I will not return here again -- my entire experience was terrible from start to finish. Both the dental staff and the front office were disorganized and unprofessional. FYI, I am not a picky patient or a complainer by any means. At my first consult appointment, I arrived on time and the assistant (who was generally unfriendly) commented that I was late. Confused, I said "Late? Isn't my appointment at 10:15?" She proceeded to tell me that they changed the appointment time to 9AM. I told her that I never received a call or notification about this change & then felt stressed that I'm supposedly over an hour late. She proceeded to tell me that they've been having problems with their system which has altered patient appointment times, but not to worry as I would still be seen ... Why would you communicate these "back office" problems to a patient if it doesn't affect their care anyway? Unnecessarily stressful. When Dr. Wu came in (all but 5 minutes), she seemed friendly but did not explain any of the procedure to me. When I asked questions, her answers were brief and vague, forcing me to ask the other office staff who gave me more info. I should have walked at this point, but gave them the benefit of the doubt. I was provided with an invoice afterwards (high price, of course). The day of my procedure, they had me sign and pay for everything at the desk before I went back to have the work done, which seemed a bit distasteful. It was only a local procedure so I asked if I could have someone be in the room with me and the assistant said she would ask the doctor -- I overheard Dr. Wu from the hallway simply tell the assistant no without any reason or coming to address me herself. The room was plenty spacious for a visitor to be present at a distance and there was even a guest chair in the corner for someone to accompany a patient. Looking back, I can see why she declined perhaps, because the assistants were rough-handed and Dr. Wu did not communicate during the entire procedure even though I was awake. The only thing she said was to let her know if I began to feel any discomfort (the area was numbed) and they covered my eyes with a towel, which I understand for the bright lights but I could not see what they were doing. At one point when the local anesthetic was wearing off, I communicated that I started feeling the instruments. Dr. Wu sounded frantic and said "we are already finished, are you in pain? I can give you more anesthetic." I declined, as I didn't need to be numb still if everything was finished, but I had no idea at what point in the procedure we were at. Most doctors say something (even if it's brief) about "we're finishing up now", "everything looks good so far," or "I'm going to suture the opening and then we'll be done" but there was NO communication at all. After they sat me up and checked my BP, the assistant told me I could leave now. I said, I thought I was going to receive a medicated mouth rinse? (they told me this at the 1st appt), to which she said I have to go get that from the pharmacy. With my numbed-up face, I said "is it over the counter? because I haven't been given a prescription and I was told it would be given here." Another woman from the desk overheard and just handed me a mouth rinse. By this point, I was irritated and asked how often/how much am I supposed to use??? When I approached the desk to leave, the receptionist asked me when I am supposed to have a follow-up appointment. Taken off guard, I said I didn't know and that no one told me about scheduling a follow-up appointment...She then had to go find Dr. Wu and figure out when I'd need to be seen again. To make matters even worse, I was not provided any discharge instructions (how to brush/floss, how to wear my retainer, etc.) and my regular dentist had to call their office to get a response. Turns out they still had the wrong email address on file, even though I corrected it during pre-op. Finally, when I did receive the "discharge instructions", it was a generic info sheet on "dental procedure care" and not even for the procedure I had! When I called to ask about it, they made a lousy excuse that my procedure was "simple compared to what we normally do." Unbelievable. The follow-up appointment was another 5 minute visit, which I kind of expected, but had no idea if it was to be included in the price. Thankfully, it was, because I was not ready to pay another steep fine to this awful place. So far, at least the surgical site has been healing well. read more
