Steven M. Hayes, DDS

Please, please stay away from this office. I found Dr. Hayes through my insurance website, after finding out my current dentist wasn’t covered through my insurance at my new job. I should have checked Unilocal before going. The office looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 70’s and it just isn’t clean. I had similar experiences as others here, in that they took one xray, he looked at it for a few seconds, and then looked in my mouth for two seconds (clumsily catching my lips and gums with his sharp instrument) and then proclaiming I needed several fillings. Perhaps he has done this long enough to be able to assess quickly. But, he tried to talk me into SILVER fillings. Who even does that anymore?!? The whole experience was upsetting, and I was thankful he didn’t try to do anything that day, but made an appointment for me later in the week, which I promptly called to cancel.
Once I went to another dentist, it turns out I needed a root canal, NOT fillings. My new dentist said that if he had tried fillings, the tooth would have fallen apart. I rarely take the time to write reviews, but I felt this was important.

My family of five has been seeing this dentist for many years. I honestly cannot remember when Elisa, Annabel, Jackie, or MJ were not there. Each one of these people have been patient, kind and considerate. Dr Hayes is extremely dedicated and knowledgeable about his field. I have had a lot of genetic dental issues and have trusted him completely with GREAT RESULTS.
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I don’t write reviews. In fact, I had to sign up for Unilocal just to write this one. After my appointment today, I could not wait
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Over the last month, Dr. Hayes created (in house and each one same day) veneers for my front 4 teeth, My natural teeth varied in length, position and the two front were chipped. Due to variations in my own tooth color, the color matching process was more of a challenge but Dr. Hayes went above and beyond to get it right. When you get new teeth — even though they are superior to what you had — it is still a change — and I wanted them perfect. Everyone in the office stopped what they were doing to give advice and their input. Seriously, like a family! I cannot be more grateful for their consideration and patience. I would highly recommend him for this procedure to anyone!
I don’t get the people saying they hardly see him. Every time I go in, Dr Hayes talks not only about my teeth, but also my kids, my travel, his travel, music, restaurants, etc. I have always found him warm. And like previous reviewers have said, honest.
Sandra S.

Still love this office and staff, years later and a few cavities here and there! Husband had a crown done and was quite pleased with the process and results.

Dr. Hayes has been my dentist for years. It’s true that he’s sometimes a bit of a phantom. I typically see him for 30 seconds or less. I think I saw him for three solid minutes once a few years ago. That was a special day indeed. ;^) My hygienist is my real dentist (She’s wonderful.), but that’s because I haven’t needed much work.
So why five stars? Because he’s honest! If you don’t get how crooked much of dentistry has become then you’ve been living under a rock. I made the mistake of going to another dentist years ago. I suddenly had five new cavities. I went back to Dr. Hayes and those cavities magically disappeared. They never returned.
Dentistry has been stretched to the breaking point. Dentists *must* see a lot of patients to make ends meet. At least if they’re honest that’s what they’re going to do. If they’re dishonest they’re going to push unneeded work. Understand this: Suggesting cosmetic work is NOT the same thing as pushing unneeded work with a bogus diagnosis.
If the review sounds like it’s from an insider, it is — at least in a sense. I’m a businessman myself. My profession has gone down the same dark path, but I have not. It’s not easy being the odd man out, even if that’s because you’re trying to be a good man. Good men work harder and get paid less for it.
Dr. Hayes has chosen the honorable path. That means he sees way more patients than your father’s dentist had to see. Therefore you may not get all the time with him you’d like. I can imagine that need for efficiency being interpreted as curtness. I’ve never interpreted it that way, but then I don’t need my proverbial hand held. Just give it to me straight doc!
Dr. Hayes and his staff give it to me straight. And, of course, my experience tells me they’re more than qualified. I exaggerated a bit in the first paragraph. He’s talked to me in detail several times over the years. It’s clear to me that he knows what he’s doing. And, as I say, he’s honest. I’ll take skilled and honest over warm and fuzzy any day.

My husband and I have gone to Dr. Hayes for about seven years now and we’ve had a good experience. I’ve had some BAD dentist experiences before (recommending «gum scraping» and other unnecessary, but profitable for them, work. But Dr. Hayes is a straight shooter, they always seem to run on time, and my hygienist Ginny, is very nice.

I don’t know why this place has a 3 and a half star review. it should have ZERO! horrible. still living with his mistakes…

This dentist has ruined my teeth. Dr Hayes never examines you, I go in 2x a year they clean my teeth and send me on my way. I had gone in two months after a cleaning with severe tooth pain, he examines me, xrays me says oh you have deep cavity, if he had examined me two months earlier they would have caught it along wiith the cavity forming under my crown and piece of my filling missing from another tooth.
Now i have to get all the above fixed but now i am pregnant. He filled the deep cavity, tried to talk me into a silver filling, then filled cavity wrong because now i am in severe pain.

I have been going to this dentist for about a year and a half. Although I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to the dentist himself (I try and go in at 7:30am) they are very nice and explain what they are looking at in the xrays and things like that.
Unfortunately, I might have to switch due to them not being in my network for my new insurance, but I would recomend them to anyone who is looking.

I am shocked by the negative reviews, so I had to provide one of my own!!! Dr. Hayes was my general dentist for almost 15 years, and I absolutely love the service he provided to me. A few years ago my coverage was no longer accepted at his office, so I decided to find another dentist in order to save money and stick to the less expensive dental coverage provided by my employer. BIG MISTAKE!!! I have tried 4 dental offices and none of them compare to Dr. Hayes! Diablo Valley Dental office is the worst office I’ve ever visited; talk about being pushed to pay for services and extras that you don’t need! I recently became a patient of Dr. Hayes again, and am so relieved that my family will finally begin receiving the best dental care that we deserve. Sincerely. Patricia Lavow-​Davis

Dr. Hayes is extremely proficient, very nice and approachable. I have had a crown done and it was painless, well done job. I would recommend him to anyone at anytime.

I LOVE these people. I have been a patient for several years. My insurance has changed and I was without them for one year. I went back today and I feel like no matter if I have to pay without insurance it’s worth it. They are really kind and Honest. I love Jackie and how gentle she is. It’s like a massage for my teeth. She pulled my little boys tooth and it went really smooth. Their prices are GREAT and you should see my teeth. They are Beautiful. Dr Hayes is really nice and I feel so comfortable there. I took my kids to another dentist that quoted me $ 200.00 with my insurance. When I took my kids in to have Dr Hayes fill the cavities for ½ the price, Dr Hayes said there were NO cavities in either of my children. Instead of just doing the work and charging me he didn’t even charge us the cost of that appt. We were free to go No charge. GO GO GO Don’t go anywhere else. I’ve done the research.

oh my god. Some of the misleading positive feedback lead me to this office at the beginning of this year. The office is so old and the equipment is ancient. I went in for my first appointment thinking that I was at least going to get checked out, he didn’t even spend 5 minutes to check my broken tooth. He just said, «oh, that needs a crown,» and walked away. I had to make another appointment to come back to get my tooth fitted for the crown. The dental assistant and the dentist keeps talking amongst each other about game shows and whatnot while taking the impression with an ancient device using faucet water. Really?!? I’ve had crowns made before and have never seen this! SO I asked the DA why they use such an old device and she said, «this takes better impressions.» Ok…
After the dentist was done putting in the temporary filling, on my way home, I looked in the mirror and to my horror! It was a silver frick’n temporary crown. I lived with a silver crown on my tooth for the next 2 weeks until the crown came in.
When the crown finally came in and I went back in to get it put on, the dentist says, «oh, this is a little big.» He puts it on with a big gap between my gum and the crown. He totally messed up my tooth. Now, the crown feels like it is floating and stuff gets stuck in there all the time. I spent almost $ 400 out of pocket for a crappy crown.
I am so angry with this dentist for taking my money to do such a crappy job of it. I should have stayed with my other dentist. He really has no bedside manner and is a bad dentist. Do not go here if you care about your teeth
On a side note, he had the nerve to suggest that I fix all of the front 8 teeth because they are not sticking out far enough. Glad I didn’t listen to him about that.

A Godsend.
I’m a single dad with three kids, and living on a tight budget. My first experience with Dr. Hayes was in getting a second opinion on the estimate that Western Dental gave us to fill all my kids’ (and my) cavities. They wanted upwards of $ 6000! Then they wanted me to immediately sign up for treatment and pay about $ 400 a month til it was paid off. I was devistated. Luckily, I took the quote over to Dr. Hayes (by complete chance because I was in the area), and, after examining all of us, he said that most of what WD said was necessary, actually wasn’t. He took care of us for about $ 1200.
If you can afford a «luxurious» or «elegant» dental experience, this is probably not the place for you. Dr. Hayes is old school for sure. But he is also reliable, and doesn’t b.s. around with things that you don’t need. I can’t see ever going anywhere else again.

I had the same experience as Ashley. I made an appointment with Dr. Hayes because of all the great reviews, but I found him inattentive. He was with me for all of about 30 seconds — even after I mentioned that I thought I’d sheared some tooth off. Then he tried to talk me into changing my silver fillings to the ceramic ones that they sell there. My insurance would not have covered a penny of it.
I’m going back to my old dentist who would actually glove-​up and inspect my teeth properly.

I’ve been going to see Dr. Hayes for years, and recently I went in to see him about tooth pain. The hygienist put put me in the dentist chair, and said he would see me in a few minutes. When he finally came in, he looked at my tooth for two seconds, said your fine, and proceeded to walk out. For the following weeks I continued to have pain on the same side of my face, and pounding head aches. I went to see another dentist, Dr Leong in Pleasant Hill (He’s Great!), and was informed that I needed a root canal. After telling a friend who is a dental hygienist about the experience, and naming my previous dentist (Dr. Hayes), she said she use to work for him and could «tell me horror stories». I strongly recommend not going to see him if you can help it.

I’ve been coming here since I was 9! & have no intention of going elsewhere, unless I move or God forbid, he retires! The whole staff is very friendly, they all know my Mom & I. My dental hygenist is so sweet (wish I could remember her name) & always tells me what perfect teeth I have… maybe that’s why I love them so much! hehehe

Great dentist. Like everyone else on here says, he doesn’t try to have you do any unnecessary work. he is cost-​efficient, fast, thorough, and friendly. My whole family uses him now, and we all recommend him.

This office restored my faith dentistry! After seeing a couple of dentists that wanted to immediately schedule me in for numerous «cavity-​fillings» (after a lifetime of NO CAVITIES) I went to see Dr. Hayes on the recommendation of a co-​worker. As the previous reviewer said, he was shocked at the amount of work the other dentists had insisted I get done and said my teeth are fine.
I recently referred my boyfriend to this office. His previous dentist said he needed SEVEN cavities filled — Dr. Hayes saw him and said he was fine. In fact, he said it wasn’t necessary for him to have a cleaning that day!

Very happy with this dentist. I went to him based on a referral that I got from a coworker after I had a bad experience with Art Deco Dental (now called San Miguel Dental Group) in Walnut Creek (see my other review for that story). Anyways although it’s not the fanciest office in the world, they provide great service. The doctor didn’t push any fancy treatments on me. I bought a take home bottle of flouride treatment from him because I had some enamel wear for where I would brush too hard. But that was by me asking him if he had anything that might help me. He was shocked that the previous dentist I went to (ADD) was claiming I needed tons of work and he took the time to show me my teeth and areas that could have been mistaken for cavities but were actually old cavities that were already repaired and/​or crevices in my naturally crevice-​y (can’t find the correct word) teeth. Later went for my cleaning and the hygentist was very quick but thorough and when I inspected my teeth afterwards all stains were gone and teeth were shiny and polished. Very happy to find an honest dentist!