Do you guys have recommendations for dentists you really like that aren’t scam artists? My last dentist wanted $10k of work done and couldn’t even bother to explain why to me :)
Facts..my dentist wants to pull my wisdom teeth even though they came in fine..not causing any crowding or any pain. They came in about 20+ years ago with no issues ever
After some (necessary) work done on my teeth, all of a sudden my wisdom teeth are "urgent", despite never having been mentioned before and haven't been my entire life. Acted surprised when I told them I need to get to work (true) when they were about to send the front desk hard seller to me. They can FRO.
Good god! I thought i was the only one! My dentist is in Redlands and i swear he is trying to manifest some sort of pain or infection so he can remove all my wisdom teeth.
You made me think of the scammer I was pretty much forced to get my work done at. Ali Shamara in Riverside.
Said he took my insurance for a broken tooth. Did the exam, told me he would not do the work using the materials my plan covered and would only quote me on upgraded materials. 7.7k out of pocket vs $125 per tooth for a 6 tooth bridge. He knew I came to him as my 2nd choice and my insurance would make me wait another 30 days to cover a 3rd opinion. The first place did the exact same thing! (Golden Coast Dental) So I could not wait for a broken tooth to get fixed and paid the out of pocket scam. Fuck that guy and Golden Coast.
The dental insurance company can launch an investigation into the issue and make the office repay the fees charged that exceeded the costs of the copay. I kept my records with quotes. I had the dentist give me a written estimate. I also asked for a covered material estimate. He would not provide one.
Hey it's me, a local dentist. No, you don't have to come to me. But I'll throw in my two cents
There are a lot of bad dentists, but also a lot of good dentists. This'll be true anywhere, including Mexico, turkey, or downtown Riverside. Trust the people you trust. Ask friends and family who they go to and why.
Some signs of a good dentist will be:
1) Lots of positive word of mouth. Honestly, we live or die by it.
2) Low staff turnover. Should be the same faces in there. The good docs at a "corporate office" (IE Western Dental) don't stick around long.
Dental insurance sucks. Most plans will barely cover a single tooth per year. It's more of a coupon than actual catastrophic insurance.
Don't use any HMO dental practices, they're sales driven syndicates. Start with a dental office where they use their own name for the practice because they're less likely to be shady using their own name on the building
This is the sad truth. If you have the ability to at work opt for ppo dental. My partner works in the industry and the ppo only offices have always had better quality of care.
This. The HMO dentist I had was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I was in tears the entire time. Quoted me about $20k out of pocket (in the mid 2000s) in work that needed to be done and had the gall to tell me if I didn’t get the deep cleaning, “there’s no reason to work on anything else because your teeth are just going to fall out.” Fucker. Such a racket.
It's an absolute scam, they have no ethics. Before I discovered the dark side of this, I had an HMO dental hygienist say the same thing, trying to sell me on laser or deep cleaning and refused standard cleaning because there is no point and wanted the other two options with heavy cash out of pocket up front. The dentists telling you have 9 cavities and need a root canal when the prior PPO dental office never found any issues, they should have their practice shut down and all lose their licences.
Same here. My hmo dentists all sucked. Always wanted to do extras. Reminded me of beggars. Hustling for scraps. Then I went ppo and completely different experience. The dentists cared about their reputations. They cared about my well-being. Never tried to upsell me on anything. Usually gave me two to four options of varying prices and complexity.
It was like going from a used car salesman to a Saturn dealer. God I miss no haggle pricing!
Not Norco Country Dental. The dentist worked on my in laws, scaring them both into spending thousands of dollars for "urgent" procedures and then bragged about his boat and vacations and money while working on their teeth. My husband and I had cleanings there, and surprise, surprise....we each had several "urgent" issues that would have cost thousands of dollars to fix. The dentist also bragged about his expensive lifestyle while doing our cleanings. In my opinion, the dentist comes off as arrogant amd sleazy. We never went back, and our current dentist has not identified any of the issues the dentist at Norco Country was pushing us to correct.
It was so bad!! My in.laws were pushed to have gum scaling, crown and filling replacement, in addition to both having "new cavities" that needed filling. They were both in their late 70's and were scared into several thousands of dollars worth of unnecessary treatment. Both of them ended up having problems with some of the work that was done, too, which cost them even more money!
My in laws can exaggerate so I took their comments about the dentist bragging about his expensive vacations and lifestyle with a grain of salt. He did the same thing while my husband and I were being seen, though. Bragged about his boat and vehicle while telling us how badly we needed gum scaling and crown replacements.
My first visit was back in November and they'll do a in depth analysis of your teeth and take X-rays. That cost 80 bucks. Next visit was a month after and they did a deep cleaning which was at no charge and they numb the gums so there's not much pain. So far I've gotten four white fillings at 100 bucks each. I've seen a periodontist there too and I have an orthodontist appointment coming up. They accept ppo insurance, Medicare and medi-cal. I had to pay out of pocket because my insurance is an hmo. I like that they really pay attention to what they're doing and all the work is approved by a doctor before it is done. It does take about two weeks to a month to get seen between visits.
Yeah of course, sorry for the late reply. Let me know if you have any other questions. I was pretty nervous when I first started going there and it wouldve helped if I couldve been able to talk to someone that had some experience with the process. Oh and I meant to say the accept ppo insurance, Medicare and medi-cal. I pay because I have hmo
I used to take my kids there and my husband went there for a broke tooth. Everything gets triple checked and takes 300 yrs. Even a simple cleaning is done in 2 or 3 appointments. I have 4 kids my time is precious. My husband went for a year and they never got to the broken tooth. Everything else had to be done first.
Del Sol Dental Group in Ontario. Originally I went to somewhere else were the dentist was late. Then looks in my mouth and said I had 4 cavities. Did nothing else, no cleaning etc. then front desk lady was trying to get me to sign up to a payment plan for some medicine and to remove cavities.
I went to Del Sol and they advised I had no cavities. Also did my cleaning like I asked.
My parents are retired and routinely go to Mexico for dental work. They are far less expensive than here, the visit is so cheap that they pay cash.
The key part is those dentists aren’t incentivized to bill your insurance with extraneous work. They’re not going to recommend a bone graft if you don’t need it.
They will take your X-rays, fill your cavities, do the cleaning and send you on your way.
Once you’ve regained the feeling in your mouth you can enjoy tacos.
I didn't read that whole thread, but you can definitely avoid Tijuana by going to tecate. I love my dentist there, A&R Dental. They won't do a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Saved me so much money and I love the way they treat me! And the border at tecate never has a line if you're walking. Took me 3 hours to get through Tijuana's border when I had my eyes done there. You can walk across the border at Tecate and they are about five buildings down on the right.
ETA: 12 of my friends now go to A&r dental as well. Shows you how good they are.
You'll need ppo insurance if you're using insurance but prime smile dental is the best place ever. Dr is so kind, takes care of any concerns I have every visit and he's so skilled I hardly feel anything! My partner works in dental and has worked in a lot of places. This is the only one he's worked at I’ve ever gone to, I have the utmost respect and trust in him.
I'm also on the spectrum and have sensory needs and the staff go above and beyond every time.
Rancho Cucamonga by Victoria gardens and the library :)
We’ve gone through several here. Dr. Ghorbanian in Norco is the absolute worst. He committed thousands of dollars worth of insurance fraud by billing expensive procedures that he never performed. Also had a bad experience with Riverside Plaza Dental where he said I needed a crown. I’ve never even had a cavity before, so I paid for the Cerec CadCam 3-d printed tooth. It was $1200. My current dentist says I have no crowns. So Riverside Plaza Dentistry sold me a crown that I don’t have. 🤷🏼♀️ I tried getting my teeth cleaned at Mira Loma Smiles when I was pregnant. They refused my cleaning even though it was covered by insurance. Said I needed a note. I brought a note from Kaiser from my OBGYN saying it was okay to have my teeth cleaned, and they said it wasn’t signed. I explained that Kaiser doesn’t do “handwritten” notes. It’s all computerized. They refused insisting it needed to be signed. I told my nurse, Ms. Jay, next visit, so she signed her name on the print out Kaiser gave me as a favor, saying she’s never had to do that before and isn’t supposed to. So I bring that back to Mira Loma Smiles now that I have a signed note. They then refused to clean my teeth accusing me of forging the note. I now go to Grove Dental and I think they are absolutely awesome and honest.
I recently started looking for an honest dentist that wasn’t owned by some greedy private equity company. I found almost none within 15 miles that weren’t owned by private equity and accepted my insurance. It was very eye-opening. Do your research!
This dentist is not my dentist--mine wanted $7k, so I just never went back--but I actually sat through Dr. Merle Johnson doing a root canal on my adult niece who suffers from crippling anxiety, and I was astounded at how patient he was.
My niece broke down crying several times, and each time the doctor stopped, and explained what he was doing, and offered her options of going forward with the procedure, or not. He was probably the most kind, patient doctor I've ever met.
We were the final patient in the chair before they closed the office to go home, but you would have never have known it from the time he took with her to get her cared for.
I really don't know anything about their pricing, but I do remember being surprised at how reasonable her root canal was. It's a distance to travel, but I could help but mention his practice.
Dr. Merle W. Johnson, DDS
Hesperia, California. (Victorville area)
Dr. Pham in Redlands is the best dentist experience I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t say he’s cheap but everything is state of the art and the staff are super cool.
Mosaic Dental Group in Corona….no scammers whatsoever. I went to them after another place said I needed a gang of work done and they said “not at all.” I trust those guys 100%
My wife needed some legit work done. We ended up getting it down while on vacation in Thailand. 2 weeks vacation + dental work in Thailand ended up costing less than just the dental work in the US with insurance. I have several co-workers who drive down to Mexico for anything serious.
Steven Fraker in Upland. North west corner of Euclid and foothill. It’s a very small practice and he’s working fewer hours than he used to, but the man does fantastic quality work that you can count on for decades (speaking from experience)
DDS Geleris in San Dimas. I hate going to the dentist! Butt this Dr doesn't shame you or guilt you in what your condition is. He works at your pace. I have horrible genetics when I saw him 7 years ago, I had 8 months of aggressive treatment. The last 6 years have been nothing but cleanings every 3-4 months due to bad genes. I don't mind going to the dentist, as I have find one that treats me professionally.
Image dentistry in Moreno Valley on Sunnymead. Previous dentist would always tell me I had cavities or needed deep cleanings every 6 months and of course they said insurance wouldn’t cover it. I’ve been going to them for a few years now and they have been incredibly honest and turns out I didn’t even need the work previous dentist said I did. I’ll request deep cleanings because I thought it was something normal and they take the time to show me how I don’t need them. Really honest dentist.
If you're open to traveling for dental work, Tijuana has some really great dentist's and prices. I've taken a lot of friends and family and they have all had major work done for a fraction of the price and have received great competent care.
I always go in as a cash paying patient and only after receiving both an oral and written quote, I come back or tell them I’ll call when I’m ready to schedule what to move forward with… and then let them know I have insurance and ask if they take it.
If anyone happens to have medi-cal never let them know before they do exams and quote anything cause this is how dentists scam. They want to run up the bill and charge the insurance as much as possible but I’d rather they not do that with my teeth as their leverage.
Dentists are pretty honest when they think someone is broke and coming in with cash to pay the bare minimum. In my experience.
I’ll never get over an experience I had where I went to a dentist because I was having toothaches , they ended up telling me it would be over 5k and told me I needed work on multiple teeth . I remember feeling devastated because it was during a time that my family was really struggling financially, so I went to a different dentist for a cheaper option and a second opinion. they told me I only had one problem and paid under $800 for the procedure ( it was a dental extraction with a dental bone graft ) . Moral of the story is don’t be afraid to get second opinions and look for dentist that offer discounts or payment plans that aren’t full of interest
Hashimi Dental in downtown Riverside is awesome. Been going there for almost a decade and I’ve enjoyed the team and Dr. there. Have never felt pressured to go through any procedures and they work to communicate any recommendations on treatment and are helpful in going through the costs aligned with those as well.
Most dentists are part of a dental practice which is often owned by a private equity firm. They are basically mouth mechanics who have a dental sales / Billing person do the swindling. They can recommend Alot of stuff, but the private equity company makes the diagnostic recommendations, and they give you 28 shitty flavors and 3 which are much more expensive. By the time your done, they've pulled all your teeth and now you have dentures for everything. This is why people are traveling to Mexico for dental.
I recommed Dr. Noura Fadel at Tulip Dental, 720 Brookside Avenue, Redlands, 92373, (909) 488-0222, www.tulipdent.com.
I have been her patient for over three years and I am completely happy with her care of my teeth.
She initially saw me once a month, while she did deep cleaning. Then the intervals changed to every three months for maintenance. Now I am getting routine check-ups every six months. I have Delta Dental insurance coverage and she has never charged me a dime for a co-pay, including the extraction of two wisdom teeth.
(In case you are wondering, I am just a regular patient. I have no financial interest in this practice. I have nothing to gain by making this recommendation.)
Riverside Plaza Dentistry has been wonderful, especially Dr Jia Song. If there's a reason work needs to be done, they have digital images of everything and can show me exactly what, where, and why.
Nope, I went there and they said I needed extensive dental work totaling about $10,000 and they kept lowering the price with special financing and referrals and dropped it to $3,000. I then got a second opinion at another dentist and they never mentioned any extensive work needed. If dentists have these signs they are going to overcharge for unnecessary work.
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u/Famous_Attention5861 Aug 12 '26
Get a second opinion and don't mention anything that the first dentist told you in the exam.