Relis Benjamin I DMD

I have waited fifteen years for the advent of social networking to write this review.
In a word, run. In two words, run quickly. This is a long story but trust that it is worth reading.
I saw the same dentist from the time I was 4 till I was to 22. Same dentist my family saw, highly trusted, wonderful man. At 22 I moved from Murrysville to Pittsburgh to finish graduate school. Picked Dr Relis because he was closeby– naively, I figured any dentist is as good as the next (mistake #1). Got a cleaning, learned I had a between tooth cavity. Returned for filling (mistake number 2). Drilling for filling took ages. I began to worry.
I expect my teeth to be a little sensitive after a filling but I felt like someone was trying to pull my teeth out of my head after he was done. Worse, days later my teeth still hurt like mad. At this point I realized… I’d perhaps made a mistake in selecting this dentist. So I went back to my childhood dentist in Murrysville and explained what was happening. He looked at my teeth, then at my x-​rays from six months earlier. He removed his glasses, bowed his head, and rubbed his eyes with his hand. This is never a good sign. Then he looked up and said, pretty much verbatim: «Your cavities were not that deep, if you had cavities at all. That area showed no decay six months ago. You have virtually no tooth left– it is just enough to hold the filling. Go back and see what he can do– if the guy offers you a root canal, get outta there (alternately he could fill my teeth with a sedative). I don’t know how this guy sleeps with himself. «
I went back, and lo and behold Dr Relis did offer me a root canal — in fact, insisted I NEEDED one right away, and began putting my chair back so he could begin his work (apparently he just happens to have this kind of availability in his schedule midday). You see… root canals are very, very costly. As are the crowns that often follow them depending on the level of damage to the tooth, which in my case was, well, rather severe. Apparently the good dentist prefers to keep such work in house.
Of course I left.
Montage: Two sedative fillings courtesy of my childhood dentist, two root canals and two crowns through an endodontist he recommended, one visit to a lawyer (did I have a case? absolutely. would I recoup my $$ after paying him? never.) and about 7k later, I finally had comfort in my teeth. Lucky I had charged the initial bill on my credit card and was able to ensure that absolutely ZERO dollars of that went to Dr Relis.
I could say much, much more about the desire to break legs and what have you, but I think that breaks Unilocal TOS.
In a nutshell: Choose your dentist very carefully. Drive far for a good one. And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t let this guy near your teeth.