First, a background on my "dentist experience". I broke my front tooth when I was 10. Since then, I've seen many dentists because
1) an incompetent dentist in Asia did something horribly wrong to mess up this tooth and other teeth leaving years of corrective work afterwards
2) I have moved around quite a bit to different cities -- for college, then work in another city, then graduate school, then work in another city, then work in yet another city, etc. So I see at least one new dentist in every new city and usually a lot more because of bad dentists, different types of dental work, etc.
3) I have bad "teeth health" in general. So I have done many different procedures. You name it, I've done it: decay fillings, 4 wisdom teeth removal, root canal, veneers, more root canal, apicoectomy, etc., did I mention root canal?
So I am *very* experienced telling good dentists from bad ones. I can say that Dr. Burhenne is really the best I've seen so far. He's exceptional in these areas:
- excellent bedside manner and communication. I'm not just talking about being nice or friendly, which he is, but most nice people can do that too. What sets him apart is his dedication to help and educate his patients. He explains the reasons behind any recommendation and makes sure I understand before making any decision. He's very patient in explaining thoroughly and never condescending. During procedures, he communicates what's going on, what's next, what I should expect to feel, etc. and check in often.
- knowledgeable and ethical. He always has the answer to my many dental problems or knows where to find it. But when a complicated situation arises that calls for special expertise, he doesn't hesitate to refer me to a specialist. He also makes sure his dental work is good (actually, it's more like perfect), even if it means seeing me many times to adjust it (not because his initial work was not good, but because when you change something major, it takes a while for the surrounding teeth to respond to the new bite and for you to know the final impact). Other dentists would just refuse to do so or charge me a lot for that.
- thorough. A dentist in New York did a very poor veneer job on me (see my review on Josephson Eric). I saw 3 other dentists after him and before Dr. Burhenne. None of them found the issue (the last dentist was only 3 months before I saw Dr. B, so it couldn't have deteriorated so much so quickly). Skeptical at first, because 3 other dentists didn't find it problematic, I asked yet another dentist to specifically check for that and she confirmed the problem discovered only by Dr. B!
- least pain! He has the best anesthesia injecting skill among all dentists I've seen, and this is not a light compliment given the number of dentists & procedures I've had. I notice it's probably because he slowly and carefully injects throughout the entire area to be numbed, rather than one big, deep and usually quick but very painful injection all other dentists do. That just further shows he cares enough to take the time to do so.
Ok, no one is perfect. If I really had to complain something about him, it would be that he doesn't take any insurance (although he would submit the claim for you). So it's a bit more expensive, but it is *so* worth it. Even now that I'm not living in this area, I still drive 40 mins to see him. read more