Western Dental & Orthodontics

I do not customarily write reviews unless they are extremely good or extremely bad. Western Dental Redlands was simply beyond the pale. I am not young. My teeth have been crooked for years, so finally after a great deal of soul-searching, I consulted with Dr. Luu at Western Dental and agreed to get braces. Dr. Luu told me it would be a 15 to 18 month process, and that for the first 6 weeks I would have to have metal tabs attached to the back of my lower front teeth. What he did NOT tell me was that inserting those metal tabs would ENTIRELY KEEP ME FROM BEING ABLE TO EAT ANY SOLID FOOD FOR THE ENTIRE 6 WEEKS. When I got home, I tried to eat some food, and found that the metal tabs prevented my molars from touching each other; in fact, the best I could do was a 3 mm gap. Can't chew food like that! I complained to Misty in the office, who said that Dr. Luu is only present at the office on 2 days out of the week, so the next time he could attend to me would be THE NEXT TUESDAY, SEVEN (7) DAYS LATER. I got the tabs removed the next Tuesday, November 14, 2022, and told Dr. Luu and Misty that there was no way that I was going through with the whole contract, not after they had completely mishandled the very start of the matter. BUT THEN the collection calls started. I kept telling the collection companies that the work was incompetent; that I was not paying for the contract; and that I would bring a lawsuit under the California Rosenthal Act if they continued to try to collect on this alleged "debt." The contact attempts had stopped for about a year; but then on September 5, 2024, almost TWO YEARS AFTER THE INCOMPETENT WORK WAS PERFORMED, I ONCE AGAIN received a call from a collections agency. So I am now going to be taking Western Dental to small claims court for at least $2,000 and for my deposit to be returned for their unfair debt collection practices. And if you want to know how to do it, and even to join me, you can reach out to me by responding to my review. I do this freely and as a service to the community, since Western Dental cannot seem to figure out how to leave patients who suffered from their incompetent work alone. See the photos for a look at the shoddy work, and how my mouth would not close for almost a week due to the incompetent work by Dr. Luu and Western Dental. There are many, many other orthodontics in the great state of California. Choose a company that will not injure you and then send you to collections.

I went to get a deep cleaning and walked out of there with my teeth looking the same. It took only about 5 minutes. Only some plaque was taken off but it definitely was not a deep cleaning. I don't see a great work ethic or even trying to help clients but rather a money grab and trying to get people out of there as soon as possible.

This place sucks! The Dentist and their staff have no consideration for their patient's time!!! We had a 2:30 appt and at 4:15 pm my son was still waiting to get xrays! 4 staff members in the front and nothing was getting done. Not even an Apology! And they have the nerve to tell you they understand! Never again! Get your shit together Western Dental!! You lost another customer!

Took two house to basically do xrays and nothing from there. After two hours they said are you ready to get started and I had to go to work. Every time I go here it’s a 2 hour plus visit I have spent 4 hours there before.

I feel very compelled to leave this review as I have practiced and worked in healthcare as a licensed clinician for over 10 years. I have dealt with Western Dental on a number of occasions as a client over the years, but this latest experience has been the worst of them all. First and foremost, I would like to make it known that the auxiliary staff, such as the dental assistants and front office assistants, were very kind and helpful, but the actual dentists themselves should find a line of work they actually have a passion for instead of practicing because dentistry is lucrative. For some reason or another, the dentist(s) will take offense when they are trying to upsell you a product or service that is out of pocket and you communicate to them that you cannot afford it. I expect this type of behavior from a used car salesman, not a dentist. Secondly, neither dentist I have had the displeasure of interacting with seems to possess any interpersonal skills. On one occasion, I dealt with a female South Asian dentist and initially had no clue that she was even the attending dentist because she never introduced herself, attempted to upsell me services after reviewing my chart and x-rays, caught an attitude when I communicated this was one of the reasons I stopped coming to Western Dental in the first place, and then proceeded to unpackage sterilized instruments with unclean gloves that she had used on the keyboard before examining my mouth. Not only is this unacceptable, but it is an infection control issue. I had already been suffering from a severe tooth infection, to which I communicated this to the dentist. I also communicated that I had been taking so much Motrin that I had begun to show signs of toxicity and could no longer tolerate Motrin; she prescribed it anyway. To say the least, my interactions with her left me feeling degraded and embarrassed. The second dentist I interacted with not only tried to upsell me but became short with me when I tried to explain my financial situation. This is not only insensitive, but it is unprofessional. During that same visit, I felt I was not being heard when the dentist numbed my mouth. One side was numb, while the other side was not numb at all. I made this known on at least 2 occasions. Since the infection was quite bad in my tooth, this is why the nerve was not completely numb. When he finally attempted to extract it, I felt excruciating nerve pain that brought me to tears. After the extraction, the dentist went about his way and went about his day without saying a word thereafter. Absolutely no interpersonal skills. The assistant in attendance was comforting, but the dentist—yikes. I've worked with actual practitioners with more bedside manner than what I experienced here. If I wasn't on the verge of possible sepsis from my infected tooth, I would have never chosen western dentistry, but because of my desperation and financial situation, I really had no choice. Moving forward, I hope this western dental considers the feedback of many dissatisfied individuals like myself and improves. Two stars and not escalating my concerns, is actually me being super generous.