Let me just say that I am so grateful to Dr. Bloom for honestly changing my life. I am a horrible…read moreteeth grinder and it was starting to affect my life in pretty severe and debilitating ways. Migraines, muscle aches, neck tension, pinched nerves, everything you get with severe bruxism, not to mention the terrible things I was doing to my teeth! I was so miserable and desperate (I don't have dental insurance, hence my delaying a trip to the dentist, but for the record, my last visit was about a year prior to this, not like seven). I found him through the IMS directory, which I'm a member of, and decided to go to him because I liked his website the best out of the dentists in the directory (and there are a fair amount). He has 2 locations, both of which are convenient for me. My first visit to the Portage Park location was great. Only had to wait a few minutes while they made my chart and I filled out some forms, the usual.
The office is really nice and his team is great. He plays whatever Pandora station you want while they work on your teeth. He is super nice and a little silly - loves jokes :P I told him about my horrible situation, and he was able to fit me in the next day at his other location in Northfield (super easy for me to get to from work at lunch) for a mouth guard fitting. Custom mouth guards are NOT cheap, that's why I still didn't have one at this point.
Something unique about Dr. Bloom is that he has his own lab where HE makes the mouth guards. Most dentists don't do that. They usually send it off to be made. I know he does that for some of them depending on what kind of guard you need, but having his own lab is kind of unique.
So 5-7 days later, I needed to have an old filling touched up, and my mouth guard would be ready. I was so excited to have some hope of relief. The filling went well, but the next chain of events are what totally set Dr. Bloom apart from any other dentist I've ever been to.
Here they are:
1) As a horrible teeth grinder who experiences severe symptoms, he essentially sort of sanded my teeth with that dentist drill (wow, how very technical I am) so that when I moved my teeth in certain directions, they were no longer grinding against one another in ways that negatively impacted my teeth. My teeth felt exactly the way they always did, but the extra enamel that was basically bearing the brunt of my grinding and in turn putting extreme stress and pressure on my facial muscles, jaw, etc. wasn't there anymore. My teeth had felt sort of locked together for a long time and after this, it was like they were free and they weren't using the others as leverage anymore. No other dentist had ever suggested this to me, or had ever seemed to care about the damage I was doing to my teeth. They always told me to "keep an eye on it" (I have created some significant notches on a fair amount of my upper teeth as a result of this condition over about 4 years I'd say.) Yeah, I'll be sure to keep an eye on the damage I'm doing unconsciously in my sleep.
2) After Dr. Bloom worked this wonder of a procedure on my teeth, we moved on to the mouth guard (which to my surprise, was not affected one bit by the previous procedure). He made sure it felt right and also wanted to make sure certain areas didn't have contact with each other. He took great care to make sure it fit perfectly and made tons of minor adjustments so it would be just right.
Bottom line, this is why Dr. Bloom is the best dentist I've ever been to:
He is really passionate about teeth and dentistry, and he is more knowledgeable than any other dentist I've been to BECAUSE he is passionate about what he does. I feel like he thinks outside of the box and is pretty innovative. He wants your teeth and mouth to be healthy and for you to feel your best. And the BEST part is, my life is so much better. I'm so much happier, less stressed and irritable, no more daily headaches and physical pain! I feel like I'm back to normal, and am so incredibly thankful that I found Dr. Bloom!!
