I would like to start off by saying that the receptionist, Dr.Vy, and all of the assistants in the office are wonderful & very accommodating. The receptionist is an excellent patient advocate and was able to get me rescheduled with Dr.Vy for my dental work, but I chose to go to another dental office instead since my recent visit left me with a horrible impression. This review will be focused on Dr. Toan Nguyen.
What started off to be a supposed simple trip to the dentist turned into a complete utter nightmare. This was the first time I ever had an encounter with an apathetic & unprofessional healthcare provider. I can now see why some people are reluctant to seek out the care they need after having a horrible experience with one HCP.
After receiving my x-rays, Dr.Nguyen pointed to my x-rays and asked me, "So what happened? What do we have here?" and waited for my response. I was taken aback since I have never had a dentist ask me to try to interpret my own scans before. I replied with, "my teeth were sensitive so I wanted to get them checked out". Afterwards he told me that I had two cavities but, since I looked "apprehensive", he was reluctant to work on me and wanted to refer me to another clinic where they would put me under general anesthesia. I was confused since I had a cavity filled here by Dr. Vy a few months ago and it went smoothly. Once I told him this, he began using scare tactics by telling me that, "I'm not going to lie to you, it will hurt" & that, he won't work on me if i'm going to be fidgeting everywhere.
I'm not sure how I appeared to him at the moment, but I was not fidgeting in my seat or anything to show signs of extreme anxiety. I, like many others, have an aversion to dental work. But I'm not the type of patient to jump out of the chair when I start feeling the slightest discomfort. Knowing this, Dr. Nguyen kept pressuring me to seek out a referral and out of nowhere said, "Look at this point in my life, I don't do what I do for the money, I do it because I want to help people". Shouldn't he have this mindset from the very beginning that he got his license? Did I accuse you of attempting to extort me? No, I didn't - I don't understand why he suddenly got very defensive. He soon got frustrated with me and left me to work with another patient in the next seat. Guess you're not at "that point in your life" after all.
While working on the other patient he started taunting me by asking the patient how old he was and comparing his age to mine saying things like, "yeah see and we had to do tons of dental work on him and he did fine". What was really disrespectful was when he refused to speak to me directly although we were only 10 feet away from each other and made the receptionist speak for him. He started telling his receptionist, "tell her i'll work on her if she's a good patient", "tell her i'll work on her if she promises to stay still and cooperate until the very end", all in front of the other patient. Dr. Nguyen, how about YOU be a GOOD DOCTOR?
Dr. Nguyen, your bedside manners need work. As a patient who is coming to you for help, you should not be acting this way. I am inclined to believe that you're still practicing solely for the money since there are multiple reviews / cases of you attempting to scare patients into getting unnecessary procedures done. I was open about my anxiety and you weaponized it against me, amplifying my distrust and fears of dental work. I am sure you violated HIPAA by openly talking about my case in the presence of another patient while I was merely 10 feet away. I get it that "difficult patients' ' take more patience and time to work on, but imagine if you went to a hospital and the provider refuses you care because you look "apprehensive", without making any attempts to comfort you at all. I hope "at this point in your life" you will reflect on how your words and actions affect the quality of your patient's care.
Needless to say, I will not be returning here. Dental offices are a dime a dozen around this area and it won't be difficult to find another doctor who treats their patients with decency & respect. read more