Dr. Jerome W. Spechler, DDS 3610 Forest Drive, Alexandria, VA 22302

"Very kind and very knowledgeable. Been going for years. They make you feel very at ease if you're the type that gets anxious in the dentist chair."

"Dr. Du and his team are the right mix of professional and friendly."

"Dr. Du is caring and knowledgeable (while at the same time sticking to procedures he is comfortable performing). I especially like the fact he does not overtreat. I've saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars going to him. His advice has actually been better than what I heard elsewhere, if you go by the condition of my teeth. If you want to pay for your dentist's fancy office, go elsewhere. If you just want good dental care, go to Dr. Du. Ignore the negative review."

"I normally don't write reviews. I just felt it necessary to give my input because the current rating isn't a fair assessment of my experience. My family and I hav been going to Smiley Du Dentist for over a year now and haven't had any issues at all. The office isn't the most luxurious, however everything is clean and very well kept. I'm a skeptic of the amount charged for services and found that their fees are very reasonable and the staff is always open to discuss bills, insurance, and payments. The only issue we found is that Dr. Du doesn't perform surgeries. The staff assisted with finding a surgeon who was covered under our insurance and made all the necessary appointments and referrals to meet insurance expectations.Personally I recommend Smiley Du dentistry as a family dentist for those who are looking for an honest dentist with a reasonable fee structure."

"I wanted the other dentist, who is the top rated in dentist in the area. I was told that I could only become a patient of Dr. Du. However, my concerns grew over time… -They used computers at each chair to play music during your visit. While I appreciate this would likely be relaxing, I was asked to state a musical genre I wanted played during my visit. I honestly didn’t have an answer to that question, but I was repeatedly asked to make a selection until I just said “um, ok, leave this on.” It was unnecessarily awkward. -I was told every visit that I’m not flossing enough, but I floss twice a day. I started flossing more often to appease my dentist, but then my gums started receding and causing pain. Finally, my dentist declared that had porous teeth and this could not be prevented. -A hygienist in the office told me that I could get rid of dark stains in between my teeth by holding whitening mouth wash in my mouth for several minutes and then flossing. At this point, they had panicked me enough to try. It created open, painful sores on my gums. -The dentist doesn’t dress particularly professionally. He wears Timberland boots and skinny khakis with heavy stitching. He looks like a high school kid whose parents forced him to dress up for church. He already looks very young, so the “I’m going to the mall after this look” isn’t helping. -He asked me how my kids are. I’m single with no kids. I’m not sure if he doesn’t know who I am or if he just assumes that everyone who doesn’t look as young as him must have kids by now? I would feel like a jerk if I called him out on this during the visits, so I actually said my non-existent kids were ok just to save us both the discomfort. -He suddenly stopped keeping weekend hours with no real explanation of whether or not they would continue at some point. Whenever I scheduled, I would get some vague “the doctor has been having trouble doing weekends lately…” kind of response. So, I started having to take time off from work for cleanings every six months. I guess that’s not super often, so I still hung in there. Ok, all of that was a little weird and made me never quite comfortable with this dentist. I’d thought about looking for a new one, but I’d been too busy. So, I kept going. Then, this happened… I was scheduled for a filling last Monday. I had to use some of my paid time off. This is also an extremely busy time at work, so taking off was difficult, and I’d end up having to work harder for the next couple weeks…but I needed a filling and there were no more weekend hours. On the day of the appointment, I left work early, walked 10 minutes, rode the train for 20 minutes, waited 30 minutes for a bus, rode the bus for several minutes, and drove 15 minutes. I arrived to find a hand written note on the door that the office had lost power, and they would call to reschedule. I tried calling the office, and it just rang forever. There had been a major accident in the immediate area. Instead of a 10-15 drive home – I was in my car for over an hour. Anyway, I was also upset that there was no backup plan for contacting me. They called me at exactly 7:30am the next day. I guess this shows them being on top of this, but I honestly think that is a rudely early time to call anyone. I couldn’t answer because I was getting ready for work. I called them back at 8:15am. I asked why there was no back up plan to contact patients. The person I spoke with definitely took a tone with me and said “well, there will be one now.” When I said that no one had apologized, I received tense silence. I’m not sure if she didn’t know what the business should apologize for or was horrified that I would ask for such a courtesy. When she collected herself, she apologized but used a tone like I was being scolded. I told her there was no need for either because I was never coming back."