Sea Breeze Dental Care

WORST SERVICE EVER! The dental hygienist was rough and she really hurt me. Naturally, I bled. She then rudely said she wasn’t going to continue cleaning my teeth because my gums had a «bacteria» and walked out without rinsing my mouth! I know my gums are fine because the dentist had just seen them and said my teeth and gums were in good health AND I clean regularly at home. She was very unprofessional and was clearly full of BS. Never going there again!

DO NOT ENTER! I believe every negative review and wished I had looked them up before I went! My insurance assigned us there and it was the worst dental experience ever. The first visit is x-​rays and check. The quote you everything they think you need and show you an outrageous bill. They schedule you cleaning which is a month or more later. The cleaning was 10 minutes at the very mostand was not very thorough and then you wait for someone to come polish your teeth. not sure why it takes two people but this gal must be in training. She never said a word and polished the hell out of my lip. When I told her ouch she didn’t apologize and went back to polishing. She seemed very uncomfortable holding the instruments and I just prayed I would get out of there without her cutting my mouth up!
When she finished she put chair down and walked out. I had water and toothpaste all over my mouth and I just couldn’t believe what had just happened.
The front desk is also very unprofessional. talking about how drunk they got over weekend and how they they hate their friends girlfriend.
I honestly don’t know how they are in business. They need to be checked into.
I am contacting my insurance to be reassigned ASAP!

The front desk ladies were wonderful and friendly. It is a dental farm but I thought I would try it to save money and hope that I would be lucky. Had my first cleaning, and was out of there in a half hour. I have never been out in half an hour. It is a good hour long, with probing and really getting the tartar off my teeth, checking gum depth on all areas, then polishing carefully and fully, then flossing to clean the grit out, NONE of that took place. She polished my teeth fast and that was it. I went straight back to my regular doctor, Doctor Denny on the Mesa and said I am back and never again will I try a dental farm to save money.

I share the same sentiments as many others reviewing this clinic. The Seabreeze location in Santa Barbara is the worst dental clinic I have ever been to. The first red flag was when the office was pushing so many products on me during my cleaning appointment. I had never prior to then and have not since then felt so harassed during a cleaning. Other issues included the office being filthy and my appointments never occurring on time. One of my procedures took numerous repeat visits due to the continued mistakes being made. Despite my repeated attempts to get in touch with the owner during the time the poor work was being done, he never attempted to contact me. My biggest problem with this business is the poor management and ownership. I am thankful that I have now found a professional and reliable dentist.

DO NOT GO HERE!!! AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS. We live an hour away and have driven there FOUR times and NOTHING has been done. Braces should NOT be this complicated. The office managers do not have a clue what is going on and the front office staff might as well not even be there! I would never ever recommend this place to anyone. I work in health care and cut a lot of places a lot of slack because it’s not an easy field to deal with people, especially people who dont feel well or do’t want to be there in the first place, but this place should not even be in operation. We paid for my sons Braces all up front and even then the billing gets messed up. Avoid avoid avoid!

Sure they are fine

I too sat in the waiting room forever. Then they took 18 x-​rays, yes! 18! But, 4 needed to be retaken! So, all together 22 X-​Rays! Has anyone ever heard of having this many x-​rays?
I should have read reviews!
I will be looking for a dentist that has a more human approach, and won’t give me brain cancer. The «treatment» plan is 5700.00 worth of work. So, bye bye

Thank God Sea Breeze refused to see me as a client after sharing how I was treated by them on Unilocal!They told me I needed 2 crowns that would have cost $ 400 each (with insurance, more without) and my CURRENT dentist has shown me that I do NOT need crowns at all. I don’t even have cavities where Sea Breeze said I had! I WOULD ENCOURAGE ANYONE WHO IS SHOPPING TO GET A SECOND OPINION AFTER ANY SEA BREEZE EVALUATION. No doubt they will respond to this the same way they respond to anyone who casts a negative light on their practices, with contempt, so do yourself a favor and look out for yourself.

Horrible. Just horrible.
first of all they are the worst dentist i’ve been to by far. I went in first for a morning appointment, which they were running late. When they were doing my x-​rays, a male assistant did them and when he did, he was so rough that it left sores in my mouth for weeks. My brother went in and had his x-​rays done by the same man and also left sores in his mouth.
Then they recommended so many things that I didn’t even have to do! i.e. braces and wisdom teeth removal. I did, however, need to get my filling redone. Worst. Experience. Ever. The entire time an older hispanic dentist was lecturing me on my life and college and how I should be living my while drilling into my tooth while I was crying because the pain was too much to handle. When I first got my filling done, the dentist I went to spent 3 hours making sure that it was done correctly and that I was in no pain. This woman, however, only numbed one part of my mouth, didn’t use nearly enough anesthetic, and told me that I shouldn’t be crying because it shouldn’t hurt that much. Obviously, if I am crying, then either you are doing something wrong or something is not going right during the procedure. 3 shots later, she was finally done, but the experience wasn’t over. By far she was very unprofessional and I have never been treated that way by a dentist or doctor. On the way out, I payed for my treatment and got out of there. A week later, I got a call back from them saying I didn’t pay part of the bill even though I payed everything while I was there. The only person that I could honestly say was partially professional, who also made my time there easier was their youngest staff member.
Finally, I switched dentist offices, yet they still manage to call me about my appointment I cancelled a long time ago and have told them numerous times how I have cancelled that appointment.

This place is a scam! I went here because it was suggested by my dental insurance. So I went in for an exam. I’m 23 years old with straight, nice teeth. When the dentist came into see me, he told me the following: that I need braces, I need to have a mouth guard made (for when I sleep), that my wisdom teeth need to be removed (when they’re not causing any problems), and that my gums need to get some sort of treatment that cost $ 45/​tooth… The total cost: roughly $ 4,500. On the bill, they magically gave me a discount and lowered it to $ 2,500 with no explanation on what the discount entails. Then they told me that my insurance won’t cover ANY of this.
Immediate Red Flag!
I left the office and told them I didn’t want any of this work done. I can’t believe how horrible this place is. They just want to milk you for all you have –absolutely no ethics.
There are plenty of horror stories about this place. I’m glad I didn’t allow them to work on me.

Sea Breeze gets one star because Unilocal doesn’t let you give a zero or negative. Places like Sea Breeze and Gentle Dental are paid by insurance companies to do NOTHING. I had dental insurance for a short time before I turned 19 and hadn’t been to the dentist since I was 7 or 8 years old. My teeth were pretty bad. with an overbite and a supernumerary tooth (ick) I realllyyyy needed the help and unfortunately I could only go to Sea breeze for this due to this health insurance. Honestly I left every single time in tears. The «receptionists» (they literally did nothing) were so rude. I think I met one nice dental assistant there. he was nice and I think he felt bad for me because all of his coworkers were such jerks to me. One dental assistant even had the nerve to say to me «You would be really pretty if you had nice teeth.» like, what?! seriously it was so mean spirited. My «dentist» wasn’t much better. She was the rudest woman I have ever encountered. She would never speak directly to me and was constantly asking me if I was going to get braces and making remarks about «how I let it get so bad» as if I had a freakin choice? ugh i feel so bad for the people who have no choice but to continue being patients here due to health insurance. They wasted that year and a half i had with some coverage doing unnecessary cleanings and fillings when i should have been having root canals and extractions. Now im 20 and paying thousands of dollars to make up for that lost time. This place is awful. if you can avoid it, for your sake please do.

I came into the office with my 18 month old son who had knocked his front tooth loose. Of course, I’d have rather gone to a pediatric specialist since he is so young, but I because of the HMO I had to see my assigned dentist prior to obtaining a referral. The wait was long, but they had warned me ahead of time when I called to come in. When we were finally seen, the tech didn’t attempt x-​rays (much to the surprise of the dental assistant). When the dentist walked in he said, «Why are you bringing a child this age here?» and then continued to reprimand me for 1) not taking my son to urgent care (what?!?) and 2) not calling my pediatrician and asking for a referral to a pediatric dentist (again, what?!?). He then told me there was nothing he was going to do because he was sure if he put his finger in my son’s mouth he would «bite it off.»
As we were leaving the dental assistant said they would give me a referral so I didn’t have to ask my pediatrician but that they wouldn’t get to it today. They are supposed to call me with it tomorrow. Seems ridiculous, but whatever.
Bottom line, I will never, ever return to this practice and I do not advise anyone else to go there.

How is this place open?! It is a sketchy place! I have only been there once for a consultation and X-​rays but that was more than enough for me. There is no way i would let them do any dental work! The staff is unprofessional and unaware of what customer service is. This place is dirty and disgusting. The xray tech left me in the chair after she was done for 5 minutes and walked away without updating me, I had no idea what was going on. I had my insurance reassigned me to another facility and I’m MUCH happier. Avoid this place by all means.

I responded to an Amazon Local (like Groupon) ad for this dentist and paid $ 30 or so for a cleaning and x-​ray package. First, I showed up to the dirty lobby with old chairs and was generally displeased with the aesthetics of the office. I met Dr Boris Zak and he was fine and his staff was courteous so they had an OK first impression in terms of being courteous.
The first issue I have is with they had me show up and didn’t disclose to me anywhere that I was going to have to come back a second time for my cleaning. So I showed up the first day and they took x-​rays and just tried to upsell me on other dental work and told me I have to come back for my cleaning. They gave me a breakdown in the thousands in retail price on 4 or 5 fillings but if I bought their special one time insurance for $ 72 then the cost would be reduced to $ 800 or so. Dr. Zak tried to tell me they do a better job than most people out there (I’m going to just take his word for it?) and also tried to tell me that his «digital x-​rays do no harm to the patient». OK Dr. Zak, perhaps you need to rephrase and say that digital xrays require less radiation and by design can emit less radiation than the former x-​ray techniques — 70 or 80% of the radiation doesn’t negate the fact that you still put a lead shield over me and it doesn’t eliminate the negative effects.
So I tried to let the 2^nd appointment thing slide and even told my friend that it’s hard for them to make money on $ 30 and I’m still getting a good deal. Twenty hours later I would like to renege on that statement and now let me explain why.
I showed up at my appointment time and then I waited for 15 minutes for them to set up and I then had a young gentleman scrape my teeth for 3 minutes. Then there was about a 5 to 10 minute wait for the teeth cleaning lady. She polished my teeth for 6 or 8 minutes. So total treatment time was 11 minutes maximum between all procedures. They even had the audacity to ask me to set my next appointment.
The interesting thing was that I didn’t complain right then and there — I was in shock & utter disbelief of how poor of a job it was. I now feel about 3 or 4 of my 32 teeth feeling clean and polished. I would also like to note that I hadn’t been to the dentist in years and they still found a very poorly done job of 11 minutes to be sufficient. The tooth polishing lady also didn’t seem too experienced. She was using one hand and not holding my lips out away from my teeth — she was either very inexperienced or simply incompetent. She also had the metal handle of the tool resting on my bottom teeth and vibrating as the head «polished» my teeth.
Bottom line is this is the WORST dental experience I have EVER had and I view the staff as awfully short-​sighted to do such a brief & poor job. That was a very poor impression and how can they ever figure I would put my confidence in them to do trustworthy dental work? Dental work and healthcare are about trust and competence and I feel Sea Breeze failed miserably on this occasion. I have left feeling duped and disappointed. To me it feels as if I didn’t commit to other dental work and was therefore dismissed and pushed out rather quickly since I wasn’t a profitable customer as far as they viewed it. My suggestion is to price your services and be transparent and you won’t have to employ silly gimmicks and empty promises. I hate to harm small business but will do so in order to protect the consumer. You wasted my time and I found the whole visit to be insulting so I have to protect others. Sea Breeze has postings all over the office to leave a review and get $ 10 to $ 15 off your next visit. Granted it doesn’t say positive review, but who is going to leave a negative review and come back? It simply skews review data toward favoring positive reviews so Unilocal is probably more credible since they don’t ask for Unilocal reviews in the office (they ask for google and
and that’s why there are so many positive reviews there).

I have an HMO insurance & the only reason I chose them is because they claim that they accept kids and have a pediatric dentist, but when my 3 year old son went there and refused to get an xray of his teeth, they referred us to another dental clinic that specializes in pediatrics??? When they initially claimed that they have a pediatric dentist in their clinic? I should have listened to the reviews before I went to this dental clinic. The staff were so unprofessional, the clinic was old & dirty, and all they do is sell you their services. They will not reschedule your appointment and charges you $ 50 if you can’t make it. Sooo bogus!!!

I have not had problems with waiting or quality of work to date, but when I needed copies of the x-​rays, they said it is an $ 18 charge. My previous dentist gave them to me for free, as did my vet when I needed copies of my pet’s x-​rays. I may go back to my previous dentist on principle, having spent $ 1,000’s at this office. I changed to save money. The waiting room is run down, giving the entire place a feeling of needing upkeep.

I just want to to reiterate what other reviewers here have said about «Sea Breeze Dental.» The front desk people were disorganized and unprofessional, and kept me waiting for almost 45 minutes even though I showed up 15 minutes early for my appointment. There were loud, annoying children in the lobby, one of which was the daughter of the receptionist and kept yelling «mommy mommy» to the her while she was trying to deal with incoming patients.
Finally they took me to have x-​rays done and I ended up having to wait another 20 – 30 minutes for the doctor to come in. When I sat down, I noticed that the exam chair had a tray next to it which was obviously dirty… some kind of orange/​red liquid was spilled all over it. An assistant walked in a little later and placed a clean tray (wrapped in plastic) on TOP of the dirty tray and walked out! When the doctor finally arrived he was condescending and rude. After the 5 min. exam I asked him, «so will it be possible to have my teeth cleaned today?» His reply was «well anything is possible» and walked out. 10 minutes later an assistant walked in and said «sorry we can’t do a cleaning today but we will make you an appointment.»
NEVER AGAIN!

This is the worst dentist I’ve ever been too. I went there because they were my HMO provider but after my last experience with them I changed my insurance to a PPO and found another dentist even though I have to pay more.
This place is dirty, always running late, and only have an interest in making money off of you. They would never schedule my regular cleanings and the one time I insisted on it they hygenist barely did anything.
The last time I went I was crying in the chair because I was so scared! Am I am not afraif of the dentist or having work done on my mouth but I was truely terrified. The dentist started drilling before I was numb, cut my lip with the drill TWICE! and the chair they had me in was broken and I ended up with my feet higher than my head at one point and started sliding off.
NEVER EVER GO HERE! Even if they are cheaper you will pay more in the long run for having to get teeth fixed that they messed up.
I went to Dr. Thompson on Arrellaga for the first time today and I am in love with their whole staff!

Easily the worst dental experience of my life. I went there because they were my HMO provider and will never go back. They botched a root canal, forgot me in the X-​ray room with my mouth propped open, and told me I was exaggerating my pain. I was left with a messed up tooth and very specific revenge fantasies. I would give it negative stars if I could.