Ronald J Greene, DDS

I had noticeably more discomfort associated with the fillings I got here and my next dentist mentioned they looked a bit chunky. Nothing terrible, but it made me realize there is an artistic knack to sculpting fillings and I found a dentist in MDR who (despite not having lasers) is better at it.

Dr. Greene is a nice old school general dentist who works hard to come to grips with today’s cosmetic focused world, e.g. a patient doesn’t care a whit about dental care until the «head shot» is rejected by their «Agent.»
Still, for complex procedures, the Dr. works with a «team» that seems to exclude a few local professionals who have treated his patients in the past.
In our case, we were recommended to see three other team members as they“work together so well.“
By the time we saw member number two, the Oral Surgeon of his team did his exam and planned the removal of a wisdom tooth– pretty simple.
Our neighbor, a recent UCLA DDS grad at the time, recommended seeing a Professor at their school– a quick review of the panoramic x-​ray– our son had a jaw bone infection that required surgery to remove infected tissue, there was no impacted wisdom tooth, nothing to do with it at all — the tooth bud had not even begun to develop.
Certainly Dr. Green meant well but we saw three of the «team» and paid their bills.
In defense, the UCLA Professor, who was also an Officer in the US Public Health Service, suggested that in the process of Oral Surgery and further exams, the team would have likely finally noted that there was no wisdom tooth to be removed and might have explored further.
It’s tough to be a dentist today, but out-​sourcing work to folks who are too busy to read an extensive x-​ray or redirecting folks away from nearby professionals undermines confidence.
Still, Dr. Greene is a wonderful general dentist.

Update! Still the best and far ahead of the curve … now we get appointment confirmations via text! LOVE IT!

⁰⁶⁄₂₀₁₁: While the dentist is personable and capable, every time I go they misquote the price of the procedures (often by a significant amount). This has resulted in me, at times, getting billed twice as much as was originally estimated (into the thousands of dollars). This inability to correctly estimate how much procedures will cost has occurred EVERY time I have gone to Dr Greene’s office, is EXTREMELY frustrating, and is definitely a reason I would strongly recommend against using Dr. Greene as your dentist.
⁰⁸⁄₂₀₁₁: UPDATE: In my last visit to Greene, he told me that I had significant decay in two teeth that needed to be address by filing the teeth down and capping them, that I had cavities in the 4 teeth surrounding those two that needed to be filled, and that the decalcification on my remaining teeth (all upper ones) was so bad that I should consider having them all capped now to save the trouble later. I thought that was a bit suspect so I went to another dentist to get a second opinion. Other dentist: «You have no cavities. Your teeth are fine. There is decalcification, but it shouldn’t be an issue for another 25 — 30 YEARS.» Moral of this story: Greene is incredibly aggressive when it comes to treatment. I will not return to his office. I would suggest finding a different dentist.

Dr Greene and his staff have restored my faith in Dentists.
As a child I had a dentist with the bed-​side manner of the Grinch. Why he decided to work with children I will never know. I know why his assistants did though; they were obviously sadists who liked to inflict pain on little children… but enough about him.
Dr Greene is the exact opposite of my childhood dentist, he says «I don’t like pain or to see anyone in pain, and therefore it is for purely selfish reasons that I make sure you feeling nothing during your procedures». They have such great customer service that they know what my favorite flavor of topical pain reliever is (piña colada), which they apply before every cleaning.
In addition, Dr Greene is a total perfectionist; he will not put a crown in your mouth until it is perfect.
OK, so he is a dentist and you will get encouraged to brush and floss, but it is not one of those guilt trip kinds of dentist trips.
What don’t I like about going to Dr Greene’s? He is out of network (but it is worth it to me) and he will request that you come in more than every 6 months if you have bad teeth like I do (thanks dad for the crap genetics).
Overall though, he really does make the whole dentistry experience way less stressful and dare I say almost pleasant?

Great dentist and friendly staff. Went in for a broken filling, and was seen promtly. Even though Dr. Greene had a full patient load, he was able to repair my filling quick and painlessly .
Highly recomended!