I'll start with the positives: the receptionists are nice, and Dr. Emam is incredibly kind and does a good job of explaining what she's looking at so you can understand your treatment options. That said, the fillings she gave me earlier this year were the longest and most stressful I've ever had and resulted in extreme tooth pain that I'm still dealing with.
I had two admittedly deep cavities that she filled on the same day. It took ages, and I chalked that up to her doing a thorough job. Once I'd had about a week to settle in, I realized my bite was off-- again, pretty normal since it's tough to adjust when you're numb. I went back in, she was really understanding and adjusted my bite, and I went home. I really appreciated her concern that I was in pain, and her recommendation to wait a week or two and come back immediately if it was still painful. Fast forward three weeks (enough time to let my tooth nerves calm down) and I still couldn't eat on the left side of my mouth. By this point, I was feeling anxious about going back to Pastel Dental because I didn't trust that they were going to be able to fix my problem and, after how long and stressful the initial filling was, I was terrified to have it re-done there. I went to another dentist.
The new dentist adjusted my bite once more time just to be sure, and it didn't solve the problem. In addition, I was beginning to have intense jaw pain from only eating on one side of my mouth. At my next appointment, my new dentist re-did the filling (painlessly, I should add) and found additional decay *underneath* the filling I got at Pastel Dental-- decay that Dr. Emam must have missed-- and sealed it up. Jury's still out on whether this will fix the sensitivity I've been experiencing, but my new dentist threw in a custom-made night splint to help isolate the problem so that we can rule out causes and fix the real problem. I may still need to get a crown to replace the other filling Dr. Emam did, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
Other things worth considering:
Office/environment: This is an open floor plan office, with I believe 4 chairs in the room (2 on each side). What that means is that you can hear everything that's happening around you, from drills to side conversations etc.
Upsells: For a while, every time I came in someone would try to upsell me on something we'd already talked about and I'd already made clear I wasn't interested in. I finally had to ask them to specify in my chart that I was not interested so that they would stop asking. The upsells might just be a Dr. Pastel thing, since once I stopped seeing Dr. Pastel and switched over to Dr. Emam (a switch they made without asking me if I wanted to switch dentists), she never asked once.
Hygienists: I went to this office for just under 2 years, and each appointment had a different hygienist who would have side conversations with others while working on my teeth or assisting the dentist. It's off-putting and bizarre to hear gossip while you're getting your teeth worked on, and always made me wonder if they were paying full attention. read more