I was on an extended vacation in North Carolina when I started having unbearable pain in my lower jaw. I saw a dentist out in a rural area, who told me I had an impacted wisdom tooth, but said he didn't feel comfortable extracting it. After toughing it out for about a week, I couldn't stand it any longer and started calling every oral surgeon in the Charlotte area to see who could take me within 24 hours. Dr. Marashi's office got me in for a consultation the same day, I believe, and scheduled the removal for the next morning. I opted for full sedation, even though it wasn't going to be covered by my insurance, because I just wanted to get it over with in the easiest possible way.
The day of the visit, everything went great. He and his staff were calm, professional and welcoming. He handled the IV sedation himself, and I didn't feel a thing. One minute, I was lying in the chair in excruciating pain, and the next, I was in the recovery room, and it was all over. He sent me home with detailed instructions, some prescription pain medication, and an antibiotic. I used the pain medication the first night, and then was able to switch to Advil the next day. I had some tenderness in the area, but absolutely no facial swelling or bruising.
So why not five stars? Because Dr. Marashi was supposed to call and check on me that night, and he didn't. He also didn't return my call when I left him a message about a concern I was having (which turned out to be nothing). Is that a huge deal? No, but it made me feel like I received a lower standard of postoperative care because I was a one-time patient from out of town.
Another reason for the four star review: when I got back to Chicago, I started experiencing pain around the area where the wisdom tooth had been removed. I assumed it was a dry socket issue, but my dentist discovered that I had an infection and significant bone loss in the molar adjacent to the site of the wisdom tooth removal. He thought it was possible that the pain I had been experiencing in North Carolina had been caused by these issues, and not by the wisdom tooth. After battling several infections in the molar, and months of pain, I ultimately had to have that tooth removed, as well. Maybe Dr. Marashi was aware of these issues, but he didn't think they needed to be addressed right away. Or maybe he didn't notice it at all. To be fair, I told him that I had an impacted wisdom tooth when I came in for the consultation, so he was probably just focused on that.
Those frustrations aside, I would go back to his office in a heartbeat if I ever needed oral surgery in the Charlotte area again. Dr. Marashi has a very calm and professional demeanor, which means a lot when you're in pain and you just want someone to take care of you. His staff was also very kind and comforting. And after all the horror stories I had read about wisdom tooth extraction, I was truly shocked that I had no swelling and such minimal pain. So, all around, a good experience. read more