need dentist recommendaton in N.Va.

[Anonymous]

Have you seen Woo's staff? She's got like 15 people on staff? It's a money making zoo I bet. That's not exactly going to cater to spec needs kids.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Niloo charges an additional fee if your child requires extra consoling. It showed up on the bill as behavioral something or other. Heck, if you don't want to console a chid, honestly go treat adults only.
If these dentists have had special needs training in school, how come the previous one we saw didn't know the difference between autism and my child's regulatory disorder? She had no idea how to handle kids with sensory issues or what auditory processing problems were. By now I've learned a lot about my child and spec needs kids. But Dr. Gazori was able to tell me a thing or two. I guess that's what happens when you've actually had addl training on floortime and attend conferences on special needs children - beyond just putting yourself on autism organizations like these other dentists seem to be doing.

[Anonymous]

I did not know that about Dr. Niloo--I'll have to ask her about it the next time we see her. I don't think she advertises herself as a special needs dentist though. I did see her treat a patient with ASD when we were there, and his visit was FAST--definitely no time for an extra consolation fee. When they left, the father said "see you next week" so it made me think that they were doing necessary work in a series of visits. All kids are different with different needs. Sounds like Dr. Gazori is very well-liked and very educated. That's great!

[Anonymous]

You're right, Dr. Niloo doesn't advertise herself as a spec needs dentist. But I still think it's wrong to charge extra for children who need addl comforting or are whiney and nervous. She is after all, not a general dentist, she's a pediatric dentist. Isn't that their job?

[Anonymous]

I had to look at some of these web sites to confirm all this. I was a bit amused by their web sites. I think it's amusing when dentists mention their accolades from when they were teenagers: "I was valedictorian in high school." I know a Harvard dental school graduate who said dental schools are no longer ranked but they used to be at one time. And even when they were ranked, Harvard was not one of the top dental programs in the country. Yet the dentists who trained at Harvard love to throw this in their bio's because of the name-recognition.

[Anonymous]

OP here. My son ended up seeing someone in the dental office that I go to and he did just great. They were very gentle with him, explained everything to him, and were very patient. It was just a routine cleaning - nothing invasive - so I worried over nothing. He was able to take a tour of the office a week before the cleaning and we watched videos/read books about visiting the dentist. It turns out he didn't need a specialist after all. It went surprisingly well.