James P Sylvan DDS

I went to Dr. Sylvan as a child and they were great. I have since grown up, and went back to Dr. Sylvan after being at college for 3 years.
I have never had a filling in my life, and came back to get a cleaning and x-​rays. I am meticulous with my teeth, and was amazed to hear that, based on the x-​rays, I had 4 cavities between my teeth. My wife had the same story — 4 cavities between the teeth. We both had no tooth pain, but wanted to be proactive.
We scheduled me to come in the next week to have my teeth filled. Dr Sylvan polite and professional as always, but was unable to successfully numb me on two of the teeth, and I had to have TWO follow up appointments until he was able to finally drill without it hurting me. I now have tooth pain, and one of the fillings is rough against my tongue. They tried filing down the filling a couple of times at my request and it’s better, but still not perfect.
After how badly my visit went, my wife decided to get a second opinion and go to her childhood dentist instead. She went there, and found that Sylvan had billed for a full set of x-​rays even though they only had actually done partial x-​rays. After dealing with Sylvan and insurance for a while, they finally sorted it out, refiled the claim, and we were allowed to have her get a 2^nd set of x-​rays at her new dentist. The new dentist found two surface cavities that were clearly visible, and they weren’t even on the same teeth as the ones Sylvan had pointed out as needing drilled! The new dentist examined both the x-​rays provided by Sylvan for her and the new x-​rays they took, and determined that there there was no evidence of any tooth decay on the 4 areas they were going to drill.
We can only conclude they were drilling to get money out of us. I have to wonder if my teeth really needed drilled, and might be following up if we find they drilled on me with no evident decay.
Even without the issues we had with potentially unnecessary drilling, I do not recommend Sylvan under any circumstance because of the insurance SNAFU and how many tries it took him to numb me.

I went to Dr. Sylvan for years, moved and commuted 1 hour for a few more years until I decided to find a dentist closer. I regretted making the decision to go to a different dentist. I ended up getting a routine filling, which afterwards gave me pain for 2 years even though it was refilled and filed down etc. my new dentist still couldn’t fix it. My husband got a new job out of state and before I left GA, I decided to get a second opinion by Dr. Sylvan before I moved and we decided on a crown after much troubleshooting. The staff was great and so accommodating. Dr. Sylvan even called me on the weekend to make sure I was ok.
Tooth is much better still occasional discomfort as there maybe a small crack that requires more detailed testing from a specialist. X-​rays are not showing any cracks but yet there’s discomfort when I chew a certain way, but it’s hard to recreate when in the office. I know, sounds weird.
I recently had a cleaning from another Dentist in Texas and had requested my digital X-​rays from my last appt. Carol, at Dr. Sylvan’s was able to email me them in a rush before my appt the next morning. Thanks for getting that to me so quickly.
If I move back to Atlanta, I will not stray again.
Highly recommend if you want dental care you can trust. Straight Shooter.