San Marcos Dental Group

"BEWARE of this office look elsewhere! I wish I had read the reviews before I wasted my time with this place. I made the mistake of coming here because they are contracted through my insurance and in network. The front desk reception is not very good at their jobs, they scheduled my appointment with the Periodontist and never mentioned I would need full X-rays for the visit. Which my regular dentist had just taken 2 weeks prior. They do this to have you be unprepared for the visit so they can convince you to get X-rays at their office or you have to reschedule and charge you for X-rays so they make more money. Had they told me when I scheduled with Dr. Hai I would need full X-rays then I could have had those ready for my first visit. Instead Dr. Hai and I had to reschedule so it waisted my time. She was lovely and I followed her to a different dental office to do the work since the day I met DR. hai she was no longer working with this office. I also made the mistake of referring my mother here because they had a new patient special for just $59 and Dr. Hai spoke very highly about their hygienist. I did not know how terrible this place is. I took my mother here for a cleaning ,exam and X-rays, which was supposed to be $59 and 2.5 hours later she walked out with a $20,000 plan later to fix her teeth, NEVER got the cleaning but paid for it because they told her she had an infection and couldn’t do the cleaning until that was fixed, before getting any of the work done we decided to get a second opinion since a proposed $20,000 of work is a lot. We went to get a second opinion at oasis dental group in Rancho Bernardo, they are very honest and could not figure out where all of the San Marcos dental group projected $20,000 in charges were coming from and warned us that they were very clearly overcharging us for a lot of the procedures that she didn’t even need to get done. They told my mother she had infections and she needed all this work done and she actually didn’t have an infection at all and didn’t need most the work at all. How scary! They also convinced my mother to buy their dental insurance plan for $119 and it’s refundable in 30 days if not used. Since she never got any of the work done it was never used but the office won’t cancel it and claims she used it even though she didn’t. When we called several times Magen their horrendous “office manager” hung up on my mother when we called to try to get the $119 refunded. What kind of a managing supervisor hangs up on a patient asking questions …not a very professional one which seems to be the norm for this place… you get what you pay for so fair warning stay away. I wish I had read a review like this before I went there and the only reason we found this place is cause they were through my insurance Tricare as a military family. We deserve better.. I will be lodging a complaint with my insurance to better vet who they contract with because this place is a scam! If you’re looking for a good dentist try anywhere else. Otherwise I recommend oasis dental group in Rancho Bernardo."

"I have TMJ Disorder and been running around and spending lots of money to see a TMJ Specialist Doctor. And always been disappointed with a results and more pocket money to resolve the issues. I went back to my previous Doctor JOHN NOSTI at San Marcos Dental Group and my nightmare TMJ Disorder is totally no reaction not even a small clicking nothing at all. I am happy! And WOW it is AMAZING! I called Doctor John Nosti…you’re GOD and Krystal is an Angel. Thank you so much for your kindness and magical work you have done for me. I am now happy with a big smile again. San Marcos Dental Group is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED with in my heart ❤️"

"i want to start off by saying that their "Dental Group" franchise is a business and that your health comes second while your money comes first to this organization. yes, the employees try their best but please note that they are also instilling their work policies and its not their fault that corporate companies sucks and they need to keep their job... i try to keep this in mind even though i use to go here for the past +7 years. the incident that FINALLY made me leave this place was COMMUNICATION. for some context, i use to have cigna dental insurance when i first came here. i had TONS of work done here, even got my wisdom teeth pulled out and did a root canal and another root canal RIGHT NEXT to each other a few days after due to improper installation of the crown. and then eventually about 3-5 years later i switched to TRICARE after my wife joined the military and they said i was covered by TRICARE by them (white-lie). last year (2023) around April, i had gone for a cleaning and needed to get a crown re-done that cracked/came off, that crown would have costed me +900 WITH insurance. weirdly enough, they said the crown wasnt done by them when this place was the first dentist i came to right after my parents took me off their insurance when i turned 18... (i had all my crowns and fillings redone here). i knew i should have just said no at that cost since that cost was so expensive, but they said that was what was covered by insurance so i went with it since they have all my history and its covered right? ...wrong decision. i came into my appt and waited 45mins. they asked me if i wanted to reschedule and i was irritated- i came here during working hours and i just needed to close up this crown before it got bad. so i just said no lets put this crown on now. by the time im done with this crown the dentist working on my teeth tells me: "well im done but im NOT going to be putting on a crown and suggest you need to get a ROOT CANAL. so lets go ahead and schedule that." DID NOT TELL ME BEFORE PROCEEDING JUST WENT AHEAD AND DID IT. oh and did i mention this tooth that they are suggesting to get another root canal will be the 3RD one right next to the two (in series) root canal they both did? so now im highly stress and in disbelief because this is NOT what i asked for and theres no way that this is normal to have this many root canals side by side. so even though i go ahead and set up the appointment to "CONSOLE" a root canal specialist or so the dentist who was supposed to do my root canal tells me. i went to another dentist to get a 2nd opinon, bcuz now i REALLY need a sense of security here bcuz by now i just feel like im getting scammed. the second dentist told me that yes there could be risk but as of now i didnt need a root canal. and guess what? i took the L and didnt proceed with SM Dental Group now im with this second dentist (Ivory Pointe Dentistry) and they completed my crown and i have not had problems with that tooth since. but to finish off my review... i did still go to the root canal specialist appt by SM Dental Group and they said the same exact thing. I DID NOT NEED IT. what made this situation give me the ick, was the fact that everyone told me im getting a root canal done even though I WAS TOLD it was a consolidation. so even though i tried to cancel my crown with SM Dental Group they couldnt bcuz they already started the process. Ok fair, but i still took that LOSS bcuz at this point i couldnt trust them and i am just far happier . oh and what makes this even worst is they still proceeded to CHARGE me the FULL price of the ROOT CANAL even though it was a consolidation and i never did this procedure with them. if you are going to proceed with going with this place, please do any means to protect yourself. covered does not mean in-network... you have been warned."

"My husband went for a typical check up. They ended up charging $800 for X-rays huge red flag right off the start they typical cost between $100-300 . Second , they didn’t even do a cleaning ? If I can recall when you go for a check up they do a simple cleaning non of that was done they went straight to tell him he needs all Kinds of work done and it was about 10,000 with insurance! Since they know insurance covers they want to double charge and pretty much get what he wouldn’t have to pay . They were ready to start to work on him today but luckily he declined . Go somewhere else don’t think that all dentist charge the same . There are many other places that do the same exact procedure for half the cost and a great job the rating is under 4 stars that’s says enough for me to not even give it a try ."

"I highly debated on whether to leave this review, but I think I need to. I want to start off by saying the majority of the staff is really lovely and very good at what they do. Everyone here was kind and responsive, but that doesn’t cover up the unusually long wait times, likely due to being understaffed, or the fact that I was about to be given major surgeries I DID. NOT. NEED. I couldn’t compose myself after hearing my diagnosis, and realized something was very wrong when I was given papers to sign for same-day surgery as I was still quite literally crying onto them. The specialist wasn’t even aware that I had just had two major procedures done that same month at the same office. I didn’t feel comfortable getting more surgeries done in the same area when I was still healing from the prior. I declined to sign and left feeling hopeless as I was heavily advised to go into surgery as soon as possible. I felt as if my well-being was in serious danger if I didn’t get the procedure, but I knew I wasn’t in the right mind for it. Upon sharing my experience with others, I was urged to get a second and third opinion. Thankfully I did, as I found out I didn’t need 90% of the procedures they wanted me to consent to. I will not be coming here again solely for the fact that my trust was broken entirely by the gross over-exaggeration of my condition and the attempt to scare me into signing off on something I didn’t need. I will not be calling a number to discuss my experience as it caused me months of distress and I’d rather move my care elsewhere entirely. As a consumer, please do your research and be careful who you trust."