Marina Dental

Today I got the whole whammy this morning. Cleaning, whitening and good old fashioned customer service. Clean office, friendly and knowledgable staff, 5 stars all the way :-)

I met Steve outside Marina dental the other day. I am not sure if he owns the place or rents the property, but he was such a joy to speak with I thought i would call and discuss getting my teeth whitened or lumineers. Actually, I think Steve was on Fillmore. I should go find that place.
The woman who answered the phone must have never worked in an office before. THe first time she picked up the phone she said «Hello», not hi, this is a Marina Dental. When I asked if this was SF dental (my mistake) she said no and left it hanging. «Oh, Is this Marina dental» she mumbled and hung up. I called back because I thought it was the wrong number.
Rinse and repeat. The woman acted like I was nuts for calling, gave no indication that she was a dental office and had the worst phone skills I encountered in awhile. A chipper voice that states your name and your company name is super useful!

Read some of the poor reviews on here and I think it’s nuts! It’s the dentist not a hotel, so expectations need to be aligned. With that said, I’ve been to Marina Dental on Union street twice and will continue to go as long as I live in SF.
The receptionist, Pat, has been exceptional at ensuring I know the pricing, Accomodates my schedule, works with me on getting best rates possible and is professional and friendly throughout, probably the best dental office followup I’ve ever experienced. She even went out of her way, researching and calling to let me know I was personally better off paying out of pocket than going through my insurance because it was cheaper for me, since my insurance sucked. Most dental offices only care that they get paid, without concern for how it effects the patients.
The hygienists are fun and friendly. They usually give you a cd and headphones to listen to while they work on your mouth, and it makes going to the dentist more enjoyable.
They are fantastic about not being pushy with procedures and have a genuine sincerity on helping to make suggestions and providing several alternatives, including no cost options. I’ve been to other dentists (Pacific Harbor in Costa Mesa, CA) that made me feel like I was at a used car lot, being sold things I had no intention of buying or needed.
The environment is clean and well lit, the staff are all great at making customers feel welcome, cared for, and provide good quality work with an emphasis on patient education. I highly recommend and think the poor reviews here are out of their minds.

I recently moved to Southern California, but I always schedule my dental appointment to coincide with my business trips to SF. That’s how good I think Marina Dental is, and I’m super-​picky about my medical care.
I first went to see Dr. Chan in 1995, when I first moved to SF. Over the years, the standard of care here has always been high. They take their time with dental cleanings, and they’ve always been respectful and concerned about my well-​being when I had more serious work done.
I always feel well taken care of here. Even during a short period of time when I didn’t have dental insurance, they worked with me on a payment plan, and also offered me a discount on a major procedure that really helped me out. I’ve never had the experience of being told that I needed work when it wasn’t true, and the staff always remember my name.
I’ve seen the debates here on Unilocal!about old reviews of this dental practice under a different business name, and some other Unilocal!users alleging that the 5-​star reviews here are a sham. But I’m a real person, I’ve contributed dozens of reviews to Unilocal! (you can verify this by clicking on my profile) and I’m honestly a big fan of this dentist. The cleanings are thorough, and their advice about how to keep my teeth healthy works.

Just got my teeth cleaned again. Great place! I love the staff; super friendly and accommodating. I had to reschedule three times in two weeks, but they were able to work around me.
They take insurance, and they accepted mine (which is a big plus for me). Never been rushed and the dentist explained a lot of what I needed to do to keep me from going there more often than I am now (finger’s crossed I don’t lose all my teeth from sweets!)

What is scary is these a-​holes actually closed down this account, because of the bad (very truthful reviews on Unilocal). I just called their number and they are alive and well, same with the idiotic receptionist Pat. Pathetic. please do not go to this place, and put them out of business.

Going to the dentist is never fun but we all must and I find Marina Dental Care to be one of the best. Since moving to SF fifteen years ago I’ve bounced around different dentists and finally came around to Marina Dental. Tracy Chan and her staff are competent and caring professionals. They are gentle and very thorough.
They take personal interest in the health of my mouth and pay attention to any blemishes that can be addressed so I can have the most beautiful smile.
From the front desk to the back room everyone is friendly and cheerful and they care. I would strongly recommend Marina Dental Care to a friend.

The short of it: I am disappointed in the way the practice handled a recent scenario, was unimpressed by my over all care, and won’t be back (nor would I recommend this practice to my nearest and dearest).
The long of it: I visited the office last fall for a cleaning, which I found mediocre both in expertise of the staff and my overall impression of the practice. I was advised after the cleaning/​ex-​rays/​exam that I would soon need my wisdom teeth extracted. The oral surgery certified dentist that I am now seeing for this procedure requested that I have my x-​rays transferred from the Marina Dental office, because I had not visited this new dentist’s office before. I called Marina Dental and paid the $ 25 transfer fee.
Upon receiving the x-​rays, my new dentist called to request that I see another office in the city to have a panoramic x-​ray taken, because the x-​rays taken at MD did not show my entire mouth/​wisdom teeth– a $ 91 expense.
I called MD office to request a refund for the un-​usable x-​ray transfer, and was treated quite rudely by the front desk associate. She said I should have informed the dentist prior to having my x-​rays done that I needed a full mouth shot, and that there was nothing that could be done to refund me for the transfer fee. After much back and forth with the office and dentist I first went to, I was refunded and received information that I feel should have been initially disclosed to me regarding why full mouth x-​rays are not routinely done, so that I could have made an initial informed decision regarding which set I would need.
It’s not that I desperately needed the $ 25 back, but wished for a refund based on principle and respect for the customer– it shouldn’t have been like pulling teeth to get it back (pun intended). This neighborhood is saturated with Dentists, and I’m sure you will find better care elsewhere.

I’ve been coming here almost since Marina Dental opened, well over 10 years now at this point — I have always found the staff to be courteous and professional, even if they continue to remind me to floss my teeth every time I go.
I’m usually here for a routine check up/​cleaning, but i’ve had a couple major dental procedures down and I was happy with how they came out. I don’t always get to see Tracy Chan but I find the other dental professionals know their business even if a little more cautious than I would be.

After moving to the city I was in search of a dentist. I prefer to go to a dentist by personal recommendation and heard of Marina Dental from my former co-​worker when I had a dental emergency. He only had great things to say about the staff and their service. He was right, this place awesome. All four ladies took great care of me and my teeth. It’s been 2 years since my first appointment and I keep returning for all of my cleanings.

I originally chose Marina Dental Care because, well, it’s in the Marina and I thought they would take good care of me. Unfortunately, I have learned not to choose dentists based on the nice area they work in. The dentists and dental assistants are very, very nice there. They made me feel very comfortable and seemed not annoyed with me while I squirmed in the chair and whined about the pain.
Anyways… I should’ve had followed my gut instinct when immediately after my appointment, while my mouth was all numb, they take me to the reception desk to have them calculate my bill and have me pay right there. I thought it was weird that I had to pay right after my appointment, I have never done that before.
Well, moral of the story is, I had 4 separate appointments there, had to pay after each one with my mouth numb and it was very awkward. Then, I get my insurance companies bills in the mail telling me what was covered and what wasn’t. Well, I found out they had been charging me over $ 200 more then I should have been paying. I confronted them about it and they said they would issue me a refund check. Umm… so I wonder, if I had never said anything about me being overcharged, would I have received a refund check? I think not.
This place has really nice people working there, but very shady billing techniques. Watch what you’re paying for and double check everything, don’t let them screw you out of your hard-​earned money like they tried to do to me. But, great dental work, my teeth don’t bother me anymore.

I had a very bad experience with Marina Dental both with treatment and billing issues. (the review by ‘wouldn’t you like to know f.’ sounds very familiar.) Dr Chan has previously threatened me with a libel lawsuit based on my earlier Unilocal review. I have no desire to need a lawyer so will limit my review to these comments.
Also, keep in mind that many negative reviews keep disappearing from this page. I have to keep updating mine to make it reappear. See the article here
alleging that Unilocal sales people pressure businesses to pay to resolve bad reviews.

DO NOT GET ZOOM HERE! I work on union street, and for the holidays this place passed out coupons for various whitening treatments! I wasted 200 dollars on zoom whitening, It was a long painful procedure and my teeth were burning for 2 days after, My teeth were back to their normal color within 2 weeks =(These people are good salespeople tho…

I hate to downgrade a wonderful dentist, but 2 recent events have forced my hand.
1^st: Finally, sick of the unprofessional and discourteous receptionist, I decided to change dentists. Marina dental charged me $ 30 to get a copy of my x-​rays which, according to my new dentist is not totally unheard of. What is unheard of, is not mentioning the fact that the x-​rays they sent were not a full set, and that the copies were dark and hard to read. So I had to take a new set of x-​rays anyway at my new dentist. Waste of $ 30.
2^nd: When I re-​looked at my former review, I noticed that Marina Dental is now a Unilocal sponsor. I’m glad they’re becoming aware of the value of promoting their business via Unilocal.However, what is NOT cool is the consecutive heap of fake 5-​star reviews that are the most recent reviews. They look pretty sketchy — ?-mark heads, no friends, most reviews written on the same day, and similar prose.
Given the above, my first inclination is to downgrade to 1 star. However, I stand by my earlier statements that Dr. Chan is a very good & gentle dentist. She gets the extra star. It’s too bad her office is so unprofessional in terms of the unhelpful receptionist and fake-​reviewing.
Seriously. There are many better ways to promote your business.

I’ll say upfront that the one star is for the assitant who did the cleaning — very nice, very gentle, very professional.
The lack of any other stars is because this place is a total racket. I went about 3 months ago and had a cleaning and for them to give me a general «state of affairs». They came up with a laundry list of items. When I balked, they tried scaring me into doing it, basically making it seem like my mouth was going to explode at any moment. In addition, they told me that I didn’t need to bother pre-​submitting a claim to the insurance company, as all the procedures were really routine and they would be sure to cover everything.
Since I was with a new service provider, I submitted the claim ahead of time anyway, and lo and behold, I would have been on the hook for about $ 1500. As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve since found a new dentist, and Marina Dental is charging me $ 30 just to mail a copy of my x-​rays over to their office. (something the new dentist has never heard of anyone doing).
So thanks Marina Dental, you gave me a great cleaning, and then tried to bilk me for couple grand. And when that didn’t work, you settled for a B.S. $ 30 charge. Boo.

I had a very similar experience to the one described in Julie B’s review (from 2007). I went in because I needed a filling and ended up with months of pain and sensitivity problems afterwards. I guess I should have known when the receptionist and front desk seemed a bit unprofessional and disorganized. But when it came time for my appointment, the dentist fitted me with a dam before deciding to ask me whether I wanted two fillings done or just the one, when I couldn’t even respond verbally due to the big rubber dam being in my mouth! I had to write my answer down while lying in a dentist chair (not comfortable) and had her do both fillings. Then, once she got started, she kept gossiping with a young intern throughout the entire procedure, which I found completely unprofessional. The fact that they were gossiping about other dentists made it all the more unpleasant. But because the dentist had my mouth immobilized in this ridiculous rubber thing, which caused my gums to become inflamed and bleed, I couldn’t protest. After she had filled the cavity, instead of wiping off the blood and other dried fluid from my face, they just left it on there, even though either one of them could have wiped it off AND could have asked me beforehand if they could. I had to wash my numb face off afterwards in the restroom, and was shocked to see so much blood on my face.
More than three hours after my appointment, several bits of one of the fillings detached themselves from my tooth and I had to spit them out, after only drinking water and soft foods. I was warned that there may be some sensitivity, but by the very next day I could not chew or drink cold liquids on the left side of my mouth, due to one of the new fillings. This sensitivity eventually progressed to outright pain.
I ended up going to Hui Dental Group in San Mateo to fix this filling, and they completely replaced it and were very professional.

Nice try, but I’m definately not returning. The day of my appointment I was the only customer at the time. I checked in with the assistant up front and thought sure I had not only said my name, but clearly wrote it on all the forms I had to fill out. By the time I made it to the dentist chair, she had already forgotten my name. If that isn’t bad enough, the assistant condescendingly reminded me of the flossing technique which everybody learns at age 5. I guess she figured she was the one to turn it all around for me. Please.

Great dental office — the staff there are great and helpful. They really care about your teeth and your dental health/​hygiene.

These guys have always been no nonsense, friendly and efficient. While I hate having people’s hands in my mouth, and getting my teeth scraped even more, they make it easier for me to show up to my next appointment. They even convinced me to have my wisdom teeth finally taken out!

Well its the dentist — who likes going to the dentist? No one. Especially if you’re a sugar junkie. But I thought my experience here was quite pleasant. In fact I was even complimented on my excellement oral hygene — nevermind the fact that I’m OCD and use a pre-​brush rinse, sonicare, and antiseptic rinse twice a day. Nevermind that. But I referred my roommate there, and he ended up with a root canal. The moral of the story — I can’t promise you no cavities. But if you are looking for a dentist this place will do the job.