Get It Straight Orthodontics

Dr. Neil Warshawsky is the third orthodontist I’ve worked with in my life and by far the best. I moved to Chicago in the middle of my treatment and he was recommended to me by the ortho in my small town in Alabama. She knew him from seeing him speak at conferences and knew he was the best. I was fearful that this also meant he was the most expensive but went for the consultation anyway. He agreed to finish my treatment for the remaining balance I had with my old ortho even though I’m sure his rate was higher.
I went through orthognathic surgery with Dr. Neil and now my braces have been off for a month now and for the first time in my life, I’m proud of my smile. Last week I noticed swelling below my bottom teeth near where my incision had been. My surgeon was out of town so I called Dr. Neil. He has checked in with me nearly every day (even checking on me via email on a Saturday night). It doesn’t get much better than that does it? If you want to feel like your ortho is a family friend, go to Get it Straight.

Both of my kids are patients at the Get it Straight offices in Lakeview (although we’ve visited the Hyde Park and Lincolnshire offices too, when we needed an urgent appointment). I’m very happy with their customer service and their orthodontic work.
— In literally dozens of appointments, we’ve only had a long wait once. And since I know my kids have often been the ones squeezed in for an orthodontic emergency, I understand that’s why these things happen. Otherwise, we’re always seen pretty much on time. However, my kids love the video games in the waiting room, so I think they wish we did have to wait more often!
— We’ve had a handful of «emergencies» and they’ve always squeezed us in quickly for a repair. Most notably, this Christmas Eve, my daughter had something come loose and get stuck in her tongue (ouch!) so we called their office number, got routed to an on-​call emergency contact, and she arranged for Dr. Neil to meet us at his Lincolnshire office right away, even though they were closed. Wow! This was above and beyond and a huge relief for us.
— I typically go into the treatment area with my kids (10 years old) at the start of each appointment to be a part of the discussion of how things are going and then leave them on their own with the doctors until the end. They have always called me back at the end of each appointment to talk to me about what they did during that visit and what will happen next. I’m the annoying mom with a million questions and they always answer them patiently and show me the kids’ scans, etc, so I understand what’s happening.
— The front desk staff and technicians have always been friendly and helpful with our family. We’ve seen both of the Lakeview docs, Dr. Neil and Dr. Kelli, and they’ve both been great.
We just finished my daughter’s treatment and then found out my son needs braces too, so we’re now back to Get it Straight again!

As an adult thought the time and opportunity had passed to fix my teeth. I’m grateful for Dr. Neil and his team for proving to me that I can, in fact, have a better smile and save myself serious dental issues later in life. He fitted me with an incognito dental system, with is virtually invisible. In a year of having these braces I’ve yet to have someone notice the braces without me pointing them out. The other doctors and assistants are professional; making what imagined to be an excruciating experience relatively painless. The staff is very friendly, caring and flexible. I work across Chicagoland and I’ve had the opportunity to make appointments at several different offices to fit my schedule.
In short, I’d recommend Get it Straight to anyone, children or adults, looking for a caring, professional experience.

Don’t come here unless you have hours of your life to waste. My daughter got her braces here when we lived close by. I can’t tell you how many times we waited over an hour for our appointments. Once I watched the orthodontist talk on the phone for at least 45 minutes while we were waiting. It was extremely frustrating but once you have started the process and paid a fortune, it’s hard to change. We have moved to the suburbs where our 2 younger daughters have gotten braces. They appropriately schedule appointments so you are never waiting more than 5 minutes for your appointment. What a pleasure! I am back today at get it straight with my daughter to check her retainer. We are now 1 hour and 10 minutes past our appointment time and still nothing. My daughter got called to the back a half hour ago but has not even been looked at yet. This place is ridiculous and not the only place in town! People, go somewhere else! The one star is for the front desk staff who are always pleasant and accommodating. If it wasn’t for them, zero stars would be my rating.

Unless you have endless time and money find a different ortho! Orthodontics is expensive, everyone knows that. This place is more expensive than others and you will wait a long time to see the doctor! The dentists are quite rude and super arrogant. In a nut shell… gave them lots of time and money and it wasn’t worth it! Over 10 thousand in teeth and the results do not match the price tag! Go FISH!!! KEEP LOOKING!

I visited «Get It Straight Orthodontics» today for a consultation because my dentist recommended braces as well as restorative dental work afterward. I needed a treatment plan and second opinion because my case is complex. Dr. Neil Warshawsky and his Treatment Coordinator, Ms. Chris Clark assisted me. I’m writing this review because of the AWESOME service I received. Dr. Warshawsky was patient, kind and thorough. I was very impressed with his depth of knowledge. In addition, Ms. Clark has about 20 years experience, she made sure I was comfortable and answered tons of questions as well. I didn’t have a problem parking for free, right across the street from their office.
When I first called the office, the experience was excellent and that was consistent with every employee who helped me. I don’t usually write reviews, but I was motived because Dr. Warshawky and his team are really trying to provide the highest grade of work and service you could find anywhere. If you are looking for an orthodontist who is keeping abreast of new technology, has vast experience and a deep knowledge base, you should definitely visit «Get It Straight Orthodontics.» They have 5 offices, and tons of business so they are doing something right. From talking to Dr. Warshawsky, I believe people keep coming because he’s just a DARN EXCELLENT ORTHODONTIST, he’s at the top of his game! Don’t take my word, visit him for yourself and I wish you the best with your dental work!

I had a wonderful experience with Dr. Neil and his staff! The front desk staff were friendly, happy and always greeted me with a smile! The dental assistants were also fantastic and they answered all my questions about what was going to be done on each return visit. All in all the atmosphere in the office is one of a close knit family rather than just co-​workers. The staff is upbeat and very helpful. Dr. Neil is awesome! I felt that Dr. Neil knew how important having a pretty smile is to me and from the first consultation with him I felt confident that he was the right orthodontist to fix what had bothered me for so long… my top front teeth. On each return visit Dr. Neil discussed the progress with my braces and what he planned to do next and he always had encouraging words about how my teeth were progressing. On all my return appointments I noticed young kids and adults alike and Dr. Neil definitely has a way with kids and has a comforting gentle manner when treating his younger patients. Each dental chair has a flat screen t.v. and videos for children to watch during their exam or while waiting. Dr. Neil gave me the smile I wanted for years and all in only seven months. I got my braces off today and I am excited and happy. I return in three weeks for a permanent retainer and look forward to seeing all the staff again because they did make me feel like part of the family. I had no discomfort with my braces and loved the fact that they were on the backs of my teeth rather than the front. I had braces for seven months and nobody knew but they did notice that I smile a lot more!

i had such a pleasant experience here for my consultation. they’re so relaxed and casual it made me feel comfortable and like i was in good hands.

I had a unique situation where I had been seeing an orthodontist in Maryland but needed to have some adjustments in Chicago to avoid flying back to Maryland. This practice was very accommodating to me and even spoke with my orthodontist in Maryland. They only charged me per visit, which I really appreciated. Dr. Neil even made some improvements through my adjustments that my original doctor had not planned on. I’ve been happy with the office staff, location, and doctors. While there isn’t parking, I have always easily found parking on side streets. What do you want, it’s Chicago!

Plain and simple — the front desk staff is incompetent. Dr. W is rude and condescending and not patient centered. He will act like he is doing you a favor even though you’ve paid for damn near all of his services in full and on time out of pocket. If you have questions, on HIS WORK, don’t bother asking them. You will be berated for questioning. He relies on children to communicate information to parents (I’m sorry, have you talked to a child or teenager before and asked them for medical detail? How far did that get you?!) and blames the patient and the parents if something gets lost in translation.
If you happen to have a conversation with him to fill in the blanks and can get through him interrupting half of your side of the conversation to tell him that his tone is rude, unprofessional and inappropriate, his only response will be that he’s sorry «he’s not happy enough for you» and that he should get kudos for calling back «in just an hour». Never mind the fact that he sounds like you, a paying patient and concerned parent is wasting his precious time. And when he tells you that he doesn’t remember all his patients’ parents, but he does remember you, «the blonde hair girl», don’t believe him. (note, I’m Asian)
It is no wonder the dentist who referred our family to him states she now regrets it. There are plenty of orthodontists in the city of Chicago, many with glowing reviews; this is not one of them!

Great location + top orthodontist in US + friendly staff = Excellant experience!
… And that is coming from a 34 year old who has had lifelong fear of dentist/​orthodontist! Day 1 of Braces :)

Wow. Dr. Colleen is the most condescending, curt physician I have ever come into contact with. And it was just the consultation! It baffles me that someone would have the gall to treat potential customers — customers who will spend many thousands of dollars no less — as a hassle. Go elsewhere. There are plenty of competent orthodontists in Chicago who will treat you as a human and demonstrate gratitude for having your business.

A quality orthodontic practice!
Now that I have finished my treatment, I can conclusively say that I am very satisfied to have sought the expertise of Dr. Neil and his staff. As a medical student, I appreciated the use of innovations in the practice that enhanced the patient experience and made treatment more efficient. They include Cone-​Based CTs to obtain 3D imaging of the skull, SureSmile robotically adjusted wires, self-​ligating brackets, use of temporary anchorage devices (TADs), online records such as pictures that my dentist or oral surgeon could access, to even automated phone and email reminders.
Dr. Neil and his staff are caring and experienced. (Dr. Neil is very knowledgeable and the staff is particularly friendly. I enjoyed talking and laughing with them during appointments.) The practice is also unique in that Dr. Neil has experience with complex cases and has collaborated with top dental and medical providers in the country. My results, both functionally and aesthetically, came out excellent, especially given my more complex dental and medical history.
Some general advice I have is to be very clear and straightforward with what you would like achieved with orthodontics. This will help you and your provider achieve your goal as directly as possible. Also, to be patient, as orthodontics is a gradual process. And finally, as with all medical and dental care, seek multiple opinions.
I am happy I chose Get it Straight for my treatment. Overall, I highly recommend Dr. Neil and his team for orthodontics.

Added Comment 9÷19÷2012. Yesterday my braces were removed and I cannot express how satisfied I am with the results. 15 months is all it took and there were some major crowding issues with my mouth. Dr. Neil, Chris, AJ, Megan, and several other staff members made this experience a really great one. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND Dr. Neil and his services to anyone interested in adult orthodontics. He has many solutions available that don’t involve braces. WHAT AN OUTSTANDING TEAM.
Great service, friendly staff, Dr. Warshawsky is very helpful, answers all questions, explains everything in as much detail as you need to make sure you understand your treatment. They have many options for orthodontics. At first I thought they were a bit pricy, but after seeing everything they do, and having it explained that their price includes follow up after treatment, I feel their pricing is very fair. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

My teenage daughter has been a patient here for about 6 months, with 18 months to go. We went here because they have an office in Hyde Park. Great, I thought, she could go for her adjustments after school. WRONG! In fact, they are only here one day a week and the last appointment is at 4:30, so every school age patient is trying to get an appointment in the two hour slot after school. It is practically impossible to get an appointment, so we keep having to go to Lakeview, a real pain. (One time we spent more than 2 hours there on a school night, because they forgot my kid was in a chair with her mouth open!!) I thought Dr. W. explained things well the first time we saw him, but since then my daughter seems to always see «associates,» and I guess they don’t keep good notes, because her palate expander was left on month after month with no explanation, until I demanded an appointment with the Man himself who promptly removed it, saying «why is this thing still in here?» Excellent question.
They are other orthodontists in HP with real offices, or we could have just gone with someone in the south loop, a whole lot easier than battling rush hour traffic to Lakeview. Believe me, if we could jump ship at this point, we would.

I’ve been going here for over a year and a half and since my teeth are jacked, I will be seeing the folks at Get It Straight for at least another year. Thankfully, they have been nowhere near as rude as the other reviewers make them seem. I don’t think it’s just me either — they seem to treat lots of the other patients like people. Yes, I hear the occasional grumble while I’m waiting when a less than friendly patient leaves, but whatever. They’re people, too.
To address the prior reviews:
1. I have never noticed ill-​smelling breath. They wear masks most of the time and some of the supplies they have to use smell kind of bad anyway. Besides, I can only imagine how many gross mouths they have to look in on a daily basis.
2. Yes, Dr. Neil is busy and you will sometimes wait, especially on a Tuesday at lunch. If you don’t want to risk waiting, there are two other orthodontists for you to make appointments with on slower days. Don’t worry, one of your brackets may pop off at some point and you will get to be the emergency appointment that slows all of the scheduled appointments down.
3. Yes, I’m paying about $ 1100 more than I was quoted from the lowest-​priced office I visited and he’s not in network with BCBS. They do, however, have offices in some of the higher-​rent neighborhoods in Chicago i.e. where more people tend to work. They also have pretty flexible hours and are good about squeezing me in if something goes wonky (see point above). Yes, I could have gone with the in network orthodontist who would have cost half as much, but since she only had office hours in Chicago one day a month, it seemed unwise.

My treatment was completed in February of 2009 after 28 months. I was referred by an orthodontist in Michigan after relocating to Chicago.
Overall, my experience was okay. The technicians were friendly and pleasant. I only had one VERY NEGATIVE experience with the front desk and her name was Jennifer. She was extremely rude and I never got the chance to confront her unprofessional behavior in person.
As for Dr. Neil, he was just okay. At the start of my treatment, he was very good about explaining things. That pretty much stopped after I decided not to have jaw surgery or have an endodontist add bovine and/​or cadaver bone to my jaw. Each of those suggested procedures would not have been covered by my insurance and they cost thousands of dollars extra. Well, I can’t just pick money off the tree in the backyard to pay for my dental work. I had already flexed $ 6000 and maxed out my $ 1000 orthodontic coverage from my dental insurance to pay for my braces and all the ancillary tests. Maybe that pissed him off because he was nothing but rude from that time on.
I have a very narrow lower arch and during one adjustment that REALLY hurt, he totally snapped at me. So much that I almost cried. He was such an ass that I would only go on Fridays and see his partner, Dr. Colleen. After that incident, I only saw him two more times. I’d like to thank him for scraping off my enamel while removing the glue on the day my braces were removed and costing me over $ 2000 in dental bonding.
Dr. Colleen is GREAT! But as stated in other reviews, the hours and parking sucks. Good luck getting emergency appointments. I actually had one technician scold me for waiting so long to have my wire re-​engaged. After explaining to her that I called and that there were no appointment times available, she went to the front desk and chewed them out. If possible, I would search elsewear for orthodontic services.

OK. I want to start this review off by saying that I have ZERO issues with my treatment plan and the progress of my work. There was a single time where I felt rushed out of the chair and definitely had to schedule a follow-​up appointment within a week to fix things. But generally, they’ve been pretty conscientious about my treatment and I am very happy that they provided me with a treatment plan that did not require jaw surgery. However, I do have problems with their customer service and hours of service.
As someone who works from 8:30 to 5:30, I have a lot of problems scheduling appointments at times that work for me. The Wrigleyville office isn’t open on Saturday, and the staff seem really reluctant to schedule an appointment at another office. I really wish that my office was open til 7 PM more than one or two days a week, or that it had Saturday hours.
On several occasions now, I have had to make emergency appointments. This happens with braces — it’s an integral part of the whole process. I mean really, your teeth are moving, so the stuff attached to them will most definitely sometimes start poking you, will break, etc. However, I always seem to have a problem getting an emergency appointment within a decent amount of time (a day or three dealing with only being able to chew on one side or having repeated stabbing in my cheek being about my limit). Shouldn’t they be building in more time for emergency appointments?
They also don’t (or didn’t?) call to remind people about appointments. I somehow had a a scheduling mix-​up — they had an appointment scheduled during my mandatory weekly staff meeting which I never schedule things during, while I had written it down for the same time on the next day, which is a time they’re not actually open. So, obviously, the staff and I got our wires crossed when we were scheduling that appointment. However, I had signed up for automatic email reminders about appointments, and the reminder never came. They also didn’t call to remind me. Either of these measures would have averted the whole problem, but instead I got a call 45 minutes after my appointment was over, telling me to reschedule. Now, a weird phonebot calls my phone the day before an appointment and leaves cut off messages on my voicemail. It took me a couple plays to figure out what it was, since the thing started playing well before my VM started recording.
Lastly, they’re terrible about answering the phone. Seriously. I often sit on hold for a good chunk of time or get sent to voicemail. The only day that I actually got a call back on the same day was when I left a VM due to the missed appointment situation above, was upset because of the whole situation, and specifically (and in a frustrated voice) asked to be called back that day.
One thing that I’ve learned from this experience is that I will never again use a doctor of any type that has multiple offices. The lesser coverage of days and times at each office is a minus that I’ll keep in mind for future decisions about medical and dental care. This kind of setup is just not ideal for someone who works a lot and just can’t take time off to go in to the doctor with the frequency that orthodontics requires.
Lastly, I want to stress that, despite my complaints about customer service above, I have been happy with my treatment. So, I’m landing at three stars. Good ortho care, less than ideal follow-​through on the service and availability end.

This place sucks.
Granted, nobody enjoys having metal things glued onto their teeth, or having a expanding device thing stuck on the top of their mouth and cranked daily, this place still totally sucks it big time.
First of all, at each «appointment» I ended up having to wait at least a half hour to an hour on some occasions.
Second of all, prices are jacked up.
Third, the Dr. himself has quite possibly the worst breath I’ve ever smelled. Um, hello– didn’t you get the memo about brushing your teeth if you work an occupation where your head is constantly 3 inches from your customers noses? Oh yeah, and shouldn’t you know to brush your teeth if you’re a damn orthodontist?
Yeah…I would pick somewhere else.

I transferred my Invisalign case here after moving to Chicago for the refinement stage. During my consultation, I made it very clear that I had paid my previous orthodontist in full and they would be paying Get It Straight directly. I told them they should contact my old orthodontist to arrange payment and get my records.
Well, you can imagine my alarm when I was handed a bill for $ 1500 when I picked up my refinement aligners two months later (they had to take the impressions a second time because the first ones didn’t work, and then didn’t call me when the aligners arrived.) I reminded them that they were being paid by my previous ortho and should have had payment already arranged.
The next week I find out that my previous orthodontist refused to pay the $ 1500 because they said the amount was «ridiculous» given that they in turn had paid in full all lab fees to Invisalign. They told me to try a different orthodontist, so I visited two others, and both quoted the price at under $ 500, which was not a problem. Still, Get it Straight wouldn’t budge. They told me I could come to the office, sign a form ending treatment there and take my aligners home with me.
After this point, it became apparent that rather than handle the situation professionally, Get It Straight decided to become confrontational. When I went to the office, they had changed my mind and said they couldn’t give me my aligners because I wasn’t their patient, and they would have to send them to my new orthodontist.
But of course, they didn’t want to do this either. The following week they called me to let me know Invisalign had billed them erroneously for my refinement aligners and I was going to be held responsible. Even though my original orthodontist quickly sorted out this mistake with Invisalign, Get It Straight decided to hold my aligners hostage until their following months bill showed the erroneous charge canceled. And even then, they didn’t send the aligners themselves but rather waited until I called to remind them.
The entire mess would have been avoided if Get It Straight had arranged billing with my original orthodontist like I told them to and they assured me they would during my initial visit.
Overall, from my experience, I consider Get it Straight to be extremely overpriced, have terrible customer service, and not value patient interests — my treatment was delayed four weeks by their refusing to send along my aligners, not to mention the delay in getting the aligners made in the first place.