Penn Hill Dental has been featured in Total Guide to Poole.

Let’s be honest – dentist appointments are often filled with a little bit of apprehension or even dread for some.

With pregnancy and lockdown, time has whizzed by and it’s been far too long since we got our pearly whites checked out – in fact, as my daughter was two when lockdown began, she had never been to the dentist so I was definitely a little worried.

We’ve recently moved, so I thought we would have a bit of a wait to get registered with a good private dentist in Poole but we managed to get seen within a week of calling to make our first appointment.

After a bit of research on Instagram and online, we decided to go with Penn Hill Dental. Although we live in Hamworthy, it was pretty clear from everything I’d read and from my call with them, that not only were they happy to have children and family visits, but they were great with little ones and Mike is really good at putting the kids at ease.

I honestly couldn’t recommend Penn Hill Dental more highly – especially for young families.

The car park outside was a big plus point for me with a toddler and baby in tow – and I could see that even if that car park was full, there was plenty of parking on the road outside.

We were warmly greeted by the lovely Vanessa on reception, and we then waited a very short while in the waiting area before Flo decided she needed the toilet – fortunately, it’s all child friendly and located on the ground floor. Very spacious and clean toilets – another win!

Mike our dentist then came beaming in to welcome Florence and carried Phoebe in her car seat for me (he’s a real gent!)

I was nervous about having the two girls with me and keeping Phoebe my 7 month old happy while Florence and I both had our checks, but Mike and Abbie could not have been more welcoming and understanding. This was also helped by the room being large, bright and airy with a large window overlooking the garden, so Phoebe was super happy watching the trees blow around in the wind. While I sorted Phoebe, Mike and Abbie made a big fuss out of Flo and I sensed immediately that not only was she going to be fine – but she was going to love the experience.

Mike cleverly involved Flo with as much as he could; from getting her to press the ‘magic buttons’ on the chair to counting her teeth with him and praised her fantastic brushing skills. Afterwards, Abbie then gave her not one, but a handful of Frozen stickers for her being so good. Flo was delighted in showing her family her stickers over Facetime and relaying her first experience at the dentist. She is now even better with her brushing as we say she says she can’t “let Mike the Dentist down”.

Mike cleverly involved Flo with as much as he could; from getting her to press the ‘magic buttons’ on the chair to counting her teeth with him and praised her fantastic brushing skills.

Phoebe got a little bit restless once my appointment started so Mike left to fetch his coat and a bunch of towels to put on the floor so Phoebe could comfortably and safely sit as it was a hard wooden floor.

Honestly – nothing was too much trouble and Mike and Abbie were so patient. At one point I had both Florence climbing all over me and Phoebe sat on my lap, but they were completely unphased and methodically and thoroughly checked my mouth and teeth – he also checked my tonsils, glands, skin etc which I had forgotten dentists do as it has been so long since one bothered!

What could have been quite a stressful situation with both girls there, it was actually really fun, and I know Florence is definitely looking forward to her next appointment. My husband and I are so pleased her first experience of the dentist has been so positive.

I honestly couldn’t recommend Penn Hill Dental more highly – especially for young families.

Thank you Mike and team for making Flo’s first dental experience so fun and for making me feel so at ease.

P.S. If you need another reason to make Penn Hill Dental your family dentist, it’s just a few hundred metres from Patisserie Mark Bennet (we made a real morning of it!).