Ocean View Dental in San Francisco, CA: A Review

I freely admit I hadn't been to the dentist in like six years prior to my visit to Ocean View Dental. This is mostly due to poverty, and never having any kind of dental insurance during that time (and free clinics that offer dental services having epic waits or crazy lottery systems.) I'm actually a pretty thorough brusher, flosser and rinser though, so I also never experienced any real problems during that time. A couple of months ago, however, I started noticing that one of my upper wisdom teeth was getting sensitive to hot and cold liquids. So I figured it was finally time to scrounge some cash together and at least get an exam/cleaning to see where I was at.

Fortunately there's lots of competition in the dental market in San Francisco and dentists are constantly offering "new patient specials" to get people in the door. I chose Ocean View Dental simply because I happened to be reading a newspaper and saw their promotional ad, offering an exam, cleaning and x-rays at about $50, which is a really reasonable price these days. There were a number of mediocre reviews of it on Yelp, but I didn't let that dissuade me. I figured it was cheap and, hey, how much can you possibly jack up with an x-ray and basic cleaning? Anyway, I was able to get an appointment about a week and a half after the day I called them.

Ocean View Dental is located in a very Russian neighborhood of the city, in fact there's a little grocery three doors down from it where they don't even speak English or have any signage in anything other than Cyrillic. So apparently it's owned and operated by Russians and you hear the staff speaking to customers in said language quite frequently. In the year 2010 I have no idea why anyone would have a problem with this, but I acutally saw some comments that indicated it tweaked some people, so I figured I better mention it in case no one has told you the Cold War is over or something.

Anyway, the waiting area is modern and spotless. The ladies who staff the desk were very polite, but also insisted that I produce the ad mentioning the special to get the $50 pricing (which, to be fair, they warned me about over the phone when I first set up the appointment), and that I pay cash up front before any work was done. While I was waiting (about ten minutes) for my appointment in the lobby, one customer called on the phone and another came in person to complain about being overcharged or double-billed. An older guy came in and spoke Russian at one point, which I don't understand, but he didn't sound happy with the service either. In spite of the spotless environs and the polite staff, this kind of reinforced the impression of "slumlord dentistry" some other people had mentioned.

In my non-professional estimation, the dental equipment seemed modern and in good repair. The technician and hygienist that I saw were both very competent, nice and considerate. They even had a little TV over the chair to watch sports or news on if you cared to. For basic cleaning and x-rays, I had no problems with any of their services.

The exam with the dentist was a different story. She was nice and seemed competent, but really pushed the "hard sell." She told me my mouth was basically in good shape despite my years of dental neglect, but I had two "very large" cavities on wisdom teeth (including the sensitive one). She recommended all four be taken out, and asked me if I wanted to set up an appointment with the oral surgeon without advising me of cost or other options. She also recommended bleaching, which I can't get too mad about because I do have some coffee teeth, but it struck me as unprofessional to just recommend it out of nowhere without the patient ever bringing it up.

I remembered reading on Yelp that other people had gotten "phantom cavities" reported by this place, so I declined to set up further appointments and decided to do my own diligence. I was ready to believe them about the sensitive wisdom tooth having a big cavity, but not so much about the other stuff.

The first issue is that oral surgery is not the only option for removing wisdom teeth, nor should it even really be the first choice. A fully erupted, otherwise unproblematic wisdom tooth that hasn't decayed too much can be removed by any competent dentist with no more than a couple shots of Lidocaine to the area and about ten minutes of rotating and pulling with forceps with only moderate force. In other words, it's painless, simple, doesn't require the surgical risks of anesthesia or nerve damage ... and also costs about 1/2 what an oral surgeon charges. But Ocean View doesn't offer you that option for some reason - it's the oral surgeon at $350 per tooth, or nothing.

The second issue was that they exaggerated the size of the second cavity. As I found out when consulting another dentist (with a sterling reputation) for a second opinion, the other cavity was not "very large", but actually pretty tiny and hidden below the gum line. It would have to be dealt with at some point, but being strapped for cash and insurance-less I could let it go for a while without any real fear as long as I was vigorous in cleaning the area. It certainly wasn't about to cause problems "very soon" as Ocean View's dentist insisted.

The third issue was insisting that I should have the other two wisdom teeth out. One was fully erupted, straight and in good shape. The other was still entirely below the gum line. Neither of these teeth are causing any problems whatsoever. So why insist that they come out?

So they didn't outright lie about anything, but they did exaggerate and fear-monger a bit, and recommended services that weren't even close to being necessary. This combined with the people complaining about their bills and the other reviews causes me to not recommend them for anything but a regular cleaning. I get the impression they're a lot more interested in getting as deep into your pocket as possible than they are in your care and well-being.