Dobbs Bruce M DPM Podtrst

I’ve known DR. Dobbs and his staff for many years. In my opinion they are exceptional. Took my daughter to him for a second opinion after seeing a different podiatrist that wanted to lop off the top of her two hammer toes. That Dr. said to her well think of it this way, you’ll have two less nails to paint. She was only 14 and in tears. Dr. Dobb did the surgery without lopping off her toes and they look normal. You can’t even see the scar. My children’s father saw him for a second opinion after being told by another podiatrist he needed surgery on his feet. This doctor stated that the he had bone on each foot that needed to be removed. Not so, Dr. Dobbs diagnosed that it was fluid that had build up on the sides of his feet due to the way he walked. He saw my mother and only charged her his cost, due to the fact she had Kaiser and didn’t have the finances to pay for his normal fees. She had a total of three surgery on her feet from when I was a child. Due to those prior surgery there was nothing he could do outside of recommending molded shoes. Dr. Dobbs is a fantastic doctor that always puts his patients first and truly cares.

here is my story about Bruce Dobbs. In August 2011 i severly injured my foot in a motorcycle accident. I called Dobbs and asked if i could come in because i knew i had broke something. Well i went in to his office and he had a few young interns there. I proceded down the hall to some ancient looking xray machine, where i had to stand and move around and was in much pain while they lkept changing the films. Dobbs looked at the film and said i had Liz Franc fracture and i was going to need surgury or else there would be a 100% chance that i would end up with arthritisWell he set me up with an MRI that same day which was a Monday. Tuesday i had a meeting so i went, i figured i could just sit there so what the heck. I got a call from Dobbs at 1230. He tells me its worse than he thought and he said he had me set up for surgury that friday. I said hold on wait a sec i want a second opinion, Dobbs seemed surprised even though he told me i should get one. So on thursday i went to see an ortho surgeon. I walk in and this woman knows Dobbs and says if Dobbs says you need surgey that i shouls do it because he is a good doctor and knows what he is doing, HUH i said well okay then. So i went to see Dobbsand he sets surgury up for monday 1 weekafter the accident. Dobbs tells me he has never done this surgery because it is not very common. he says he is only going to assist to make sure it all goes good. He says he is goign to put 4 screws in my foot 3 small ones in the top and the so called money 3 inch screw thru the side/​… this whole thing was making me very LEARYYYYYYYY. so anyway Sunday night before surgery i was wound up/​didnt sleep well felt lousy thought it was just nerves bacuse i never had surgury before. well i ended up sick and they would not let me have surgury i had a fever. So i call dobbs and he gets bsck to me tuesday and proceeds to tell me off. he says he thinks thaty i am not comfortable with him and that he isnt comfortable doing the surgury anymore, so i said fine. He then calls me back and apologises and says he talked with the radiloogist and he downgraded the diagnosis from having 100% arthritis if i didnt have surgury to 30% if i didnt have surgery. HMMMMMM really from 100 down to 30 HUH. So i told DObbs thanks but no thanks. Oh and he said he would do the surgery but it had to be tommorrow and he had to know in 20 minutes to let him know… WOWWWWWW. SO anyway i ended up going to see an ortho in San Mateo. Big office MODERN equiptment and after xrays i was told that the fracture was stable and minimal. I was giving a walking boot told to keep off it and after 10 weeks i am back to normal. walking running no pain heale d great on its own and probably wont have arthritis. SO if you are thinking about letting dobbs cut into you i would think about twice and definitely get a second opinion from someone who doesnt know him

Doctors can make mistakes. I am one of those statistics. It is more important to me that the doctor listens to my feedback and do what is right for me. Dr. Dobbs failed me in this respect. He was charming and accommodating when things went well. But, when there was a problem, I saw a 180 degree turn in personality, and he did not want to address the problems. My life has changed forever since my bunion surgery with Dr. Dobbs three years ago.
I had bunions and hammertoes (2^nd toe) on both feet. I wanted surgery on my right foot only because the condition on my left foot was not that bad. Dobbs told me that the surgery is a «piece of cake» and urged me to have surgery done to both feet at the same time. I trusted his professional advice and accepted his recommendation. The result on my right foot turned out decent except for the hammertoe (2^nd toe). It is now leaning toward the third toe. Everything went wrong on the left foot; foot surgery gave me severe foot pain, Hallux Varus, swollen joint, arthritis and my second toe is lying over the third toe. My foot looked worse than before.
He was aware that I couldn’t walk on my left foot due to pain. He consistently told me to give it time. I was told three months was the expected recovery time. When the pain continued to persist, I was then told to give it a year. I trusted him and followed his order. After four months of limping, my back was severally affected. For the first time in my life, I experienced the most excruciating back pain that also led to sciatica, thigh pain and hip pain. After six months of suffering from foot and back pain, my husband intervened. He went to every appointment with me to make sure that I was taken care of. It was only after his intervention that Dobbs then gave me a cortisone treatment. In two weeks, most of the foot pain disappeared. I was shocked that there was actually a treatment and he didn’t give it to me until my husband intervened. My husband shouldn’t have to be involved for me to get proper treatment. I am quite sadden that I trusted him and followed his order, but he didn’t do what’s right in my best interest. He fixed most of my foot pain, but he forever gave me severe back pain which I am still dealing with. If he had given me the treatment when I first brought the problem to his attention, the trauma to my back would have been prevented. I had a good active life. I jogged, walked, did yoga and Pilates, and worked out in the gym regularly. Now, I can not live my normal active life due to the back injury.
At the third month post op visit, I showed him that my big toe was pointing downward and out. There was an obvious big gap between my big toe and second toe. To my surprise, he looked at it and asked, «What is wrong with it?» My second toe which was a hammertoe now rests on top of my third toe. He told me that was how my toe lies. He was in denial. He did not want to acknowledge my conditions. On a couple of occasions, he told me that I was demanding.
I sought second opinions from an Orthopedic Surgeon at Stanford and two other Podiatrists. All three surgeons confirmed that the gap between the toes is a condition called Hallux Varus (caused by Dobbs). The overlap of second toe onto the third toe was due to the collapsed of the implant that Dobbs inserted. None of these three surgeons used implants. I was told that implants have not been used for forty years for the exact reason of what happened to me. Implants tend to collapse. They do not operate on both feet at the same time, always one foot at a time. I was totally shocked of all my findings. Dobbs messed up my foot which led to messing up my back, and he dared told me that I was demanding.
I have used every nonsurgical treatment possible to relieve back pain. Nothing worked. My back specialist (physiatrist) told me that the foot problems are still affecting the back. I must go through foot surgery to correct the problems before we can correct the back. I recently underwent two surgeries within three weeks in hope to correct the Hallux Varus. After only one month, I have less foot pain, and walking better.
I am hoping that the level of back pain will improve now that I am walking better. If not, back surgery appears eminent. Never did I imagine that my life would be so affected by this unsuccessful bunion surgery. The back pain has gotten so severe that I had to close my business and can no longer sit for any length of time. I can no longer travel by plane or by car. I can not be active like I used to be. I lost my quality lifestyle. This review does not begin to adequately describe my pain and suffering physically, emotionally and financially.

Dr. Dobbs is a great podiatrist. My husband went to see Dr. Dobbs for a toe problem which was causing walking and standing. Dr. Dobbs knew exactly what it was, and did a small in-​house procedure to help it. He also attached his own creative bandage to wrap around his toe. He’s feeling a lot better only after a day.
The staff in his office is great, courteous and understanding. He forgot to bring his insurance card, and they were totally nice about it. Not the usual attitude you would get at another office. Highly recommend him!

This is to be as objective as possible.
Firstly, Dr. Dobbs has excellent bedside manner. He is charming and tells stories to keep my mind off the cortisone injections or when removing stiches. I found him to be kind and genuinely care about his patients. After surgery, he was generous with his home phone number should I have needed to call him, drove in one weekend when I had complications from the surgery. Approachable and thorough when explaining procedure, what he was going to do, and even joked around after I was waking up from Anesthesia. This is genuine. It is clear that he enjoys helping patients and making them feel better.
On the flip side, his confidence is good and necessary but he is overconfident in what he is sure is wrong. He was a second opinion doctor about a surgery and explained things so clearly that I could understand everything that I chose him to perform the foot surgery. Unfortunately, his overconfidence was his downfall and he completely botched the surgery. I spent two months in a cast and was no better.
It was obvious he really felt bad about this (and so did I) so he performed a second surgery which partially worked and partially didn’t. He fixed what was wrong but also removed a ‘suspicious’ nerve which ended up being fine, so as of that surgery, I had areas on my foot that have no feeling because of this unnecessary removal of this nerve.
I am now permanently disabled. Maybe it would have ended up that way anyway, who knows, but I should have stuck with the more cautious doctor with the conservative approach. To his credit, Dr. Dobbs footed (no pun intended) the bill for the entire second surgery and was obviously distressed by its outcome.
I met a former student of his who was practicing in a different part of the state and she did not have positive things to say about his character. She said he knew he was good looking and played that to his advantage with the students. You can take that as you will.
And a sibling saw him and had planar faciatis surgery from Dr. Dobbs and the Anesthesiologist woke my sibling up too early before the doctor had finished stiching him up and Dr. Dobbs noticed this and had a fit and told the Anesthesiologist that he wasn’t finished and to put him back under.
I would not return to him, nor to the other local DPM practicing in the Westlake Medical Center. I’d find someone else. His wonderful bedside manner did not outshine his overconfidence or bad decision making skills.

I went to see Dr. Dobbs about some pain in the ball of my foot this morning. I have to say that he was really friendly and easy to talk to. I felt like he truly listened to what I had to say and was generally interested in finding the problem. His staff was very friendly and attentive as well. They saw me right at my scheduled appointment time and I didn’t wait more than a minute for the doctor to see me, and it only took about 3 minutes to see my X-​rays. I also felt that the office was nice and clean as well.

Dr. Dobbs has written me regarding my review. For his interest in my foot’s health, he gets an extra star. (Though I never knocked his abilities as a surgeon, my particular surgery doesn’t have a great success rate overall, so to be clear, my poor outcome doesn’t say anything about his skills). His humor and bedside manner are still not what I consider worthy of an extra star.

Dear Persons with Foot Problems,
This letter is to provide you with information about a doctor who could quite possibly be the best medical practitioner I have encountered in my very long 30 years of life: Dr. Dobbs.
First, he has infused himself with over 30 years of medical experience and knowledge in the field of podiatry. He is considered an expert in his field within the legal community. His opinions and knowledge have been sought after in legal cases where he has served as an «expert witness.» Dr. Dobbs used to be a professor of podiatry medicine and although he doesn’t teach any longer (I don’t think) he does take podiatry interns under his wing and in a sense still provides instruction and guidance in podiatry.
I have trusted Dr. Dobbs with a plethora of foot/​toe procedures. Before every procedure he explains to me the process and what it entails. During the process he ensures that I am comfortable and is cognizant of every reaction and/​or feeling I may exhibit. After the procedure, he provides a thorough explanation of the care and recovery required, he has called me (even on a weekend) to make sure that I am «doing well.» No question or concern of mine has ever been left unanswered.
Dr. Dobbs, as a physician, is exceptional to say the least. He has wonderful bed-​side manner and a very engaging personality. But the characteristic I value the most about him is his genuine care and concern for his patients. He is a very authentic and honest person. He loves to joke around or tell stories, but it’s done to create a comfortable and jovial setting during a time that is not necessarily considered «happy;» I mean what visit to a doctor is fun? Believe it or not, I actually enjoy my visits to this office, not just because of him, but because his staff as a whole make my visit beyond pleasurable. It’s seriously like walking into the «Cheers» bar where everyone knows your name.
Yes, he jokes around or may have a sense of humor that may not «jive» with everyone, but I would much rather have a doctor with his demeanor than some old hag of a doctor with a stick up his ass (now, if you believe that a joke here and there is out of line, than perhaps you should take the stick out of your ass as well)!!
The point of my long update is to get YOU, the person with foot problems who is now looking for a podiatrist, to entrust your feet to this man. Not only because he is excellent at what he does, but because he cares about his patients and their well-​being. Unlike other doctors, he does not rush you out of his office in under 10 minutes. If you are left unsettled or with more questions or concerns, he will sit with you until all your lingering issues have dissipated.
BTW: He has this VERY COOL CHAIR that raises you up so you are at eye level with the very tall doctor. DO NOT WORRY about banging your head. Unless you are 7 feet tall it is VERY UNLIKELY that the top of your head will meet the ceiling.

I have known Dr. Dobbs for going on five years now. He has treated me with the utmost respect. He is professional but with a humor that makes you feel comfortable during a time that may otherwise make a person nervous. I see his humor and jokes, as well as his curiosity about my life as a way for him to better get to know me. Rather than treating me as just simply a patient, he genuinely cares about my well-​being in and out of the office. I have never had a question go unanswered, he is very thorough in making sure that I know what is going on throughout the treatment process. The office staff is all very friendly and I have never had much of a wait to see him. I would not hesitate to recommend Dr. Dobbs to any family or friends, or anyone for that matter. He is an excellent podiatrist!

I had to search for a podiatrist that was close and also accepted my insurance plan. I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Dobbs treat my condition and I couldn’t have had a better doctor. He is sensitive and listens to concerns. My situation was a difficult one yet he treated me with the highest professionalism. He called the night before my 5 hour surgery to make sure everything was OK. Post-​surgery he called me at home to see how I was doing until my next follow-​up visit. I continued to go back for follow-​up visits until I felt that my condition was improved. He goes beyond the usual doctor-​duties, which is why he is an outstanding podiatrist.

Dr Dobbs is a pretty entertaining guy, very much in the vein of Bill Murray-​style deadpan humor (I had to ask myself a few times «did he actually just say that?» and «is that a joke?») — but maybe thats just a podiatrist thing. I originally chose him because his name came up first on Google upon entering my zip code (not the best of reasons), but he turned out to be a great podiatrist. I was definitely never rushed during the visit — he took his time to understand what I did to hurt myself originally and clearly explained my options going forward. Upon diagnosis, he didn’t push unnecessary MRIs and additional visits on me (it turned out to be a slight ankle sprain). Highly recommend him if you live/​work nearby!