Department of Dentistry

Although at times there are a lot of people there, I feel the wait time is fairly reasonable compared to other doctors officeoffices I've been to. The offices are clean, the bathroom is routinely cleaned and the dentist's are excellent. The skill of the dentists and the cleanliness of the place more important to me than the wait. The only other doctors you won't face waiting are those who don't take insurance and you have to pay out your pocket.

What these doctors do here is borderline malpractice. I was hit by a car and had the misfortune of starting my treatment here. My big mistake was continuing my treatment here, I was 16 and trusted the doctors, and I’m still paying for this mistake 16 years later. I was given an implant by Dr. Amenedo, the tooth was so poorly placed, it is the biggest tooth in my mouth and it literally sticks out of my mouth - the metal is literally against the front of my gums. Then, I was proposed to get braces, they said they needed enough space to make room for the implant that was poorly placed, so Dr. Thomas pulled a tooth. Seriously, the orthodontist pulled the same tooth on the other side - turns out I didn’t need the implant at all. No matter what I do, I will always have a lopsided smile because they had students performing medical treatment when I was told they were doctors. Dr. Amenedo placed the implant too far out for me to have a normal smile, and because Dr. Thomas pulled just one tooth “to make room for the implant and fix the over bite” my midline is significantly off - my whole face looks lopsided. Every dentist I’ve been to said the implant needed to be taken out and repositioned and every orthodontist said they should have never pulled that tooth. I’ve been through three rounds of braces at other places to try and make their mistake look less noticeable. It’s infuriating. If I knew then what I know now, I would have sued Dr. Thomas and Dr. Amenedo for conducting surgery and performing unnecessary medical treatment when they did not have the skills or the knowledge. Every time I look in the mirror, I’m reminded of Dr. Amenedo and Dr. Thomas and how they ruined my smile. All I needed was a dental implant - I was better off with a small gap on the side of my mouth then the lopsided smile I paid over thirty thousand dollars to have now.

I've been waiting months to get my appointment. The day before, I still didn't get any call or letter or anything confirming my appointment. I call and go through their 1000 question robot to finally get to a human. She was able to confirm my appointment. Day of my appointment my father and I load up at 6am to make the 4 hour drive to them, 8 am they call me to say "something came up" and they have to cancel!!!... I took the day off from working at my business along with my father. So now we're out a days worth of income, and I have no rescheduling date yet from them. All they could say was they would call me another time to reschedule..... I honestly will not be rescheduling with them. Anyone who handles business the way they do will not be operating on me.

If you’re thinking about going here. Don’t. They absolutely do remove your teeth for no reason. Walked in with a toothache only to discover my tooth was decayed almost down to the nerve. I didn’t have a problem with them extracting it however, they also removed my wisdom tooth next to it even though it grew in perfectly with no pain, whatsoever. My wisdom tooth wasn’t even the tooth I planned on going to get removed, however I left without it (it’s a brand new tooth, what could’ve been the problem with it?) They also have the nerve to look you dead in your face and ask if you’re available three hundred and thirty years from now for an appointment. In that time frame I could have gotten an appointment somewhere else. I also recently went here for another appointment because my tooth’s nerve is exposed and stopped responding to ibuprofen (which is really dangerous and considered an emergency) and they told me they are no longer doing walk-ins. They don’t try to save your teeth at all. They would much rather have you walking around toothless because they get more money from extractions.. The thought of a root canal didn’t even come up even though my insurance covers half (if not most) of it.

I am a person who thoroughly reads reviews before I decide to patronize an establishment. I read all of the reviews for this place and while skeptical, decided I was desperate enough to give them a shot. BIG. MISTAKE. HUGE. First before I was even allowed to be seen it took about 2 months to snag an appointment. But wait...there’s more. I was on the phone consistently for roughly an hour trying to make this appointment. I had to hang up and call back and was greeted with a nasty receptionist who became annoyed that I was annoyed I was waiting a whole hour. This wasn’t even the icing on the cake. I’ve been to many dentists in my life so I know what to expect. I know when someone knows what they’re doing and when they don’t. Listen, if you want to become a guinea pig for this establishment, go here. These residents are not skilled AT ALL. You will wait hours in the waiting area to be called. There is constant chaos and pandemonium every single time I walk through the doors. I have a high tolerance for novocaine. I told them this. They refused to give me more. I kept explaining I felt everything they were doing to a tooth where the cavity fell out. Did you hear me? The cavity fell out. They were trying to take out the whole tooth!!! I stopped them and said I want a second opinion. I don’t believe in yanking a perfectly good tooth out just because your residents need practice. Listen. I’m a nice person. I’m not unreasonable. When I ask you what the hell you’re doing in my mouth, ANSWER ME. Don’t dismiss me and keep working like I’m a cadaver whose mouth you’re playing in. This place has A LOT of work to do. Get better receptionists. Hire better, quality dentists Work on the wait time and customer service Train their dentists better or hire people who didn’t graduate last in their class and are looking to experiment on you. Montefiore as an institution is going down. Save yourself some teeth and trouble and go to Columbia or NYU. You’ll thank me later.