Mark L Tumarello DDS

After struggling to find an honest dentist in the DC area for quite some time, I finally found a great dentist in Dr. Tummarello. He did the entire cleaning and exam process himself, and was very friendly and careful. I left my old dentist after she tried selling me every service she could offer before I could lay down in the dentist chair, and she suspiciously found a cavity after I was given a clean bill of health from her assistant. I had the complete opposite experience with Dr. Tummarello. He didn’t try to sell me anything — he just cleaned my teeth and gave me an honest evaluation (no cavities this time). I will be going to his office for a long time.

Dr. Tummarello is terrific.
Backstory: There are some quacky dentists around DC and since my old dentist retired, I’ve been trying to find a new one, getting some tooth damage in the process. In addition to having my teeth power washed (I do not recommend this at all), one dentist I picked off my dental plan (very scientifically – he was near my office and I could pronounce his name) told me I had five (five!) cavities that would cost, between me and my insurance, over $ 1500 to fix. I go to the dentist regularly, my diet does not consist of taffy, gummy bears, and Coke, so I had no idea how this was possible. Because this sounded like a horrible way to spend an afternoon and I wanted a second opinion (especially after I checked Dr. Quack’s Unilocal rating), I just never went back and didn’t go to a dentist at all for a year and half.
Enter Dr. Tummarello. My boyfriend is a client, and we booked appointments at the same time in the event some sort of catastrophic tooth extraction would be necessary (the crazy dentist made me think my teeth were rotting out of my mouth). We were able to get appointments in a matter of weeks rather than months, which is unusual (though this may be because of my boyfriend’s current client status. YMMV). I had a great cleaning with Kathy (I think that was her name), but Dr. Tummarello sometimes does cleanings himself (I haven’t experienced a dentist doing his own cleanings since about 1987), and he checked my x-​rays and my teeth and pronounced my teeth to be completely healthy.
He has great chair-​side manner, his staff is very friendly, and the whole process was very efficient. I didn’t even have to hunt for my Aetna card – apparently, they just look me up in a database and I’m good to go.