Dennis Wong, DDS

Great guy and am so glad our friend told us about him! :)
I’m sure we all know that we need to get second and maybe third opinions from people like Dr. Laleh Vakili (San Mateo). My 4.5 year old son is diagnosed with autism but not severe. He’s highly functional but has a speech delay. Anyways, during his visit he didn’t really cooperate and couldn’t sit still in his chair to be checked. He’s been to the dentist a couple times but at other offices. Since he didn’t cooperate after 2 minutes, Dr. Vakili was so quick to jump on having him completely sedated. Why? She didn’t even try to talk to him or play with him, show him toys, etc. I didn’t even get a chance to calm him down. I don’t know why he didn’t cooperate that time when he’s been fine at other times. A bad day? Didn’t like her? Tired? Whatever. I asked if there is another option and she said no. So fine, we get the paperwork on instructions. 8 – 10 hours of no food before his sedation. It’s hard for an adult to not eat all day, isn’t it? Let alone a 4 year old. And the cost? $ 1500 out of pocket because insurance doesn’t cover that and they want a $ 500 advance deposit to commit to the appt. WTF?
We even went to Dr. Brian/​Jonathon Lee’s office (his previous dentist in Foster City) and they said the same thing (about being fully sedated) just because Vakili said it. They didn’t even look at him and told me this over the phone.
So finally we talked to another friend and they told us about their kids’ dentist. Dr. Dennis Wong in SFO. He just said no sedation necessary but the nitrous oxide which keeps him awake but a little out of it. Such a relief! He also couldn’t eat 3 hours before his procedure which is a lot more reasonable. So my husband brought him in today and everything went well. They didn’t even charge us for the nitrous because we had dual insurance coverage. Sweet! Definitely go to him and/​or get more opinions because only YOU know your child. Those money hungry dentists can shove it!

Dennis is very friendly and good with kids. My son doesn’t like people touching his mouth but Dennis was able to get him to open. Nice practice there too.