Donald W Tipple, DDS

I went to Tipple a couple of times in 2008, and was pleased with the quality of the hygienist there – I have to admit, when I first went in, I hadn’t been to a dentist in about ~7 years, so I was kind of freaked out. They didn’t scold me, although I did end up having to pay for an additional «deep» cleaning beyond what was covered by my insurance. Given the situation, it seemed reasonable. And I was VERY pleased with how much better my teeth looked – I’d been developing some pretty noticeable staining, and they took care of that completely.
The major thing I didn’t like was that during my first AND second visits, Tipple himself, though generally pleasant, hassled me about getting braces, despite my response the first time he brought it up that they were pretty much off the table since my insurance wouldn’t cover them at all. The second time, he actually told me that I should think about how everyone is looking at my teeth when I teach! My teeth are in fact pretty crooked (I had braces but was terrible about wearing my retainers), but frankly, it doesn’t bother me much and while I’m sure some students do make judgments about them, those judgments are probably made after they evaluate my weight, wardrobe (specifically my varied shoe collection), and hair (hot pink). I was annoyed enough after this remark that I decided to try another, more conveniently located dentist for my next cleaning.
…Of course, if you’ve read my review of Kathleen Kelly, you know that didn’t work out.
So yesterday, I went back to Tipple because I’m getting married in three weeks and I need clean teeth, dammit. I couldn’t afford to risk another lemon dentist.
There was a different hygienist than I got a couple of years ago, but she was also very competent and even asked me if I felt like the other dentist did a good job… confirming my suspicion that she did not at all. She did give me a little spiel about an x-​ray not covered by my insurance, but accepted that I wasn’t going to pay for it out of pocket, and when Tipple came in, he actually confirmed that it was probably unnecessary since they’d just replaced my only filling in 2008 and I don’t have any new cavities.
This time, also, Tipple said nothing about braces – I don’t know if it’s because I ditched him temporarily and he’s now more cautious about keeping my business or what; we’ll see when I go back in August for a three-​month follow-​up required after the crap job they did at the other place. Overall, I like this place. I have Unity insurance with Delta Dental and it covers all the basics (the x-​rays are covered every 2 – 3 years; just not every year). I consider it worth biking the 15 miles round trip, although preferably not in the kind of 30mph winds that we had yesterday.