Smile. Now.

Dan Stockman: Deanna Vasquez said she realized something was wrong when she found herself helping a dental assistant hold down her 4-year-old son's arms and legs as he writhed and screamed.

"You're basically brushing his teeth," she said. "I thought, 'I could do this at home without holding him down.' "

But it wasn't just her son's screams that left her queasy, she said. It was also the screams of other children – from behind the closed doors of other rooms at Kool Smiles dental clinic, 1852 Bluffton Road.

"Kids were screaming their heads off," Vasquez said.

She saw one girl emerge. She was 8 or 9 years old, Vasquez said, and had obviously been sobbing. Her parent was in the lobby.

Five sets of parents told The Journal Gazette that Kool Smiles does not allow parents to be with their children during cleanings or procedures. Vasquez's presence with her son was allowed, she said, only because she insisted she could help calm him down and that they would leave otherwise.