Cowlitz River Dental: Kennington L Blaine DDS

"“He’s the best guy who has ever climbed in my mouth with sharp objects and needles.” This is what I tell my family and friends who need to be pointed to the last dentist they’ll ever use. I am a UX Designer. “UX Designer” means User Experience. I specialize in connecting small businesses and professional practices with their customers—before, during and after the sale. So, I have dealt with professionals for most of my adult life at a much more involved level than most consumers. Therefore, I have gathered a lot of experience about many different professions in order to produce videos, craft brochures and manage social media and web sites. But, I also have a set of teeth. And Dr. Kennington has been my dentist ever since I moved to the Castle Rock area in 2013. My career has taken me all over the U.S. from the west coast to the Midwest and back again. So, I have had lots of barbers, doctors and dentists. I have had some pretty good ones, from the Chicago area to the San Francisco Bay Area. I wish now that I had been able to meet Dr. Kennington earlier rather than later. The dental visits in his Castle Rock office have been THE. BEST. DENTIST visits I’ve ever experienced. From extractions to fillings and everything in between, I no longer carry the heavy anxiety before each visit. There’s a reason why some dentists are better than others. Like any other profession, the dental field can be populated by two types of people—those who care about other humans and strive for the best results at every task and are extremely good at what they do because they love the work as they love people, or by individuals who are mediocre in everything they do because dentistry sounded like a lucrative profession and maybe not as “difficult” or “involved” as internal medicine (not). Like any other job, you can always tell the difference between those who simply show up and clock in, in order to execute the minimum requirements for that shift, and those special individuals who lose themselves in each task because they understand how each task is an important part of the whole. Dr. Kennington is the latter. In addition to being an excellent professional by continuing his exposure to cutting edge technology in the dental field by attending continuing procedural workshops several times a year, he is also the best pain management dentist I have ever had. I am writing this while at home, resting after another stint in one of his dental chairs this morning. Even the needle going in the multiple sites necessary for today’s procedure were literally unfelt. Not “just a little pinch or stick or sting”—but simply nothing. He and his people are just as careful with patient experience as they are with the strict dental tasks at hand. The two are so intertwined as to be inseparable. And patient education is second nature to him as well. I know what to expect from start to finish, I know what each step is for and am aware of where I am in my whole care plan. It’s dentistry the way it should be done, plain and simple. One of the best things about Dr. Kennington is that he is a leading senior master in his field. He’s a veteran. This is my personal view based on my experience. It is my judgement that the South West Washington region is getting him at the peak of his professional career. You cannot do any better, from Astoria to Gresham and from Salem to Seattle than Cowlitz River Dentistry."

"Dr. K is so nice. He puts his patients at ease."