat me because they didn't have the kind of dental cement I could use in the office. I told him the last dentist had ordered it in, and that that was minor because the biggest issue was the other equipment, which they had. I had admitted some anxiety about scraping being done right around the interface of my tooth and the dental work, and it seemed like (though they say they make special effort to reduce dental anxiety), he used it as yet another reason to say he couldn't treat me. In other words, admitting anxiety was punished. I asked how it was possible that three ordinary dental offices had had no problem whatsoever treating me and yet one that bills itself as being good with allergies felt they couldn't, and he claimed that as another reason he didn't feel comfortable treating me (because I had said that). Everything was turned into an attempt to blame me for being there and him being "unable" to be treated by him. I explained that I didn't want to be blamed for everything when I had done everything in my power to communicate everything properly with his office, his staff, and him. He eventually said I would have to leave, he would review my intake papers, and get back to me at the end of the week about whether they could take me on. After I'd waited that long for an appointment.
For a place that says they are good with allergies and anxiety, they are neither. I now have a new dental anxiety around being rejected by dentists. Luckily I contacted a dentist in Nanaimo and, after a consult with the dentist, they have no problem working with my allergies.