Orleans Orthodontics, where do I begin...
Dr. Saikaly is apparently an evil mastermind attempting to take over the world one braced smile at a time. Be prepared to be held hostage by your kid's teeth! You will be booking time off work for the rest of your life to bring your kid to their appointments. Their braces will be hanging off and rusting like an old bicycle chain in the time it takes for Dr. Saikaly to see them, and he will say it's because the kid is growing and changing. Yeah, he's grown, from a prepubescent 12-year-old, to a 16-year-old with a beard!
In fairness, the pandemic would likely have added close to a year to the process, even with the best clinic. But this office behaves as if finishing a kid's teeth is out of the question. One example will illustrate what I mean.. It was still during the pandemic and we had waited over six months for an appointment. My son had been wearing elastics the entire time and his bite was pulled noticeably to that side. So we were relieved that Dr. Saikaly could finally see him and fix it. Instead, Dr. S takes a quick look at my son, says nothing about the bite and just tells the assistant to continue with elastics then walked away. I told the assistant to look at my son's bite, and questioned if he really should continue wearing elastics. The assistant finally takes an actual look at my son's mouth, is clearly shocked by what she sees and then calls Dr. Saikaly over again. Instead of looking himself, I overheard him just say "okay then, stop the elastics." That's what we got after a six month wait.
Then the cycle began where we were getting follow-up appointments every 9 to 11 weeks, which meant that whatever change had been made was always over-corrected. My son started with a cross bite, then had an underbite, then had a crossbite again, then his bite was off to the left, then off the right. The day that he was scheduled to get his braces off for the 3rd time, I noticed his bite was obviously off center, so I told the hygienist. My son told me later that Dr. Saikaly said, "Fine, if the mother wants them to stay on so bad, leave them as is." He then told the secretary to book my son for 11 WEEKS LATER. That's when I finally put my foot down and refused to leave until they booked three consecutive appointments no more than four weeks apart. And would you believe it, my kid's teeth were straight, and the braces finally came off!
We are over a year post Covid, but Dr. Saikaly's office is still milking it for all it's worth. Be prepared to stand single file outside the door with your mask on to go through the screening process and sanitization station. I guess people wearing braces are more likely to get and spread covid for the two minutes they're in the waiting room before they take their masks off in the office? They are also apparently short staffed, although it's all the same people, or more now than it was before the pandemic. They are also way behind, so they HAVE to book the appointments three months apart, but still managed to shut the clinic down for two weeks so all the staff got their summer vacation at the same time. I'm sure they all needed the break, because aside from a few lovely dental hygienists the staff there seem miserable. Saying no and making your life hell is their favorite!
In closing, Orleans Orthodontics and Dr. Saikaly get an F, for being consistently rude, condescending and unprofessional, all while managing to keep my kid's teeth crooked for over three years. read more
