I give him one star because I learned that I was a bit swindled by him on treatment.
Here's the story. I have bad TMJ and was desperate for a solution to my constant pain. In doing research, I came across his website and tons of advertising, web videos, testimonials, etc. He strongly hyped his qualifications and expert status on TMJ as well as hyping the NTI night guard, making it sound like it's a very new treatment he's an expert with and that he's particularly special and singular in offering it versus other dentists who just do night guards.
None of what he said in that paragraph proved particularly true.
Particularly, his "about me" section on his website is highly deceiving as he touts himself as some expert regarding the future of dental care, with stuff on his website talking about nano-bots, but most of this fails to amount to anything of substance in terms of care for patients.
The result is that I got burned by him. After an initial consult where he echoed the many filmed testimonials from patients and his expertise with treating and fixing people's TMJ, I really came away with feeling that he possessed the answer and that his method of treating TMJ was special to him and something he was expert at among dentists. I didn't realized how much I was being over sold. In some sense, he played on my hopes.
The biggest problem and complaint here was what I wound up getting charged. I feel like an idiot now that I did more research on my options after having my TMJ issues get worse and found what it should have cost, not to mention the oversell I was given.
In short, he charged me $1,000 for basically molding an NTI device.
I was relatively broke at the time, didn't have dental insurance, was desperate for relief, and had asked if he could work with me on price (he said he couldn't). I ended up being deceived into thinking a treatment option that is pretty widely offered, not particularly difficult to offer, and usually low cost needed to cost me $1,000 and deceived that he painted himself as a highly qualified expert in LA in treating TMJ, and I recall he specifically generalized that most dentist don't know what he knows in how to treat TMJ.
I've heard on message boards it usually costs the price of the visit plus $200 for them to send away to labs to make it. Even at the highest prices I've heard people pay for it, it usually is a total of $700 max for all of it.
BS aside, all I wound up actually getting was what I later found out to be an extremely boiler plate dental treatment that any dentist can provide - except some dentists see too many downsides with (which he didn't mention) - and there was nothing expert in what he did.
And what is worse is that I later found out it's questionable if he even followed the manufacture's protocols:
1) He chose to mold it to lower teeth, when the manufacturer recommends the upper for when the "incisal overlap is greater than 50%"
2) The vertical dimension of the occlusion isn't supposed to increase when the jaw juts forward.
3) He made it sound as if once it's adjusted, you can't add back height to it, when that's not true.
4) The height is too high still.
There's even a question after reading more literature if I was even a good candidate for the NTI because I tend to clench so much and have side to side movement. I wasn't even consulted on this possibility when speaking to him. It was all "you're perfect" for it and how great the results are. The only thing he offered was "a very small group of my patients, less than 5% report it not working," which I personally call BS on now that I know what I know and would be highly curious how he came to this figure.
The result is that I gradually got more jaw pain due to the treatment I received.
Now don't get me wrong, he's a very personable, nice guy. As a general dentist - teeth cleaning, etc. he probably is just fine.
But he's someone who drastically over-promotes his abilities - particularly in the area of TMJ specialty.
I'm very unhappy with how I felt I was over sold, deceived, and overcharged. I now know that I should have sought someone who did real imaging for jaw occlusion, but this set me back so much, it prevented that from happening sooner.
What's worst, I would have sued him based on the deception, mistakes that it seems he made, and that it seemed to worsen my condition, but he is very snakey in making sure you sign off on a document saying something to the effect of "you can't sue." That should have been the biggest red flag.
I am trying to move on, but I do really question Dr. Reifman's integrity and his business practices. Like I said, I'm sure for the basic teeth cleaning he's fine, but I would really question what he says, even to the point that if you were to use him as a general dentist, I would get second opinions on anything major, even fillings. read more