Finding a good dentist in Washington, Missouri starts with the numbers: the city has 33 dental practices, 14 of them carrying enough patient feedback to earn a rating, and those rated offices average 4.76 stars. Start with the highest-rated, review-backed names below, then match a practice to the care you actually need.
How Washington’s dental market breaks down
Washington sits at the heart of Franklin County along the Missouri River, and for a river town of its size the dental options are surprisingly deep. The directory lists 33 practices inside the city, which is a healthy count for a community that also draws patients in from the surrounding countryside and the smaller towns strung along Highway 100 and Interstate 44. Of those 33, 14 have accumulated enough patient feedback to carry a rating on Dental.me, while the remaining 19 have not gathered a scored volume of feedback yet. That gap matters when you’re choosing: a practice without a rating isn’t necessarily weak, but the 14 rated offices are the ones you can actually compare on evidence rather than guesswork.
The headline figure for those rated practices is a 4.76 average, which is high, and the distribution behind that average is what makes it trustworthy. Washington isn’t carried by one standout office padding an otherwise mediocre field. The strength is broad, spread across most of the rated practices, and the rating spread below shows exactly how it’s shaped.
Eleven of the fourteen rated practices sit at 4.8 stars or above. There are no offices in the 4.5-to-4.79 middle band at all, one practice lands in the 4.0-to-4.49 range, and two fall under 4.0. In practice that means your shortlist is unusually easy to build here: the top tier is large and clearly separated from the two lower-rated outliers, so you can concentrate on the eleven high scorers and still have real choice. In many towns you have to hunt for a single strong option; in Washington the harder job is deciding among several good ones.
The highest-rated practices in Washington
Here are the Washington offices with the strongest ratings, sorted by star rating and then by how many pieces of feedback stand behind that score. A five-star office with a handful of reviews and a 4.9 office with well over a thousand are telling you different things, so read the reviews column alongside the rating rather than treating the star number in isolation.
| Practice | Rating | Reviews | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Mace | 5.0 | 352 | View profile |
| Apple Dental Care | 5.0 | 295 | View profile |
| Four Rivers Periodontics and Implant Specialists | 5.0 | 14 | View profile |
| Aruna Rajagopalan | 4.9 | 1,450 | View profile |
| Walde Firth Orthodontic Specialists LLP | 4.9 | 212 | View profile |
| Franklin County Laser Dentistry | 4.9 | 178 | View profile |
Six offices hold a perfect 5.0, including these three: James Mace with 352 reviews behind it, Apple Dental Care with 295, and Four Rivers Periodontics and Implant Specialists with 14. The James Mace and Apple Dental Care scores are notable precisely because holding a flawless average across hundreds of ratings is genuinely hard; a single one-star review chips a perfect score, so a 5.0 across 352 reviews is a strong signal. Just behind them at 4.9 sit three more: Aruna Rajagopalan, Walde Firth Orthodontic Specialists LLP, and Franklin County Laser Dentistry. Any of these six is a defensible first call.
Why review volume changes how you read a score
Across all of Washington’s rated practices, 2,632 pieces of feedback have been left, and that total is heavily weighted toward one office. Aruna Rajagopalan alone carries 1,450 of them, a little more than half the city’s entire volume, which makes that 4.9 one of the most tested ratings anywhere in Franklin County. When a score is averaged over that many individual reviews, a stray low rating barely moves it, and that stability is worth as much as the raw number of stars.
The contrast at the top of the table is the useful part. Four Rivers Periodontics and Implant Specialists holds the same 5.0 as James Mace, but on 14 pieces of feedback rather than 352. Neither number is a warning; they’re simply different kinds of confidence. A specialist office that sees fewer, more complex cases will naturally gather feedback more slowly than a busy general practice that cleans dozens of teeth a week. Use the reviews column to calibrate how settled a score is, not to rank the offices against each other outright. A newer or lower-volume 5.0 can be an excellent choice; it just hasn’t been road-tested as many times, so lean a little more on your own consultation to confirm the fit.
Website access and getting in touch
Of Washington’s 33 practices, 12 have a website URL on file in the directory. That’s a useful head start when you want to check services or request an appointment online, but it also means for most offices in town your fastest path is still the phone. Don’t read the absence of a listed website as a mark against a practice; plenty of well-established Franklin County offices run on phone scheduling and word of mouth, and several of the highest-rated names here fall into that pattern. The website count tells you how a practice prefers to be reached, not how good the dentistry is.
When you call, have a short list ready: confirm they’re taking new patients, ask whether they accept your insurance or offer an in-house membership plan, and describe the specific work you need so the front desk can gauge the right appointment length. Those three questions sort most of the field quickly, and they matter more than any single online detail. If you’re new to Washington, it’s also worth asking about after-hours or emergency coverage, since a smaller river-town practice may route urgent cases differently than a big-city clinic would.
Specialty care in Washington
Beyond general checkups and cleanings, the Washington directory flags focused areas of care you can filter for directly. Five practices are tagged for cosmetic dentistry in Washington, and five for teeth whitening in Washington, so if you’re weighing veneers, bonding, or simply a brighter smile you have a genuine field to compare rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it option. Having five offices in each category is meaningful in a city this size; it means you can shop the procedure on both price and rating instead of accepting whatever the one available provider quotes.
The names in the top-rated table also point toward deeper specialty coverage in town. Walde Firth Orthodontic Specialists and Four Rivers Periodontics and Implant Specialists both carry strong ratings and identify their focus in their names, so if you need braces or clear aligners, or implant and gum work, those are natural starting points to research. Pairing a specialist for the procedure with a nearby general dentist for routine upkeep is a common Washington setup, and both can live comfortably on your shortlist. As always, confirm the specific procedure and its cost directly with the office before you commit, since specialty pricing varies far more than a routine cleaning does.
Weighing cost, insurance, and fit
Ratings and review counts get you to a strong shortlist, but the final choice in Washington usually comes down to three practical questions the directory can’t answer for you: what the visit will cost, whether your coverage is accepted, and whether the office feels like a place you’ll keep going back to. Because five practices each compete in the cosmetic and whitening categories, you have real leverage to ask for an itemized estimate and compare it, rather than accepting the first quote you hear. For routine care the spread between offices is usually narrow, but for crowns, implants, orthodontics, and cosmetic work it can be wide enough to be worth a second call.
Insurance is the other swing factor. Many Washington families are covered through employers tied to the local manufacturing and healthcare base, and networks differ from office to office, so confirm your specific plan before you book rather than assuming a highly rated practice is in-network. If you’re uninsured, ask whether the office runs an in-house membership or discount plan, which several general practices use in place of traditional insurance. A 4.9-rated office you can actually afford and reach on your schedule beats a marginally higher score that fights your budget or your calendar every visit. Rating narrows the field; fit closes the decision.
Looking just beyond Washington
If your ideal office happens to be booked out or sits a bit far from your side of town, Washington is well positioned within Franklin County and the western St. Louis exurbs, so a short drive opens up more choices. Each of Washington’s neighbors keeps its own directory of rated practices. Nearby options worth checking include dentists in Union, the Franklin County seat just to the south along Highway 50, along with New Haven up the Missouri River to the west and Pacific toward the Interstate 44 metro edge. Widening your radius by even ten or fifteen minutes can multiply the number of rated offices you have to call, and for a specialist procedure it’s often worth the extra drive to reach the exact office you want.
Putting your Washington shortlist together
The efficient path in Washington looks like this. Start from the eleven practices rated 4.8 or higher, since that band is where nearly all of the city’s strength sits and the two lower-rated outliers are easy to set aside. Cross-reference the reviews column to see which scores are the most road-tested, keeping Aruna Rajagopalan’s 1,450-review 4.9 and the perfect 5.0s at James Mace and Apple Dental Care near the top of your list. Layer in any specialty needs by filtering the cosmetic or whitening categories, or by starting with the orthodontics and periodontics names if that’s your situation. Then make two or three calls to confirm new-patient availability, insurance acceptance, and pricing for the specific work you need. With 33 practices in reach and a 4.76 rated average, Washington gives you room to be genuinely selective, and this shortlist turns that abundance into a decision you can make in an afternoon rather than a project that drags on for weeks. When you’re ready to compare the full field yourself, browse every rated office on the Washington dentist directory and work down from the top.
Frequently asked questions
How many dentists are in Washington, MO?
The Dental.me directory lists 33 dental practices inside Washington. Fourteen of them carry enough patient feedback to hold a rating, and those rated offices average 4.76 stars, so you have a broad field to compare.
Which Washington, MO dentist has the highest rating?
Six practices hold a perfect 5.0, including these three: James Mace with 352 reviews, Apple Dental Care with 295, and Four Rivers Periodontics and Implant Specialists with 14. Aruna Rajagopalan, Walde Firth Orthodontic Specialists, and Franklin County Laser Dentistry each sit at 4.9.
Which Washington practice has the most reviews?
Aruna Rajagopalan, at 4.9 stars, carries 1,450 reviews. That is a little more than half of the 2,632 total pieces of feedback across all of Washington’s rated practices, making it one of the most tested ratings in Franklin County.
Do Washington dentists list websites for booking?
Of the 33 practices in Washington, 12 have a website URL on file in the directory. For the rest, the fastest way to reach the office is by phone. A missing website URL is not a mark against the dentistry itself.
Where can I find cosmetic dentistry or teeth whitening in Washington?
The directory tags five Washington practices for cosmetic dentistry and five for teeth whitening. Because several offices compete in each category, you can compare providers on both rating and price rather than accepting a single quote.
What if I can't get an appointment in Washington?
Washington sits within reach of several Franklin County and St. Louis-edge towns with their own rated practices, including Union to the south, New Haven up the river, and Pacific toward Interstate 44. Widening your radius by ten to fifteen minutes often adds more options.
Dental.me organizes dental directory data so patients can compare offices with confidence. Use each practice profile and its available website, map, and phone details for current appointment, payment, and care decisions.