Western Dental

James Sunwoo is an oral surgeon who at least the time of this review date, works with Western Dental in Ventura, California, he is the dentist who does the tooth extractions.\r I went to a tooth extraction appointment & he was my oral surgeon\r I had waited 17 days to have the submolar removed from the day the appointment was scheduled. When James Sunwoo attempted to pull the submolar that day, the entire top of the submolar broke off from the lower half, and he refused to pull the rest of the tooth. I realize that tooth extractions get more difficult when the tooth does not pull out all at once, but he did begin the process, & so I feel as if he should have finished extracting my tooth that same day, even if it meant completing a more difficult than expected tooth extraction.\r I asked James Sunwoo many times to keep trying to remove my tooth, I even asked nearby nurses to try to convince him to complete the extraction.\r I did wince in pain at one point during the extraction attempt, James Sunwoo went to work on another patient for around 10 minutes, he came back and then he said the following to me, or something pretty close to it: ""All right, are you ready to try again, because if you are not able to manage this time, we are most likely going to be done for the day.""\r I did not expected him to say that so I said: ""What are you talking about, you barely even spent any time trying to remove the tooth, then when I momentarily winced when I felt the unexpected pain, you went away to help another patient, then you come back and had the nerve to say that to me, what is your problem?\r Concerning my feeling the pain, all I know is that lidocaine is what dentists almost always use to numb teeth, this is because it is very effective at relieving pain, and is rather fast acting. If a tooth area is properly numbed, it makes no sense that a patient would feel any pain once the dentist begins extracting a tooth. It is normal to be able to feel a sensation upon the tooth being removed, but is should not be painful. \r This is why I began wondering why I felt pain like that during the tooth extraction attempt, James Sunwoo is the one who injected my tooth area with lidocaine, did he inject my tooth area with enough lidocaine to achieve sufficient pain relief?\r In the past I have had a dentist give me the numbing shots, then began drilling my tooth before my tooth became fully numb, that was unpleasant.\r James Sunwoo gave me the lidocaine shots that day & he did indeed wait around 8 minutes after the shots, before he began trying to pull the tooth, so the fact that I ended up feeling the unexpected pain, is the main reason I questioned whether or not he used enough lidocaine.\r James Sunwoo did refer me for a anesthetic drip, which I mentioned to him that I did not prefer that, but he insisted anyway & would not finish extracting my tooth. \r I told James Sunwoo that I did not see how he could pull the top of my tooth off & send me away without having finished the tooth extraction, this is where James Sunwoo's behavior got really unexpected, he picked up a small piece of tooth from the dentist tray & he said the following: This is all that I pulled out. \r The small piece of tooth that James Sunwoo picked up and was referring to, was not even 1/8 of the total mass of tooth that he had actually pulled from my mouth. I know, I brush and water floss my teeth thoroughly every day at least two times a day, that submolar indeed had enough surface area to still be useful in chewing up food, so for James Sunwoo to be willing to lie and claim he only removed that small piece, that is behavior not fitting of an oral surgeon.\r The x-rays I have on file at Western Dental, which I had taken not too long before the partial tooth extraction, are proof that my submolar had quite a bit of the tooth mass that was sticking above the gum line. \r I am sure that Western Dental does not approve of this type of behavior. more

Never again will I go here. The dentist (woman, who has a thick accent) was rough, unkind, and gave me fillings that I didn't need. The place was filthy. The wait was long. I went in ONLY for a cleaning; and was told I needed 5 cavities filled. For someone who's never had a cavity in my LIFE- this was strange to me. I'm on Medi-Cal for the time being because I lost my job. I coughed up the 200 dollars to go back to my normal dentist who said I didn't need any of these fillings. STEER CLEAR OF WESTERN DENTAL! more

From what I could see through the locked front door, the place looked like a dive. Door was not unlocked and open for business nearly an hour past our appointment, with staff lingering around the side of the building because no one had a key. We decided to find another dentist. I'm delighted because the reviews on the web are horrifying. Do your research! more

I found the staff & dentist to be very ruid.They tried to tell me I needed work that I didn't and they were very rough. My son in law went to them for dentures in Oct 2005 they made him teeth that look like they are for a hourse, then they tried 2 times to correct them but they look the same to me.Here we are the end of March and they still arent wright.They have had to do oral surgery several times on him and he has gotten an infection every time.This is a place that you can go if you don't have dental insurance. They will sale you an insurance through their office & tell you they don't charge interest.Yeah right but they charge way more than other dental offices.I would never go back or recommend this office to anyone. more