Review Our Glowing Patient Testimonials in Ames

I think just the way they make you feel comfortable when you come here and offering you something to drink and then they give you all kinds of things you can do to relax, listen to music, different flavors of mouthwash, and a blanket if you want and all that. Of course, I don’t want any of that stuff, I just wanna… too many other things to focus on. We have a cleaning business in Ames too, and so my mind is usually spinning about work all the time. So there’s always something going on. It’s cool. They’re really receptive to you and everything and they aid you schedule, if you need to reschedule, change things around this and that. And they’re always giving me something where I can sign in online and do all that sort of stuff, and the heck with that, I’ll just take care of that when I get here, but I don’t really care about that. But they’ve got all the conveniences and all the technology that I think the best there is right now.

I think it was starting, it started to like abscess and my tooth was hurting and you could tell it was going bad. I knew that it was something, and I was hoping it was something that could be replaced. If not the whole, I don’t know if you’ve heard the term flipper, the whole flipper routine for a while, having just a tooth that you just pop in and out was a real challenge because once I even almost swallowed it believe it or not, and that would’ve been a real situation. When you go out to eat and you have a flipper the food just doesn’t taste the same either. It is a little scary, the thought of hoping that it all works out and at my age, hoping that it takes. That the implant takes and all that sort of stuff because you could always go the bridge route and all that, but he just made me feel comfortable.

They gave me options and the options were, I think one was the bridge, and that’s where, by doing a bridge, I think you’d have to remove, it wouldn’t just be one tooth, you’d have to remove this tooth and I don’t know if it’s the two front tooth. And then my wife, Carla, she also got that option, but I think she’s going also with the implants because then you deal with a bridge if there’s problems with that. I feel good about my smile now and stuff because that tooth was kind of getting gray, if I remember right. It was getting a little gray and that probably because it was going bad. It just feels really good and looks good.

The first time I’d really heard about a tongue-tie was about two years ago when I brought my son in, Walker, when he was 2 and we were out just having some issues with his mouth breathing and he was getting croup a lot and things along those lines and that’s when they identified that he had a tongue-tie and a lip-tie. He has not had his released yet just because he can’t sit still. But that was definitely something that I thought we needed to have checked out because when he was little, we had a really difficult time feeding and had to go straight to bottle feeding.

So before I’d even delivered her, I talked to Dr. Morgan about coming in and checking to see if she had had a lip-tie or a tongue-tie to make sure that we could put us on the best first foot forward. She definitely put everything at ease and knowing that they are using a laser, rather than cutting it, kind of made me feel a little bit better. They also use a numbing agent which I was like, “Okay. I know that she’s not really feeling it as much.” And the recovery was really easy and it didn’t look really painful, so that helped me to be pretty happy that I did it and made the right choice for my daughter.

It probably took maybe five days for Olivia to really start taking off breastfeeding and even bottle feeding and switching back and forth. So, she was really struggling with cluster feeding where she would eat every 45 minutes and after that, we would be going multiple hours without having to do that because she was actually finally sucking and getting the milk and the nutrients that she needed. Very happy that we did it and would recommend it and have recommended it to multiple people already.

Walker, when he is able to sit in the chair and listen, he will be getting his released as well just so that we can hopefully, stop some of the mouth breathing which can cause snoring and other issues down the road. So we are definitely all about the tongue and lip-tie cuts and whatnot.

I really enjoy it just because they’re so great with my kids and with me and they’re really great about interacting with us on a personal level. They’re always asking me questions about family or what we’re doing. It’s just like you’re coming in and talking to your friends. And they’re really good about, I guess, personalizing your care to make sure that you’re getting the best results of what you want for your smile and your teeth.

I always tell my friends that I kind of go to a bougie dentist. Just all of the personal care items that they allow you to have to make you feel comfortable. So it’s not something that you are dreading going to. Like my kids actually really enjoy coming to the dentist because it’s fun. They show them the tools and they make them feel really comfortable. Put on a show for them. And that is really important to me because I know a lot of people really dread going to the dentist and it’s such an important thing to take care of your mouth. So that’s why we like coming here.

Everyone is always so welcoming and smiley and just asking you how you are, how things are going. Even if you don’t have them as an assistant or a dental hygienist, they are very welcoming and wanting to kind of get to know you or when you come in, they recognize you by face and call you by name. So it’s just really that personal touch that they bring to you. Those comfort cares that they provide and their welcoming personalities really makes you kind of feel at home and at ease. I feel like, even as a new patient, they have little, like, gifts for you that are, like, hey, we’re here and we’re glad that you are our patient. It’s really just a nice feeling to feel like you’re kind of part of a family.

One hundred percent would recommend this place. They’ve been great for my family. Great for myself especially, just with taking care of a lot of problems that I had going on. They take you from feeling ashamed about your mouth, and the problems you’ve had, to, “Hey, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just make the plan, and let’s take care of it.”

But every time they come in, you know, they know their names. The kids aren’t nervous to come here. They don’t dread going to the dentist. Typically, you know, going to the dentist is something that they would’ve shied away from in the past. Everyone makes it fun here, and they know their names, and they know what activities they’re in, and always have fun things to talk about.

Well, I guess it’s been a couple years now, so William, he was probably 10 when we started coming here, and so, they’ve helped us figure out some of the things as far as where to go next for braces. Then Maddox was, gosh, he was probably four or five, and we had had a bad experience down in Des Moines, and so, that was, I guess another thing that just made me feel so comfortable here with like the atmosphere and the people. Just the people honestly, like how nice and friendly they were. You walk in here and, like, there’s a kid’s room and they can, you know, keep busy in there. They have Netflix on for ’em while they’re getting their teeth cleaned. If they want a blanket, they get a blanket. It’s just comfortable and warm and everyone’s nice.

I, well, I’ll tell you, I didn’t have insurance and I got an abscess. And so I went to another dental office and they did the, it much needed a root canal and they had done the root canal and they did a horrible job. So I came here and I’m not sure if they were horrible or if they just shouldn’t have done it, and they did it to help me out. I’m not really sure. So I finally made an appointment to come here, even though I didn’t have insurance, because I’d been here before, didn’t have insurance, stopped coming. And because I didn’t think that they would work with me here, I guess financially. It didn’t even occur to me to ask the question. So I came here and Dr. Nicks told me that basically what they had done was kind of a botched job and that I shouldn’t even have to pay for it in his opinion.

He helped me actually get a refund, got it redone, and then we put in, it was a little nubbin of a tooth left. And so then he put on the porcelain cap. And so we’ve been watching that tooth for a long time. So here recently it started hurting again, like really bad. And I kind of knew that I had cracked it. So it hurt real bad and I called and it was a weekend and I had some stuff I had to do. I was fixing to go on vacation to St. Thomas. So that’s when he called me from home and got me some antibiotics and something for the pain a little bit. And then I came in that next Tuesday, and we just popped that sucker out. I wanted to make sure I could snorkel, because I’d never been to St. Thomas. And so I’m like, “Can I, you know, snorkel?” And he is like, “It might be a little difficult, but I think you’ll be able to do it.” And he wasn’t wrong. I was able to do it. It was a little sore, a little tender, but I was able to do it.

You know, I actually deal with a little bit of anxiety. I have a very high pain tolerance, but that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t create a little bit of anxiety in me, especially when I come for, like, a filling or something. And so, I think one of my favorite things is the weighted blanket. The minute they put that on me, I was like, “Oh, this is so nice.” I was like, “I need to buy one of these for myself.” It’s the little amenities that they offer, and you can do multiple ones. For me, that was a big deal, and that was an amazing experience, to get that weighted blanket for the first time. I was thinking, “This isn’t gonna make any difference,” but it really helped.

Growing up, I had the perfect smile, like never needed braces. The dentist always told me I had textbook teeth and a textbook bite, and I was like, “Yay, never have to do braces.” I was so excited.

But as I got older, I started having a couple of teeth that were starting to turn or move forward and backwards. And just in… Probably the last 10 years, it really started to shift. I was actually starting to have a little bit of pain when I was biting. And when I was chewing, I was finding that I was biting the inside of my cheek a lot more.

And so, in talking with Dr. Niegsch, I found that that is pretty common when your teeth start to shift. And he said, “That’s only going to get worse.” And I was like, “Yeah, kind of figured.” They were starting to really cause some issues for me.

And so, the idea of mitigating those issues and getting rid of some of that pain and that struggle was appealing to me. And like I said, thinking about Invisalign, that’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do for quite a few years now.

So, it was just that final little nudge that I needed. They’re really good about walking me through the step-by-step process. It wasn’t just, “This is how we start, this is the end, this is how much it’s going to cost.” It was, “This is the whole process. Let’s break it down.” You know, your day-to-day or your week-to-week, or your month-to-month, how long it’s going to be.

And I really appreciated the extra information. I’m very much information oriented and so, the more information I have, the better decision I can make.
Well, I think one of the first things I noticed is my bite. It is almost naturally realigned itself, which to me seems a little odd because you would think with normal braces, that’s what fix your bite because they have the wires that kind of move everything around.

And so, I wasn’t thinking really along the lines of improving my bite with the Invisalign. I was thinking, “Oh, it’s just going to straighten my teeth. But I’ve noticed that my bite has improved as well.

And so, through the process, I’m at that point where I can start seeing the difference now in my teeth, and I can start seeing that they have moved and that things are starting to turn, and they’re starting to even out.

And so, it just makes me more excited to… I wish I could speed up the process. I want to get to the end because I want to see that final result because I think it’s going to be really exciting.

When I first was starting the whole process with Invisalign, the technician that helped to start that process, she herself had Invisalign. So she had that kind of inside knowledge about what I could expect. And, you know, just little things like when you put your first one in, it may be a little uncomfortable, you know, take a couple of Tylenol before you do that to avoid that. You know, she gave you a lot of really good kind of, like, experience of having gone through the same thing herself. So there was a lot of empathy, I guess you could say, that came along with just getting through that process.

I had very crowded teeth when I first came here. Before I started the Invisalign process. I was very self-conscious of that. You know, it wasn’t to the point where I wouldn’t smile because it wasn’t that terrible, but I was always aware of it and I always, like, that’s the first thing I saw when I looked at pictures. And that was always the first thing that was, like, just glaring to me. And I don’t know that it was to other people so much, but it was really a personal thing for me that I wanted to, and I find myself, you know, the big teethy smiles now instead of, you know, the little smiles with your lips closed. I would genuinely want to smile anyway. So it just, you know, makes that a little bit easier and just a little more aligned with who I am.

The reason that I even reached out to this practice was I had moved back to Iowa and I lived not very far from here, so it was mostly of convenience initially. However, once I started coming here, the staff is awesome. They’re very attentive. They answer all of your questions. When I had asked them about Invisalign, I had a lot of questions. And they took their time and walked me through all of my questions, gave me really good answers, and I felt very comfortable having them be my partner in this Invisalign journey.

When you come here, you feel more like you’re not just another number that’s getting pushed through and, you know, they don’t really even know your name unless they’re looking at your chart. They really want to understand so that they can give you the right advice and the right direction on where to go and what to do next with your dental journey. They’re so knowledgeable. Every single person that I have come across knows their profession very, very well. So they’re very, very knowledgeable. They really want you to be satisfied. So whether that is with your appointment time, if it’s your, you know, what procedure you’re having done, if it’s even like submitting the insurance for you, all of that is just very accommodating. They’re very transparent in what they’re doing. It just makes it a good experience.

I moved here from Indianapolis. And I had gone to a dental practice there and they had advised me against Invisalign, and said that in order to correct my teeth I would have to get braces. I really didn’t want to make that commitment for as long as they were saying and all of the major changes that would have to go along with that. They had talked about removing teeth then, you know, it was pretty intense. So, when I came here and we just started talking about it, and I said, well, I understood that I wasn’t a candidate for that. They helped me understand that, “Look, if you are willing to put in the time, it will work.” So, really at that point, it was up to me if it was going to be successful or not.

Dr. Niegsch was my doctor through the whole Invisalign process. He was there every single time that I would come back for a checkup or for any kind of tweaking that we had to do. He was present in that journey. He was not, like, pushing me off to another doctor or another technician, he was always there every single time. And I appreciated that because he then had that full picture end to end. He knew how we started out, he knew what the plan was, he knew if we were progressing to the plan. And if there was anything that needed adjusted or modified, then he was right on top of it. It made me feel like my experience was important to him.

I think it’s great. It’s close to campus, but I do think it’s really important to have your provider be someone where you do spend most of your time. It’s easier to schedule that way because you got a lot more time to fit that appointment in, but you never know when something might come up. You know, I wear a retainer at night, and I like to keep that thing clean, and I probably don’t always do the greatest job being consistent with that, and they’ve been super helpful here if I just want to bring it in, that they’re willing to clean that for me.

They have a long list of amenities they offer when you come here. I was blown away the first time I saw it and I’m still kind of working my way through that list of trying out all of ’em. The aromatherapy, the hot towel, the, you know, sometimes when they’re doing work in there, your lips will dry out and so they offer lip balm, just really anything under the sun you could think of. They really wanna make sure that your time here is relaxing and as enjoyable as possible.

I’ve had most of my experiences with Dr. Niegsch, and he’s been great, very friendly, clearly loves what he does. I don’t get it. I’m glad people like him exist. But I had several visits when I did my Invisalign and just always a big happy, smiling face, and just really made me feel comfortable.

So the Invisalign was an interesting thing. It was something that I’d never thought of. My old dentist didn’t offer it. Again, back to the whole, you know, cutting-edge dentistry thing. And so I started here, got my first couple, you know, x-rays and things like that, and Dr. Niegsch brought it up. He’s like, you know, there’s a couple of things that we could probably adjust. Your teeth are great. You’ve got a great smile, very handsome but there are a couple of things that we could probably adjust with Invisalign. Would you be interested in hearing about that?

And so, listened to what the process was gonna be like. It wasn’t bad at all. And had that done, it took about a year or so, but it was done in no time. I noticed it. Maybe people are just too nice, but people haven’t said anything like, “Oh, you used to be so snaggle-toothed, and now look at that.” But I can feel it. I can tell the difference. I can tell where teeth used to not fit exactly right and now they fit right. So it’s been a great experience. I think Invisalign was the exact tool for what my teeth needed. So I don’t think we discussed any other options. I probably could have done something like full-on braces or something, but I’m not an awkward teenager anymore, so I don’t really need the braces and the headgear and all that. So I think Invisalign was exactly the thing that fit the bill.