Bruce R Carlton

He recommended an unnecessary surgery that would leave a scar when my second opinion said that was nuts and gently burned it off, leaving no scar.

Well, Kim. W. in NC hit the nail on the head. I, too, felt like I was in the twilight zone. I say Dr. (Dr? Seriously?) Carlton at his Vallejo office. Oh my. The first thing I noticed was how absolutely nasty his fingernails are. Absolutely filthy. I don’t know if they were stained or dirty (does it really matter? Cut your damn nails and get them CLEAN!). His lab coat looked like it was from the 70’s and hadn’t been washed since then. Yellow, torn, coffee stains (hopefully only coffee stains). There was something brown and crusty on his navy blue pants — looked like vomit. His breath stunk, and yes… it looked like his hair was a greasy combover that he had slept on for days. B.O. as well. He looked like he was homeless (no respect to homeless people intended). Anyway, I had gone to him for some different little lesions in my scalp and one on my ear, and one on my shoulder. He said he was going to culture them. He grabs ONE (1) long Qtip out of a jar marked tongue depressors. THEN he put his gloves on. I was paralyzed — wanted to say something. Then he used this ONE Qtip on all the lesions. I said «won’t that spread the bacteria around? As in «if it’s a staph infection on my scalp but not my shoulder… why would you spread to my shoulder?» His answer was that «they are all pretty crusty; I’m not going to get anything anyway.“Oh my god. I talked to his nurse about my concerns and she was embarrassed. She said that they (office gals) have been on him for his nails but he says that since he washes his hands and wears gloves it should not matter. Yikes. Poor gal… she looked classy, clean, pretty and had really cute tortoise shell glasses. She looked so out of place in this office. The Cons? I listed many. The Pro? There was a photo of an anteater on the wall. Filthy, nasty, I will not be going back. They made me another appointment while I was still in shock. This time at the San Pablo office. Basically, I think I just am curious to see how that office is. Actually, I will be cancelling my appointment. I am told he is THE only option for a dermatologist in the Contra Costa Health System. We’ll see. I have a skin cancer on my ear, and I’ll be darned if I’ll let him touch me again. Retire, already!

The treatment I received did NOT work. It was just a waste of time and money. I waited 6 weeks because that’s how long treatment was supposed to take. I decided to find another dermatologist. I found Dr. Freeny in Hercules. What a difference!

I called a month ago to make an appointment for today. At the time that I scheduled the appointment, I had been in a lot of pain and expressed that on the phone. I don’t have health insurance so I would be paying out of pocket. Its $ 160 for an out of pocket visit, plus additional costs for whatever the doctor does. I figured, when I made the appointment, that I would use my FSA account because most every place takes cards. I run a small business myself, and I allow my clients to make payments via card. Because you know what? I can write off the 2.75% of every transaction off in my taxes! And it makes it easier for my clients to spend money — Its kinda Makin’ Money 101.
I go to sign in and fill out the paperwork and they «remind» me that they only take cash or check. I happen to carry checks on me, but when I’m planning on using my FSA and not my actual checkings balance, I’m not prepared to drop $ 200. Not to mention, the office is dingy and unorganized. No one told me on the phone that it was cash or check only, and no one reminded me on the phone when they left me a voicemail reminder of my appointment epsecially considering that I made the appointment over a month ago! A good business would have notes on new and out of pocket patients — As an NMT, I’ve worked in enough massage/​chiro places to know this is a good practice — and they would also work to get a client in sooner who had reported high levels of pain. The pain has gone since then, but at the time the pain from the wart on my foot was changing the way I walked, which causes pain up the entire body.
The front desk ladies were sort of nice, but almost condescending. «Well, we can reschedule you for tomorrow.» What difference does it make if you schedule me for tomorrow if I don’t have $ 200 tomorrow either? Regardless of that, I decided that though I do have the spendable cash, I would rather look into other specialists at this point. Plus, I can’t imagine why it’s $ 160 just for a basic appointment when I really just need wart treatment.
I called a dermatologist in El Cerrito and made a new appointment for a week from now and for $ 50 cheaper. $ 110 sounds much better, and the lady I spoke to was very kind, AND I confirmed that I would be able to use my FSA. Plus, I don’t have to wait another freaking month to see a specialist.
As a business owner and medical practitioner, Dr Carlton and his staff should really know better. With Unilocal,and other social medias, it isn’t difficult to find specialists and practitioners. Its easy to make a few phone calls and find a price that is right and a friendly staff. Its also an easy to ward off new patients if you screw up.

Dr. Carlton is a great doc and absolutely knows what he’s doing. A few years back, I had a particularly tenacious wart on a finger that you would think Compound W would take care of but, after months of self treatment, didn’t.
The Doc suggested a combination of two treatments simultaneously, cryo and then apply the extract of the blister beetle. And it totally worked!
As for the wild animal photos, he’s a huge animal lover and loves to photograph them in their natural environment on his property. No, his exam rooms are probably not for everyone but I like them. He isn’t a 40-​something, teeth whitened, charismatic, charm Doc. He’s an older guy who’s been there, done that. I’ll take less charm and more experience any day.
Thank you Doc!

Just can’t understand why some some hater from North Carolina is dissin’ the nice doctor. Describing her bra for Unilocal is kind of weird– clearly a princess in need of a tucas kissin’.
The Vallejo office is a little run down, but the care is fabulous. I happen to like the night-​trip-​trigger photos of animals in several of the exam rooms.
Dr. Carlton and N.P. Lisa are both wonderful. I’ve been seeing them for over a year and my eczema that was horrible is now completely gone from my legs (after 3 weeks of treatment). Every other doctor I’ve seen for for this has failed– years of scratching and bleeding are over.
This is a place for quality medical care.

so i visited this joker last summer and it was seriously one of the most crazy doctor visits i have ever had! my tale begins like this… when i was in the waiting room it was jammed packed with just a whole myriad of characters. i should have known then i was in the twilight zone. at one point this woman came in (clearly off her rocker) who didn’t have an appointment and was loud as hell. she went up to the counter demanding to see the doctor and they told her that once again they couldn’t give her an appointment until she brought her paperwork back and she started screaming about how she wasn’t going to turn in her paperwork because they didn’t need her personal information and people can steal your identity and all she needed was to «have something removed!!» it went on like for about two more minutes till she gave up and stormed out. instinct told me to leave them but i didn’t.
i finally got into the exam room and the nurse told me to undress and when she left i took a good look around the room… there were literally 30 or so badly framed and badly shot amateur pictures of animals like deer and rabbits hanging on the walls. they were those caught in the head light kind of pictures – white swirling eyes with startled expressions. all 30 of them watching me undress. UGH! across from the exam table was a big ass mirror (who has a mirror in an exam room???) and the freakin’ exam table was right across from the door. in fact at one point during my visit they left the cracked door open (the nurse was getting something) and a MALE patient walked by and peeped in my room!!! fortunately, i still had my pants on and but i was wearing a flaming red bra on with an itty bitty paper thing covering me. he looked rather delighted to have seen some skin during his visit. UGH!
i should have left then but nooooooooo. i was like i am here now. i know i should have left. i know. don’t lecture me. but see sometimes you are trapped in a living nightmare and things are so horribly wrong that you don’t even believe it is happening. that was me. at one point i had even called a friend and was whispering in the phone about the insanity around me. now you know if you have to call someone on the phone because the shit happening around you is so crazy and off the wall you should LEAVE. so at the point i was like yes yes i should go. let me get dressed.
in walks the doctor. OHMIGOD. he was wearing a dirty lab coat with big yellow stains on it (i was like is that freakin’ pee or coffee???) he hadn’t shaved in weeks and was looking seriously grizzly plus he was digging and scratching in his hair probably because god knows when the last time he took a bath (thank god they don’t really touch you as dermatologists), his nails were dirty, his breath was funky… and that was when i started screaming… in my mind. when i was talking to him about some moles (but not like witches ones with hairs growing out of them or anything… i’m a cute girl) on my face he said «we don’t know why ‘you people’ get those.» YOU PEOPLE!!! i was like oh no this muthafu*cka didn’t! you do not use «you people» to refer to black people. EVER. EVER. EVER. EVER. EVER. um, and if you didn’t know before you know now.
i meant to call my primary doctor and tell him to NEVER refer his patients to this crazy dirty unprofessional bastard. but as you can see it took me a year to recover from the experience. what was killing me after i finally got the hell out of there was his office was packed with patients including other black people! as i was leaving i wanted to yell RUN AWAY RUN AWAY! jesus christ. i felt like charleston heston at the end of soylent green. who needs haunted hay rides during halloween when you can visit dr. carlton’s office in san pablo!