Aparna Subramanian, DDS

Bought my boyfriend the groupon for xrays, cleaning and visit $ 89. He went and got «we cant do a regular cleaning, you will need a deep cleaning» with $ 1200 estimate for just that. The front office person saying she could negotiate the price if he wanted it, but could not provide him with a true estimate for all the services they suggested that day.
While deep cleaning can be suggested, its always the patients choice to do a treatment. The standard cleaning should have been done, with the option to do a deep cleaning when the decision had been reached to do so. I felt like I lead him to a scam to get big bucks out of him, rather than gifting a nice treat, he felt pressured to buy expensive services he was unsure he needed.
I would not suggest the groupon offer I purchased to anyone, you might very well not get all the services offered and there is no clarity upon leaving as to what is being suggested and what the estimate of all services will be.

(posted for my husband, who doesn’t do social media, but was so moved by his overall experience, he wanted to speak out)
SHOCKING!!!
I would like to start out this review of my experience with Dr Aparna Subramanian office as a positive one and not sound like some ranting scorned client trying to throw my former dentist under the bus for some petty incident.
Aparna is a very nice person that i got along very well with over a two year treatment plan and her assistant Dina is awesome.
Unfortunately, after several incidents at her practice over the last few years I’ve finally parted ways with Aparna due to unsound business practices that i find very disturbing.
My last visit was the final straw when Aparna instructed her receptionist to contact two credit card companys using my name with out my permission.
Both CC companys ran my credit which affected my credit score whilst i was trying to re-​fi my home and one of the cards actually charged $ 1000 and sent me the bill.
After contacting the CC company and informing them that the charge was fraudulent i confronted Aparna about the incident. Aparna made some confusing statement why they applied for credit without authorization and promised to retract the $ 1000 that was charged without permission. I literally felt like i had been robbed or serious fraud had been committed.
In the dental chairIi experienced some very uncomfortable moments. One of the most memorable was having the receptionist being called over due to the lack of dental help
in the office. Aparna, much to my horror, asked the receptionist to hold open the dental retractor while she worked inside my mouth for roughly 30 mins.
The receptionist wasn’t wearing a medical mask and was chewing gum over my forced open mouth. She was very curious and kept learing into my mouth whilst chewing.
I have very thick skin, but this specific experience still upsets me.
Things seemed to be going down hill fast once Aparna had decided to open a second dental office in San Raphael. I thought she was struggling to run her SF practice so opening a second office seemed bizarre to me.
My earlier experience with the work that the dentist had performed was equally as disastrous. Hailing from England and living up to the stereo type i needed significant amount of dental work hence the $ 30k price tag for my crowns. The first crown Aparna installed for my upper canine was flawless. I was over the moon.
My lower teeth needed 6 crowns all of which where 3 molars on each side. Aparna scheduled to do all six the same day after taking molds and sending them away to be made. (at the time i was happy for the convenience, but wondered about that much work at once…)
i was very excited after being so thrilled with the first crown Aparna had installed. The big day came and Aparna sat me in the chair and proceed to install all six crowns.
Looking back it seemed really strange that she hadn’t visually shown me the crowns before she cemented them in. I believe she visually showed me my first crown before installing.
Feeling groggy after the install i looked in the mirror and was immediately alarmed with how the crowns looked. I brought this to Aparnas attention and she brushed it of and sent me on my way.
Once home i took another look in the mirror and was horrified with how the crowns looked. Visually hard to describe but they looked like the pods or eggs from the movie Alien.
My wife laughed at how comical they were, which didn’t help the situation.
The teeth had no grooves or ridges and looked completely fake and made of plastic. After discussing with Aparna what went wrong why didn’t the teeth look anything like the first crown that you couldn’t distinguish from my real teeth. Aparna said she had used a different lab to make the teeth.
WHY!!!
Aparna really tried to sell me on keeping the plastic alien eggs. After further opinions Aparna agreed to replace all six crowns.
This was insanely painful to have these fresh ceramic crowns ground down to have replaced again. After replacing the first three Aparna kept up the sales pitch of keeping the remaining three due to the difficulty to remove.
When the replacement crowns came back from the same lab that made the Alien eggs i finally gave up and said no more.
The replacement crown didn’t look much differenT.
Why would they ! it was the same lab that made the plastic eggs to begin with.
NEED I SAY MORE???

I bought a teeth whitening session through Living Social for $ 149, a price that was supposed to be a 75% discount. The session lasted about an hour, and the results were not great. My teeth were a little bit whiter, but no more than with over-​the-​counter products I’ve tried. And at $ 149 it was not a great deal. Glad I didn’t pay full price.

Dr. Subramanian is extremely knowledgeable and thorough. She makes sure that I understand everything that’s going on in my mouth before taking any action and I feel that I can trust her with my care.
Her assistant is very easy to work with as well. She is always making sure you’re comfortable no matter what procedure is taking place.
Even their billing is great. They won’t hesitate to double-​check things with my insurance company if I ask them to, and they never badger me for payments as long as I’m within a reasonable time frame.

VERY.BAD.BUSINESS. PRACTICES. Their services are comparable to airline companies. They get you from point A to B, nickel and dime you, upcharge you for basic services, and fight you to the death regarding a bill. Same thing here.
My husband went in for a routine cleaning and Invisalgn appointment and came out with two fillings, that weren’t cavity related. I know right, WHAT? It gets better…
Dr. Subramanian somehow removed the sealant from my husbands tooth when she was examing his teeth. He waited around all day to make sure she fixed it because he didn want to come back. Fine, stuff happens. Fast forward 6 months to now, where we are still fighing the Dr. over $ 800 (she charged us two fillings at $ 400 apiece). My husband has tried reasoning with her, but she is unwilling to back down. She insists that HE called her on an emergency basis because he chipped his tooth, and then they did a cleaning after. WHO would NOT remember chipping their own tooth? This is hilarious to me. This didn’t happen when he was 8, and he forgot. HE IS A GROWN MAN and can remember if he chipped his tooth at 30 years old!
After about a year and a half of receivng these bills, i decided to step in and take charge. This is silly, we are not paying for these fillings, and he NEVER SIGNED A TREATMENT plan. And apparantly, this office doesn’t go over your cost of care with their patients prior to treatments. Especially, and I quote «for as small as a filling» HA!
I called several times during business hours and left messages for SOMEONE to call me back. NONE. I finally reached the office manager, who was just as rude as Dr. Subramanian. When Dr. Subramanian finally called me back, she had the audacity to say she was insulted that we would question her character. No one was judging her in the first place. We told her it was probably a misunderstanding, but she should just own up to it instead of denying it. Who cares and let’s move on with life. But no, the battle continues and I am insulted as a client, and a person that she would question our integrity. We are not the type of people that skip out on paying bills. We are both working professionals that make enough money to pay our bills. After about 30 minutes of her arguing with me, we had absolutely no resolution. Instead of just apologizing for the misunderstanding, that obviously happened, she is insistant that we are wrong and wouldnt settle. Maybe they are losing enough patients that they have enough time to sit on the phone for 30 mins arguing, but I know I sure don’t have the time.
She obviously doesn’t care about the patient experince and doing the right thing. It’s not even about the money, we can pay the bill. It’s the principle. So we are now left with no choice but to take her to court. The $ 800 is not even worth the time we’ve invested, but again, it’s the principle. This could be a $ 200 charge and we would do the same. She needs to own up. And she and her staff need to learn how call people back, deal with difficult situations, and resolve issues. You would think having an office in the Financial district, you would know the basics.
Please, if you are thinking about making an appointment here, there are several dentists in FiDi that can do a better job. I shouldn’t even be spending my time writing this review, but i’m hoping i can save someone else the headache. It’s just not worth chancing it! Good luck in finding a someone else for your dental needs! Don’t settle here!

Shitty service. I’m never coming back here again. If you want a good dentist, and reception staff who actually know what they are doing, go elsewhere. I’ve been told different things by different people every single time I’ve gone to this office. Sneak charges, shady behavior. What a terrible experience.

Just a follow-​up from my initial 5-​star review in July 2011. I’ve now seen Dr. Subramanian six times and I want to re-​emphasize how consistently wonderful the quality of care has been all this time. And she and her staff are all incredibly friendly and even recall personal details we’ve discussed on prior visits. And the 25^th floor views of SF Bay, Alcatraz Island, the Bay Bridge and the downtown skyscrapers can’t be beat. I don’t think you could do better for a dentist in San Francisco.

Very bad business practices. DON’T BUY A GROUPON WITH THEM. The only reason I may refrain from reporting this office to the Better Business Bureau is because they did reverse their charges.
I bought a Groupon for teeth whitening in mid-​2011. Used the coupon in December 2011, thankfully toward the end of the insurance year, and my story will explain why.
Once I was settled into the dental chair, the dentist began our visit by telling me that I need a teeth cleaning before the whitening procedure or the benefits of the whitening will be negated. Umm, why didn’t your staff advise me of this over the phone when I made the appointment a month ago? So you could upsell me on the teeth cleaning when I felt pressured and inconvenienced. Bad practice #1.
I approved them calling my insurance to find out about costs. They are an out-​of-​network provider, but they told me that they’d cover the cost difference between what the insurance paid. Ok. I approved the teeth cleaning and we went ahead.
After the cleaning, the dentist sat with me again and explained why I should pay $ 55 for a gum numbing cream. Once again the office should have given me that information prior to the appointment over the phone. I’ve had laser hair removal and the spas typically tell me beforehand what optional services, like numbing cream, are available. I agreed to pay the $ 55 because the service sounded believable but thought: Bad practice #2.
The whitening procedure was well done and the staff was friendly. They even gave me a private TV screen to watch and pass the time, although the sound was off.
As the assistants were deassembling the mouthgear from the procedure, they moved into giving me xrays. I didn’t immediately click into what they were doing as I had been at the office for close to 3 hours and was feeling tired. As we moved into perhaps the third xray, I said to the assistant, so what are we doing here exactly? She said oh, the doctor always has us take xrays with a new patient. I said okay, but I’m not here as a new patient, I’m just doing a whitening, so this isn’t what I came here for. She nodded and said ok and finished the xrays.
In January, I received a statement saying my insurance had been billed almost $ 500, and a statement from the dental office saying I owed about $ 250 of that amount. The dentist had charged me for the difference in the teeth cleaning and billed my insurance for those xrays. I wrote a letter to the office explaining that I had not approved any charges other than the teeth cleaning and I expect them to fully take care of the bill.
In February, I received another letter from my insurance reminding me that I owe $ 250 to the dental office. I called the office and spoke with their accounts receivable. Jim listened to my brief introduction then asked in a deprecating way, ‘Did you realize they were taking xrays? Did you stop them? It’s your responsibility to stop a service if you don’t want it, otherwise it’s out of our hands.’ I told him that I said something once I realized the xrays were outside of the whitening procedure, and it’s their responsibility to not push services on me that I don’t ask for.
Then Jim’s computer conveniently crashed and he needed to call me back, probably so he could think of what to say. When he called back a few minutes later, he told me that the dental assistants were most likely confused and thought I was a new patient. I don’t believe that. I listened to the dentist give very specific instructions throughout my visit and her staff seemed to check-​in with her regularly. And if it is true, then I would definitely stay away from a practice in which the assistants don’t understand what they’re supposed to do. Bad practice #3.
Best part was when Jim said he didn’t understand why I was calling since he had already put the account to a $ 0 balance after receiving my letter in late January. I told him that I hadn’t received any notification from his office and have since received paperwork from my insurance stating the balance that I owe. He proceeded to argue with me, insisting that we had spoken on the phone, or if we hadn’t, that he spoke to someone in my household. No. This is a private cell phone number and he did not contact me or send me followup paperwork. Bad practice #4.
Thank goodness I saw this office at the end of the calendar year. My dental insurance only covers a limited number of visits and services per year. They gobbled up a large percentage of the payments with their unapproved services.
I bought the Groupon fully open to exploring this dentist as my new practitioners since I recently changed insurance. I understand the purpose of a Groupon is to solicit new potential business. The dentist seemed knowledgeable and has a pleasant bedside manner. If she had simply asked me if I wanted to get xrays done, I would have considered the option since I was already in the chair.
Bad business practices!

Sssh. Don’t distract me. I’m a little liquored-​up now and I’m totally going to regret this in the morning but… Dr. Subamanian rocks! I needed to get some cavities fixed before a big trip and I was lucky enough to find her practice and get an appointment. Her work was outstanding — and the views from ‘the chair’ are to die for — if you like views of the city and the bay. Net net — i fired my old dentist and Dr. Subanmanian is now my dentist of record. My only fear is that i won’t be able to get an appointment once the word get out.

Dr. Subramanian is FANTASTIC!!! Today was my first visit to her after finding her over the weekend on Google due to a real dental emergency. So friendly and empathetic to my problem and its urgency — and solved such a very complex issue so QUICKLY. She is definitely my new prosthodontist. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I’ve seen a LOT of dentists over the years due to complex dental problems, and she tops my former favorite prosthodontist in Seattle.

Dr Subramanian is a great dentist. She shares an office with my long-​time dentist, Dr. Dubiner and recently she consulted with him on a crown I needed replaced.
It’s a super sensitive issue for me (hey, you’d be sensitive too if you were whacked in the mouth with a see-​saw cracking your tooth in half) and I care a little more than I should have it being cosmetically sound in addition to not hurting anymore. I have big olé front teeth so they best not look weird!
Dr. D did the crown and did a fabulous job, and Dr S was consulted at various stages in the process. She was very friendly and willing to help even though I was not her patient! She lent her expertise on making the other teeth, slightly discolored from the trauma, look normal. To put the finishing touch she did a composite on the tooth next to it so I had two super white, super pretty front teeth. She didn’t even charge me!
What an awesome dentist!
Note: the office is awesome with a great view of the bay. The office manager, Suzanne is the nicest, most caring person you will ever meet. ever.

I highly recommend Dr. Subramanian! She is professional and compassionate with a reassuring chair side manner. She speaks in a soothing voice to alleviate any anxiety.
She clearly and professional explains procedures she recommends and welcomes any questions or concerns, and she explicitly answers my questions. I trust her judgment completely.
Her office staff is friendly, professional and welcoming everyone does their best to assure a pleasant dental visit.

Thank you for your response.
As for trying to get in touch with me previously, that was July 1^st and your subsequent email was the 25^th of July (I was out of the country). I purchased my Groupon in April! Perhaps you should have a cut off for future Groupon offers if you cannot handle the workload or work on your customer service and explain the dilemma earlier.
Also online booking does not allow for cancellation appointments. Therefore it is not useful unless you plan on booking 5 months in advance.

Going to a new dentist is always a nerve wracking experience but I was recommended to Subramanian’s office by a friend so I figured that was the safest bet. I’m glad I came. She was super friendly and kind — which goes a long way when you’re talking about scary things like whether you have cavities and if those wisdom teeth need to come out finally. If you’re new to the city or just looking for a new dentist I totally recommend her!

Dr Subramanian is the best! I was cautious about my first visit to the dentist in admittedly too long, but the overall experience was pleasant and I have no concerns about going back as a regular patient.

So i bought my Zoom teeth whitening groupon for Dr. Aparna, and let me tell you… Im SO glad i did.
First off, the ppl on the phone? super friendly, great great communication, i scheduled online they called to confirm, loved it.
So on the day of the appointment, i got to the beautiful building on Sutter, and had a little confusion with the floor number (its 25!) but i got it.
I was welcomed by the most charming girl ever, Dina who helped my checking in and explained everything to me (first timer here) She walked me step by step and made the whole process look simple and fast.
Then Dr. Aparna joined to do a simple check up and also discuss some issue i have with my teeth, she gave me an AMAZING advice, and really. I loved the honest down to earth approach
Because I had some issues with my teeth due to a really. bad ortho treatment, I had this huge yellow stain on my FRONT teeth, and it stayed there after the whitening, Did Dr. Aparna gave up? Nope!
She had some clear time and we went in and decided to fix it and discovered it was a piece of something (aint no dentist to know how it is called) was stuck on my teeth from years back from my ortho treatment!
She got it off in SECONDS, and my teeth are… PERFECT.
Will defiantly come back.
love it!

Hi Everyone who needs a dentist. I found Dr. Subramanian by chance, I went to her for a second opinion after my previous dentist did a screw up job on my crown. long story short he cut into the wrong crown. idiot!
Well needless to say Dr. Subramanian will do great dentistry work, expecially if you need a tooth implant which she had performed on me. She excels in pain control and has gentle hands. She will take the time to explain the procedure to you. i‘ve been around the block with dentists and i know a good dentist when they work on me. There is a lot of dentists that are mediocur in their skill level and if you go with Dr Subramanian you won‘t be dissappointed with her. One last thing i would like to convey in this msg. Dr. Subramanian‘s dental assistances are top notch people, I hope this msg. help.

While I am happy so far with my work here, it was only an OK experience. The dentist and her staff are friendly but I was not comfortable (please don’t press against my mouth for leverage, thanks. ow, you’re pulling on the suction thing that’s stuck in my mouth when you move your chair. what’s with all the fans blowing? um, you left some random crumbs of stuff in my throat), it was too expensive (maxed out my $ 1500 worth of insurance with an exam, cleaning and one on-​lay– what?), and my treatment wasn’t planned out well.
I have excellent insurance and finally enough money set aside to take care of this dental stuff. At the end of my last visit, the dentist left me to figure out the bill with her staff instead of helping to plan follow up appointments for the rest of the work I need. Sure, she called later that day to check on me. Too little, too late.
It’s been a couple years since my fave dentist retired, and I was hoping that I could end my search for a new dentist. I am looking for the right combination of competence & professionalism. Onward!

Once upon a time there was a 10-​year-​old girl who achieved a mythical feat. She swung herself around the metal support poles of the school swing set and in mid-​laugh, knocked out half of her front tooth (sadly not a baby-​tooth) and watched it disappear in the bark-​dust.
(Time warp)
One root-​canal later at the age of 17, she’s finally old enough to get a permanent crown (apparently). The dentist realizes that it’s about 3 mm too fat when it arrives from the lab and since she can’t close her mouth, he does what any cheap-​o DMO dentist would do and shaves off the porcelain on the back. Boy, it’s a strong tooth (cuz it’s made out of metal!) and she sure looks sexy with that metal showing up by her gum and the metal showing in the back.
(Time warp — 9 years later)
Armed with real dental insurance, the girl searches high and low for a dentist that will sort out her smile. Too long has she lived with the uncomfortable suggestion that she might have something in her teeth! Goodbye reverse grill! Goodbye!
Dr. Subramanian has, by far, the best chair side manner that I have encountered. Her office coordinated with the endodontist who re-​did my root canal (not only was the tooth ugly!) to make sure that I had a temporary crown and wasn’t left hanging looking like that guy from Goonies with only my stub before they could get the final crown. She is also the kind of dentist that looks at you as you are about to leave her office with a temporary crown and makes you come back because she’s just not satisfied even if it’s only going to be on for 2 days. She’s a consummate perfectionist, taking me down to the lab to have the tech look at my crown in his light, in her light, asking other dentist’s opinion. She doesn’t rest until she has it perfect.
…And after 9 years of having people tell me I had something in my teeth, I really frickin’ appreciate it.

Fantastic technician, Never needed re-​work.
Attention to detail — her instructions to the crown maker ran to two pages!
Super cool sweet lady with the best chairside manner.
Calls later to check up on the work. etc etc etc.