PATIENT'S REVIEW NO. 1 re (i) ANA HERNANDEZ, DDS // (ii) OTHER PATIENTS' REVIEWS
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@ My experience with Dr. Ana Hernandez (hereinbelow Dr. "H") was long and involved. It took hours and weeks to carry out the various procedures, incl.: x-rays, THREE delaying lab assignments to create denture plates; probes, inspections and measurements; THREE wax molds; dremeling/shaping and reshaping sessions; periodic fine-tuning then final fitting.
@ A glaringly few of her patients disparaged the doctor's technical abilities. I find these allegations, judging from my own experience w/ her, to be unsupportable, ludicrous, pretentious, risible. Dr. H has DOZENS of years' experience and is a graduate of the USC School of Dentistry.* {*Somehow I doubt that that esteemed postgraduate school has begun passing out degrees inside crackerjack boxes...} If I HAD detected technical deficiencies or unsatisfactory answers I would have been out the door forthwith in a hot new york minute. @ Before discovering and mtg Dr. H, I had already interviewed by phone and in-person FIVE dentists in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Ojai. Dr. H's prices were neither the lowest nor the highest -- a nice balance. (To coin a phrase, 'Youse gits what ya pays for...') A bonus: those outside dentists' substantive work proposals entirely mirrored conformed with Dr. H's own plans.
@ Based on her initial inspection, measurements, and imaging, Dr. H developed a comprehensive and detailed (i) treatment plan and (ii) cost estimate. {Adjustments thereto ultimately proved necessary, but, as the generals say, 'No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.'}
@ A brief scan of the 14 reviews posted online shows Dr. H DID have her share of patients-from-hell, who {inter alia} darkly insinuated Dr. H's prices were infected with greed. I myself found no foundation for this allegation. @ Firstly, Dr. H was prudently familiar with every carrier's comparative policy limits, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs, and was adept at maximizing coverage terms. To put it plainly, Dr. H's clever creative thinking saved me a lot of money. @ Secondly, she was generous with her $valuable$ time when treatment ran over the time allotted. @ Thirdly, Dr. H unflinchingly sent TWO denture plates plagued with flaws back to the lab for do-overs---and absorbed the substantial added costs herself (along with the lab's opprobrium(!)). [Now, THAT'S where the rubber meets the road.]
OTHER PATIENTS' 14 REVIEWS:
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@ Dr. Hernandez has PLENTY of *****five-star, excellent reviews. It's just isolated cases of a very few emotionally distressed, one-star,
'you-suck'/F-bombs serve to irresistibly drag down her overall rating. I'm no fan of conspiracy theories, but I observe the same telltale verbiage, the same rehearsed subject-matter, the same wording, emphasis, and slanderous tone, again and again. @ YELP is a very, very perspicuous social medium---it knows its business like no one else. It identifies these rivalries' cause-and-effect in its opening motto: ###"Pls don't review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you're connected in any way to the owners or employees."### This is almost certainly from whence came the damning line, "Your-crowns-she-made-for-you-are-too-big-for-your-mouth", based on a mere morsel of that patient's ultra-dramatized recall. [I hadn't realized before what a cut-throat business dentistry is. Pilferers arrantly approach it as a
zero-sum game wherein they scheme and calculate, 'For MY practice to thrive, YOUR patient must become MY patient...' Dr. H can scarcely be blamed when her stellar record of five-star performance is spoiled and dragged down by "F" grades from a few disgruntled EX-patient/reviewers who are egged on by jealous, rapacious competitors in the biz.
@ YELP's intentions are noble: its motto makes clear they understand better than anyone how this bamboozling works. They realize there's a multiplier effect, whereby any adverse report is magnified literally !!!DOZENS!!! OF TIMES once it gets in an online listing by the
well-respected YELP. @ The REAL victims are hard-working, honest, trustworthy professionals like Dr. H who are gratuitously diss-ed by
loose-cannon ex-patients: they poison the well.
@ A criticism of Dr. H which I agree with is that her office hours are strictly 'by appointment,' which can slow the work down somewhat. If you are constantly fielding urgent, can't-wait calls from The Emperor Of Ice Cream or whomever, I suggest you find another dentist.
--- J. D. Martin
805.647.3173
putnamquine666@gmail.com
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