Sea Breeze Dental Care at 5168 Hollister Avenue in Santa Barbara, California

Customer Reviews about Sea Breeze Dental Care

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  While waiting for my appointment, I witnessed what I thought was a hygienist berating the front desk staff loudly in front of the entire waiting room about cancellations. He insisted it was their tone of voice when doing reminder calls that caused people to cancel. He used an example of a man being out at a club and using a certain tone of voice to pick up women, insisting that there would be a higher success rate if using a "more assertive tone", a statement that made me cringe. By the end of his tirade, the front desk supervisor was visibly shaking, red in the face and possibly crying (I didn't want to stare). After my appointment I wrote a calmly-worded email through the contact form on their website, describing my experience and how uncomfortable it made me and how unprofessional it was. As it turns out, it was not just a rude hygienist, but the owner, Mark Zak, who told me in no uncertain terms that the way he treats his employees is none of my business and I am in no position to tell him how to run his business. I found that to be an unacceptable and immature response to my complaint. I decided to cancel my appointment that day, which was within the 24-hour cancellation window (I only had the appointment for 28 hours at most - made around 2pm on Monday, and the follow-up cleaning was for 5pm Tuesday). I would have kept the appointment had he not been so rude and dismissive of my complaint. He waived the cancellation fee, but later threatened to bill me for it after seeing that I had posted a Yelp review of this experience. I did take the Yelp review down, as I didn't want to receive a bill, but I didn't want this incident to be completely wiped from the record so I posted it here. I will say, though, that the rest of the staff was so sweet and kind (they'd have to be to put up with him) and Dr. Kopel was a fine professional dentist and made me feel a bit more comfortable after being so shaken up by Mark. I wish the rest of the staff the best of luck.
  April 04, 2017

  by Jessica Graybill
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  My insurance changed this year and I needed a new dentist. Sea Breeze was one of the few dentists my insurance covered, so I called to schedule an appointment for a cleaning. I make arrangements to get time off work and when I show up for my appointment, I was surprised to find out it was not actually a cleaning - just a new patient exam. During this exam, I was given the most uncomfortable dental x-rays I've ever experienced in my 25+ years of going to a dentist, then told I needed $2,000+ of dental work (recessed gum filings) that my insurance wouldn't cover. They already worked out a few payment plan options and a "pay today" discount to really drive home the urgency. Now, I've been going to a dentist every 6 months for as long as I can remember, so it was quite a shock to see such a big bill for an issue other dentists did not think was critical. When I declined the filings, I was told I have to book an appointment for the actual cleaning. So after making another appointment, and making arrangements to get more time off work, I go in for the cleaning. Probably took 20 minutes, and they skipped lots of steps my previous dentists would do - no flossing, no fluoride treatment, etc. My previous dentists would take an hour for a regular cleaning. Oh yah, and in the exam rooms, they offer you a discount for a Google review. Bottom line, this place is shady. It feels like it's run as a profit mill, with the priority on maximizing the dentists' Porsche fund. I'll be changing my insurance and won't be going back.
  December 29, 2016

  by James McGuire

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