Gentle Dental Community San Francisco

Today I learned Rupen Der Boghosian, D.D.S work on my two molars were not only unnecessary, they are faulty and incomplete. He charged to place fillings in two molars which should have been pulled. Now, more than a year later, I’m still trying to correct his shoddy and dangerously negligent work.

I just received a bill from them out of the blue, after it has been 1.5 years since my nightmare experience there. It’s just a dollar amount that they want me to pay without saying what I am paying for. It’s been long enough. Stop trolling me.

Wow, those people are greedy!
I needed a crown on my implant and that was not covered with my Aetna DMO, all out of pocket. So I shopped a lot for the right dentist. At this office they assigned me to Dr Muzikar, who did not impressed me as someone I would trust with my mouth, but that could be just a personal impression. What was really impressive is prices in the treatment plan.
I want to mention it upfront — I eventually had my crown done with other general dentist and they billed me with $ 1240 total. Compare it to $ 2848 that this office calculated for me. 2.3 times as much. More than twice, Carl!
I made a breakdown:
Custom Abutment: GD — $ 850, other office — $ 200
Crown: GD -$ 1998, other office — $ 1000
Custom trays: GD — $ 150, other office — $ 0.
Total: GD — $ 2848, other office — $ 1200
Dr Muzikar persistently offered to make the custom trays for me right away at the first visit. I hardly repelled. I guess he wanted to initiate the services. They are sort of desperate for customers.
The customer service is horrible though. I came for the first time and they looked at me surprised — they said they left a voice mail for me requesting to reschedule the appointment. I did not received the voice mail and did not call them back. But they took the cancellation and rescheduling for granted without hearing back from me! They really don’t care.
Bottom line, I wasted two trips to that awful clinic just to find out that I did not want to be treated by that doctor and that they are overpriced.
I credit them with 2 starts only because I have not experienced their actual dental work. As for a customer service and pricing I would give them just zero.
And BTW, who uploaded all these slick artificial pictures for that modest office? Yak!

Gentle Dental truly live up to their name, all of the staff are friendly, professional and give genuinely caring customer service.

I must say I was a little hesitant coming here at first. It had been a long time since I had seen a dentist and it didn’t look good.
I had to have a deep cleaning because my teeth had gotten so bad. Last week I had the bottom section of my teeth cleaned. When I left the office I must have somehow bitten my lip and the next day I called and was very concerned (it had been a very long time since any numbing meds) i sent the office a picture of my lip and that night Dr. Muzikar called to check in to make sure I was ok. Today he called again to make sure my lips were better. I was so surprised. He didn’t have to check in but he genuinely cared and remembered me. I wish I knew the name of the dental assistant who helped with my cleaning because she was the sweetest ever.
I’m not going to say I’m looking forward to my next round of deep cleaning, because I’m def not, but gentle dental really does make the experience feel much more comfortable. Thank you!

I’ve had many appointments at Gentle Dental with Dr. Punch for teeth cleaning/​cosmetic adjustments as well as Dr. Nabipour for orthodontics and I have never been happier. The service from the staff is first class. Everyone is smiling, pleasant, the calm environment is comforting and my teeth look perfect.
Im constantly complimented on my «perfect» smile. THANKS Gentle Dental!

Stay away and avoid this place like the plague. Here I am looking into a home loan for my first home purchase, and the credit report from the bank showed a collection from Gentle Dental. I’ve never missed a payment for anything in my entire life. I never received a bill from Gentle Dental probably because I moved to a new address at the time. However, all my other mail was forwarded. Gentle Dental never left me a voicemail, and I never had a phone call or voice mail from the collection agency. Why would they report a $ 36 charge to a collection agency without even giving me the courtesy of a voice mail? Now I need to go fight this with the credit bureau over a 4 year old charge. I’ve never had a bad item on my credit report in my life, but here I need to go through the hassle to correct this in order to protect my credit score. I am very angry to say the least.

Exceptionally friendly, high-​quality dental service. The Gentle Dental team at the Mission Street location has consistently demonstrated not only solid proficiency in their work, but also a strong understanding of customer service. Despite being a practice that consists of dental professionals who rotate between two or more locations, Gentle Dental succeeds on delivering a comprehensive, integrated customer experience. In my case, routine dental care identified preliminary signs of gum recession, and the dental team recommended and provided a treatment consisting of gum repair («pocket reduction» surgery) and systematic tooth repositioning via Invisalign braces, augmented by special observation during more frequent routine cleaning appointments. The result? After 14 months of this treatment, my gums are healthy and my teeth are approaching 100% alignment. I am extremely satisfied with Gentle Dental’s work, and I would highly recommend them and the Mission Street practice in particular.

I absolutely love this place, they are very friendly and their customer service is awesome. I really enjoyed the assistance they’re welcoming and always make sure you feel safe and comfortable. I went for a deep cleaning and it went well, no pain no problems and no complaints. I don’t know what derik is talking about but I look forward to being their patient for as long as they’re open, my next appointment is on the 4^th! Also I learned a new and easier way to floss!!! See y’all soon, thanks genital dental employes for making my experience amazing!!!

For the love of God, don’t go here.

Very pleasant experience. I was there today and nervous having had a veneer pop of my front tooth last night. Dr Punch was great– honest and direct– and cemented it back on. Dr Punch also took the time to talk to me about the future and how long veneers last.
The front staff — very nice, even dealing with my insurance which is limited until February 1. It is cheaper insurance and I was upset that my company switched to this lesser plan. I was on an emergency exemption today to get the veneer repaired with said limited insurance. I was nervous about this — and having to go to a new dentist due to the insurance change…
My uncle is a dentist… My brother a maxillofacial oral surgeon. And I know from stories passed at the Thanksgiving table that patients are not always easy… today I was one of those difficult patients.
And so, I wish to thank the staff at Gentle Dental — they were so helpful and professional, and all the while I was being a nervous (and difficult) patient. Lastly, this is a business. SF commercial rents are high and one needs to make a decent wage to live in or near this city. The charges at Gentle Dental are very reasonable.
–Kate Simmons

I went to the gentle dental twice, and decided not to go anymore. The reason on top of everything is that they care more about how to charge you instead of the disease that you are suffering from.
I was having a tooth pain when first went. No cavity nor inflammation was found by x-​ray and the doctor jumped into a diagnosis that my gum was not healthy so that my tooth root was exposed that caused pain. Then he recommended deep clearing for the two teeth to help healing. I paid 70 dollar for the procedure on top of what the insurance could cover. The pain was slightly better but did not go away (most likely Ibrprofen helped). When I went back for the second time two weeks later, the doctor tried very hard to convince me that deep cleaning for all the rest teeth would prevent potential tooth pain which will cost me 600 dollars out of my pocket. I refused the procedure, because the problem that cause my tooth pain was not resolved yet and how could cleaning up else teeth would help.
This is not end of the story. I was told the gum will heal up and pain will eventually go away and everything come back to normal within one month, when they were doing the deep cleaning for my two painful teeth. But it did go away as they have predicted. On the opposite I found my gum was swelling in the third week and felt even more uncomfortable. Then I went to see another dentist and I was told my gum where received the deep cleaning had an infection with an abscess and needs a procedure to remove it and antibiotics treatment for 1 week. Right now i am on the tract of recovery.
Anyway, I felt uncomfortable in the way I was treated. I hoped they could focus on the disease more instead.

Sucks that so many people had a bad time at Gentle Dental, because I don’t know where I’d be without these guys. I had an initial consult at another place that was like 15 grand in crowns, surgeries and fillings, so I bought dental insurance through Costco, went to Gentle Dental and they came up with a concise and schedule treatment plan for roughly half that, took my insurance card and got to work straightaway. Over the course of 2014 I’ve had every single procedure done with them, and every single one of them went exactly as planned. I would ask what my copay would be on a future procedure so I could budget, and it was always exactly that amount. They were willing to split the cost of a crown between two visits, so I never paid more than $ 300 a visit. I spent a lot of time with these guys, and I think they’re just great, and my mouth has never been so healthy. Minus one star for the building though, its a little bit «charming».
Oh and I should mention I was with primarily with Dr. Kalia who is now at their San Jose office.

I came in here yesterday for a checkup and cleaning. I have to say that the staff were nothing short of helpful, pleasant and thoroughly friendly. Really made the whole experience of going to the dentist a much easier one. The cleaning was fantastic also and well needed. My teeth look great today. I’ll be back in later this week to discuss further options and would definitely recommend this office to anyone.

This has been one of the worst experiences regarding paying my bill. I received a large bill for $ 183.00 for a teeth cleaning. I kindly followed up with them and they realized they had never submitted to my insurance. I continued to receive this bill and every time have called to correct.
Finally, a collections agency called me threatening to pay! I called Gentle Dental office back again and they apologized stating it was completely their fault and they would take care of it. This was 4 weeks ago and I just received the same bill again by mail. I have no problem paying my bill for the correct amount but this office does not seem capable of properly submitting to insurance or properly billing their customers. This has been going on for almost 8 months now.
Avoid this place at all costs.

Quite possibly the worst dental experience of my life. Told me I needed extensive work done. Now the insurance company is saying the work was not necessary to begin with. I cannot get a hold of anyone at Gentle Dental to discuss this. This is the worst place in the world. AVOID. DO NOT GO HERE.

Due to previous bad experience with another Aetna Dentist, I called this office not once, but twice, and each time clearly expressed my desire to have my teeth cleaned during my visit and was assured both times that would be no problem.
LIARS!
After taking a ½ day off work to drive to SF, then pay to park, this dental office tried the bait & switch (we can only do an X-​Ray, not a cleaning like we promised, you would have to make a 2^nd, separate appointment for that).
I know my Aetna insurance is not good, but I didn’t know it was worth less than nothing. It is cheaper (and MUCH BETTER SERVICE) to go to UCSF and pay out of pocket.
One start is too high a rating.

Unfortunately, I’m forced to downgrade my review after a string of poor experiences with Gentle Dental. I still think Dr. Muzikar is a fine dentist, but the office has gone downhill. I recently developed an infection in an old root canal, which led to a series of unpleasant procedures. The care coordination at Gentle Dental was not very good, and I had to call back repeatedly to get information about which specialist to see in which order. Since I was in anyway, I had a checkup by one of the newer dentists, who was, ahem, decidedly not gentle in her probing. As others have mentioned, the dentist then wanted to do a deep cleaning, an expensive and uncomfortable procedure. The sum of all these events prompted me to seek alternate dental care, which I did, and found an office with much more competent staff and a much more gentle dentist.
I should also note that Gentle Dental is going to charge me for the transfer of my X-​rays to my new dentist, reflecting the outmoded technology used in the office. The other dental offices I’ve been to recently use electronic imaging, allowing X-​rays to be emailed.

Years of dental paranoia coupled with terrible childhood orthodontics left me with my teeth in very bad shape.
Gentle Dental told me I would need to have all my teeth extracted for dentures or implants. They told me the broken pieces in my mouth were «managed neglect.» When I came to them in intense pain and swelling from an abscess, they refused to even prescribe antibiotics until I saw a surgeon to remove it. To fix it would cost between $ 30,000 and $ 120,000 depending on whether I wanted dentures or implants.
I got a second opinion. And thank god I did. I was praised for keeping the broken pieces because it retains bone density — infection is manageable, jaw bone loss isn’t. He told me at my age, the priority was trying to keep me from having dentures for as long as was feasible — «dentures change your view of yourself. They can’t help it.» — and that it was completely feasible for me. He also caught one of the reason for my dental problems — I don’t have an overbite, I have an underbite on my lower jaw, something Gentle Dental totally missed. If I had gone with their suggestion for implants, they would have failed, because the current bite would have placed pressure in all the wrong spots, and implants are dependent on proper alignment. Now, two years later, I have a smile that makes me happy to look in the mirror — and I have all the teeth they told me absolutely, beyond a doubt needed to go ASAP.
Will I have to get dentures or implants in the future? Yes. But this time, they will be right.
I found a much better dentist to go to, and thank god for that.

AFTER SEEING THEM I AM CURRENTLY SEEKING A SECOND OPPINION
OK, So I was assigned to Dr Sahar Dadvand from my dental HMO. I had read the Unilocal reviews of this office but thought I would try anyway as SHE had good reviews on another. When I called to schedule my appointment, the women I spoke too was very nice and I was thinking the reviews must be old or wrong.
I arrived and filled out my paper work and waiting. About 15 minutes later I was taken for X-​rays. Their technology is rather out dated (particularly compared to my other dentist) and the rooms were bare and a little scary. The woman who took my X-​Rays barely said 3 words to me (I am not sure she even spoke English) and cut my mouth jamming the X Ray tabs in there.
After my X-​Rays I sat in the waiting room again and at 5 PM was finally lead in to a room where I sat for another 30 minutes. I had 2 different assistants come in and tell me they were running behind.
When someone finally did come in it was NOT Dr. Sahar Dadvand but someone else (last name started with a K, I think Dr. Kalia). She spent a total of 10 minutes looking at my mouth, did not even give me a cleaning, before telling me that I had 3 cavities and several infected places on my gums. I was so overwhelmed by what she said I just nodded a little. I had just been to my other dentist 4 months ago and had never heard any of this. I go in to the lobby and am thinking «well thank god I have insurance» and they offer me a free electric toothbrush for the wait.
I then find out that all this stuff she is telling me about, the deep cleaning, the antibiotic gel, the fillings, will total over $ 1200 when it is all done. I was FLOORED. Again remember that I had seen my other dentist 4 MONTHS ago so all these problems seems to have just appeared.
I am going for a second opinion. Because this is insane.