Dear Katie,

This note is to express our gratitude to you and your team for resolving the recent issues relating to our young boy’s – Sam’s – teeth. It would be very easy to fill a couple of pages with words of praise and appreciation for the treatment that we “all” received from you and your team during Sam’s operation last Friday – which saw an abscess-affected tooth extracted and holes in four other teeth appropriately remedied. However, I will try to encapsulate our feelings as succinctly as possible.

After fighting with various parties within the public health system – to no avail – to try and have Sam’s teeth seen to with appropriate priority, it was such a breath of fresh air to share our woes with Katie – who offered full understanding of our plight and picked us up from the depths of despair with her “can do” attitude.

Even though we live in Hawkes Bay, the preliminary conversations that we held with Katie were as if we were talking within her Hamilton based clinic face-to-face. Katie, you have rare attributes as an oral surgeon working in New Zealand. You are very approachable, accommodating, personable and prioritise the dental care/ treatment of your clients ahead of any other consideration.

We appreciated your ability to articulate dental situations/ matters in layman terms and for taking the time to answer any and all queries that we had along the way. Similarly, we appreciated the support and explanations from Lyn, Liz and John throughout Sam’s operation.

There is no doubt in our minds that you offer New Zealand children the ultimate dental treatment experience – both in terms of the execution of your professional services and the care and kindness that you unreservedly show your child clients and their parents. It is a pity that you can’t be cloned and situated in other dental clinics around New Zealand.

Thank goodness New Zealand has a Pediatric Dentist of your calibre to pick-up the pieces (and gaps) created within the public health system. Our memory of our experience of Sam being treated in your highly competent and compassionate care will remain with us forever.

Sincerely,

Peter Alexander

Dear Katie,

Thank you so much for the excellent work you’ve done on Joshua’s teeth. His teeth look really good and we are just so glad to be able to protect his teeth until he’s older. We really admire the way you talk to Joshua and make him feel comfortable. He looks forward to seeing you for dental work which is amazing and a credit to you and the lovely way you relate to children. Please pass on our thanks to the team at Braemar, we thought you were all so good at your jobs and we appreciated the time you took to talk to us.

Kind regards

Mike, Zara and Joshua

Dear Katie

Thank you for looking after me. You didn’t hurt my mouth when you took my teeth out. You are a great dentist. I will look after my teeth.

From

Jack West

Hi Katie

I came and saw you with Mitchell on Monday and I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful experience!

I think most of us as adults have some negative connotations with dentists and you made Mitchell’s first dental experience a fabulous one. Thankyou! He was more than happy to show off his “gap” to all the other kids at pre-school and tell them that it didn’t hurt etc, etc.

My only way to really thank you sincerely is through word of mouth to other mothers with children so I’m doing my best to pass on my praises of your great work and fabulous set up! Amazing what a difference that TV made (and the tattoos, and the rubber balls etc)!

Thank you so much!

Kind regards

Catherine Clark

Dear Katie,

This is just a note to say thank you for looking after my daughter Freya so well when my mum and dad took her to see you to get the stainless steel crown.

Thanks for letting them all traipse in to see it getting done. This definitely helped put her at ease. My son thought you were great and thought maybe he should come to see you too (especially after you gave him a packet of chewing gum)!

Freya has said she felt really good through the whole procedure and never felt any pain at all. She is more than happy to come back and see you again.

I was worried about how she would go but it turns out it was all just fine and her tooth feels much better.

You truly have a wonderful gift when it comes to empowering children to make them feel in control of the situation when otherwise they could feel scared and helpless.

I cannot believe how she has gone from a child with an extreme fear of the dentist to one that is quite happy to hop up in the chair and open her mouth!

So once again thanks so much for the wonderful job you do!

Kind regards

Jo McCathie

Katie,

Just wanted to thank you so much for how well Willem has been treated / looked after, how quickly you came to see him on a public holiday, how quickly he was able to get in for the surgery etc etc – just the best service ever! The staff at the hospital were all pretty amazing also, especially Paula – she was fantastic – so caring towards Will – I felt so comfortable with everyone down there at the day hospital! The public system has so much to learn . . . . . but then that benefits private providers I guess. Well, as far as I am concerned it was the best money I have spent – awesome value considering the overall treatment package – service, no waiting, fantastic care etc etc.

Will is real box of birds today, back to his old self again (and very proud of his new “pirate” teeth !!!). No after affects at all – he wanted 10ml of panadol last night, but that was it in terms of pain relief! When we got home he slept for three hours and then was up and about. He ate 4 pottles of yoghurt and then he was away . . . .

We must get him back in soon for some lessons on brushing / flossing and further education (for Mum and Dad too . . .

I very much look forward to Will and Ally coming to see you from now on . . . . . again, thank you so much for the fantastic caring service.

Regards,

Anton Richter-Visser