Oswego Dental Specialists

Rafael Garcia

Doc ray and his assistant are really great at what they do .. they make me feel comfortable.. and are vary direct.. I appreciate averything they do ...

April 25, 2025

Heidi Van De Voort

I had a new patient appointment with this practice last month, and was met with several concerns. I'm surprised to find such positive reviews. Dr. Ray is rude and condescending when he is talking to patients. I don't think that is his intent. I think he believes he is friendly and personable. With new patients, this practice does not offer a cleaning, but begins by taking X-rays and pictures, and then Dr. Ray takes you into a separate room to show you the pictures and to recommend elaborate dental work. I am a person who has received regular dental care every 6 months my entire life, and I have impeccable hygiene. Still, he was recommending $2,000 worth of dental work. Reviewing the pictures and X-rays with him, most of the things that he was showing me were things that I DID perceive as being issues with my teeth, but his objective with this conversation was not to make a plan for my upcoming dental work, or to explain the procedures he wished to do, but instead to convince me that my previous dentists were all quacks, and that I was being duped and deceived for years by people who had done incompetent work. It felt uncomfortably salesman-like. At one point, I politely asked him to explain what would be involved in one of the procedures he was wanting to do.

He got defensive and was rude with his response. Dr. Ray perhaps cannot fathom our ignorance, but I prefer to know detailed particulars of the procedures that will be performed by my doctors. It could be that he WOULD have explained this at the time of the procedure, but as a new patient, how can I know? The focus of this conversation SHOULD have been what he was going to do for me, as there had yet been no service rendered. Then I was brought to the secretary to be given insurance estimates. Again, I was made to feel uncomfortable by her consistently telling me, "We know your insurance is not going to cover this, so we're not even going to try. " That made me wonder if the insurance wasn't going to cover it because it didn't really need to be done. She also made a point to emphasize twice, that these were just estimates of coverage, but not guarantees. She did not go into what the practice does to help or to communicate unexpected charges, which is something my previous practices were quite good at. Again, the theme of the conversation was, "The insurance companies are terrible, but we are good. " In addition, they made me give them my credit card information before they would see me, which further heightened this concern. After that, I asked when I could schedule my cleaning. I was VERY surprised when she told me I would have to schedule the hygienist two months out.

I can understand the dentist and hygienist keeping separate calendars (although I've never seen that before), but I can't imagine why they would not have put the hygienist appointment on the calendar when I first called in to make the dentist appointment. It made me think this was an effort to trap the patient into having paid dental work done while the cleaning was being dangled like a carrot. Of course, they were willing to schedule the paid dental work the next week. This was a big red flag to me in terms of the integrity of the practice, and I was upset because it is my wish to have my cleanings done on time. The availability I gave for appointments was extremely reasonable. I would also think it's not hygienic to have dental work done if you've not had a cleaning in the past 6 months. I talked to my insurance company, and thankfully they gave me some suggestions on how I could get my cleaning done elsewhere, after this practice had already charged them for an exam. Thankfully, they were good about passing along the x-rays. Dr. Ray kept saying his desire was for full transparency, but the actions of the practice do not reflect that. I was not shown anything that gave me confidence that I could trust this practice with my healthcare or my finances.

February 20, 2025

D Paw

Great experience, get great feedback and advice to keep a healthy mouth and teeth. Everyone from the front end to the back is always smiling and very accommodating. I’d recommend this dentist to anyone in the area.

May 7, 2025

Lawler Family

Just want to say thank you for making my 8 year old daughter’s trip to the dentist PERFECT. She is very scared of the dentist because of previous experiences. Dr. Ray and his staff did everything they could to assure her that it would be pain free and worry free. And they delivered just that! In fact, she asked me to give them a 10,000 star 🌟 review.

So…. here it is. 10k ⭐️ stars. HIGHLY RECOMMEND for the WHOLE family.

February 27, 2025