Don S Wilkinson, D.D.S.

Dr Wilkinson is the most personable dentist i’ve ever met, i don’t really understand the negative reviews, but they all seem financial based. Before I even spoke with him, the receptionist had everything done. She outlined my copay versus the insurance coverage. Here’s my story:
I’m only in northern California for about 6 months for work. Prior to coming out here, I had multiple fillings done by my local dentist. The most recent one, never seemed to heal properly. It was sensitive to very hot or very cold, but i choked it up to needing extra time to heal. As a matter of fact, during the initial filling procedure, I could feel pings of pain as the dentist was drilling. Not fun.
fast forward 2 months after the initial filling, and here I am in Sunnyvale. I bit down on something and saw stars. BAM. I needed to see someone ASAP, i couldn’t go 6 months before first seeing my dentist at home in pain. I thought maybe with my symptoms of during the filling and after the filling was a mis diagnosis of a needed root canal. Someone referred me to a different office who offered me an appointment a month away in June. This was unheard of to me, I just needed 15 minutes of a dentists time to talk to me. The office referred me to Dr. WIlkinson, and although they don’t usually come to the office on Saturdays, they needed to do paperwork anyway and could see me tomorrow.
When I walked in, neither of them made me feel like I had forced them to be here. Especially even after Dr. Wilkinson calmed my fears (I don’t need a root canal) did they make me feel like «oh great what a hypochondriac who wasted my Saturday morning.» Which brings me to my next point. A lot of people in the medical profession would take advantage and say «Yep, you need a root canal. That will be $ 5000 please.» Dr. Wilkinson did the opposite! He took x-​rays of the tooth in question, showed me very thourougly WHY i was feeling ultra sensitivity and gave me a prescription for a flouride rinse. He even showed me how he knows i grind my teeth, something no other dentist has every talked to me about before. A root canal might be necessary in the future, and I will definitely return to Dr Wilkinson!

Dr. Wilkinson thanks again for my treatment… it was good to know that after my 1^st nervous visit, I felt more at ease since you all were kind and understood my anxiety.
Thanks for understanding my anxiety since my last 6 hr stomach surgery it’s been difficult for me.
Darlene and your staff were are very nice and patient. Being disabled it’s nice to know there’s kind professionals folks like you all!
Thanks again!

I dont recommend this guy at all they milked my insurance 400 $ for a consultation which everywhere else you go to its free! And they were gonna charge me 1900 $ just for a root canal retreat!

Just sitting here and being entertained by the review that Nitya V wrote. Looks like a lot of people have too much time on their hands to write such an extensive and negative review. Im not sure if one understands how collection and refunds work but i guess i will have to explain a little bit in order to make sure Dr. Wilkinson as well as Darlene’s names are not tinted. Darlene is not the office manager yet she does collect payments at times, i believe there is an office manager named Alena; the insurance on the other hand processes them and issues refunds unfortunately without Darlene’s knowledge. All she can do is just follow up with them and inquire about the approximate time that the check will be issued to the patient. So im sorry you do not possess the basic knowledge of how all that works. On the other hand, i had the utmost incredible experience at their office. Darlene is the most pleasant and caring person, and when it comes to the doctor himself, i have never experienced a professional who is intended to inflict a lot of pain on people to actually ease it so much by talking and explaining and being very gentle in general. I was offered all kinds of accommodations the second i came into the office. I would recommend everybody to go to Dr. Wilkinson’s office.

I do not really recommend this doctor to any of my colleagues. I underwent two root canal treatment and was overcharged for the treatment. I paid nearly twice the amount I was supposed to pay. I learnt about this only after I received my insurance billing statements.
The receptionist Darlene always postponed my refund by saying the office manager was sick and on vacation. But later I also understood that she was the only manager there and was fooling me. I still did not get my money refunded back completely. When I tried to call the office they wantedly do not pick up my calls too. When I spoke to my insurance agent and tried helping her send the claim faster by mailing her their fax number, she was simply rude to say that «I am so sorry as I mentioned in the email I sent you yesterday please direct all future questions or concerns to your insurance company.
Thank you“This has been her response and she is now telling me tales that it is my insurance company that has not received her claim and delaying the payment. But my insurance says they have not yet received any claims made on that date!
I have had a very horrible experience with this doctor’s office and Darlene has been very rude to me. If you would ever go to this doctor watchout for overpayments and unethical conversations!
Reply to Dr. Wilkinson’s office’s comment–
I am glad Ms. Darlene could reply at least in Unilocal!I could not believe myself that how many telephone calls I did to get my refund. The office deliberately did not pick up my calls and Darlene sent me an e-​mail that I contact my insurance if I have concerns about the claim.
When I contacted the insurance they told me that they did not receive a claim dated 11÷13÷15 TILL DATE. I tried to communicate this to Darlene and even tried helping her out with a fax number which my insurance agent had given for submitting claims… still did not get a response for that. But they are ready to reply in Unilocal!That’s great!
Although dr. wilkinson and Darlene were good initially I noticed that they started changing their behavior towards me when I realized that I was overcharged and asked for my refund. I could not even guess this that I was fooled by Darlene that someone else was the office manager and she is not the one in charge of these. But the copayments were calculated promptly by her and we paid it immediately after treatment. This shows how they are not very genuine in their approach telling all sorts of tales to stay protected!

I had my root canal performed by Dr. Wilkinson a month ago, and cannot express how happy I am with the service/​treatment I received! I’m not sure about the few low-​ratings (seems to be more of an insurance/​logistical issue rather than the service itself), but can say with 100% confidence that Dr. Wilkinson’s treatment is top-​notch.
This office accepts Blue Shield insurance and the payment/​coverage process was seamless.
I’m in the process of taking care of some neglected dental issues and this was my first root canal ever – needless to say I had some fear going into it.
Let me say that during my root canal treatment there was literally ZERO pain, and I was in and out in the same amount of time (or faster!) than getting a simple cavity filled. About 35 minutes.
Dr. Wilkinson was very polite/​personable and took the time to explain what he was doing, how it would help, and exactly why a root canal was needed in my case – this made me feel great and I knew I was in good hands.
Over a month later and everything is going perfect – hopefully I do not need another root canal, but if I do, I will absolutely return to Dr. Wilkinson!

A vetran of dire dental needs (soft teeth and about 7 root canals in my life), I was referred to Dr. Wilkinson by Jennifer Wu for a bone infection in my lower jaw resulting from a very old root canal (from another dentist). Darlene in reception was chipper and helpful and Dr. Wilkinson was very informative and factual about needs and assessment. His treatment plan was on the conservative side, which I appreciated, and within 6 months of his root canal and bone treatment, the infection was gone! Painless and efficient, Dr. Wilkinson is hands down the best endodontist I have seen.

If I could give this office a ZERO I would! I was referred to this office by my dentist because I needed a specialist to do my root canal. I have Cigna HMO so a formal referral is required. I called Dr. Wilinson’s office and asked if they could get me in ASAP because I was in a lot of pain. Darlene (the receptionist) said she could get me an apt the following day for the procedure. I was thrilled! Then she asked for my insurance information and after that said my insurance require a consultation first and then an authorization approval for the procedure before it could be done. And on top of that my apt will now be two days later instead of the next day. I asked her what’s the difference between a consultation and a procedure, she said the consultation is a 15 min visit vs. a procedure that could take over an hr. Okay, then why do I have to wait 2 more days before I could get a 15 min consultation, while if I do the hour procedure I could do it the next day?! Does not make any sense to me! I was very upset but thought I’d try to speed up the authorization approval by calling my insurance company and giving them a heads up on my situation so they could approve my procedure immediately after the consultation. To my surprise, my insurance rep said a root canal procedure does not require an authorization and that the procedure is approved automatically. What?! Shouldn’t the dentist’s office know this if they’ve done this procedure many times under my insurance company?! My insurance rep was nice enough to contact the office for me to let them know no authorization is required and please get me in ASAP. Darlene told my insurance rep that the earliest apt they have is the one she gave me and after the consultation it’s up to the dentist to decide whether he wants to do the root canal on the same day! Excuse me?! I’m in so much pain and cannot chew my food, but it’s going to be the dentist discretion if he «wants» to do it for me the same day?! Needless to say I called to cancel my apt. I rather pull out my own tooth with some pliers before I go to this office! If this is how they treat patient’s who’s in a lot of pain, then I don’t want to know what happens when I’m on that chair! I work in the medical field and patient care and safety are our main priority over anything else. This office clearly does not practice those ethics!

Just visited Dr Wilkinson being referred by Jennifer Wu.
I came in for a root canal retreatment. The cost is $ 1550 with credit card and $ 1450 with cash for tooth #15.
I ended up paying for consultation of $ 127.
I was scared of the office building and the small office, but Dr Wilkinson was friendly and articulate. He took a few X-​rays and gave his advice on my tooth. He recommended not to do a root canal since there is small chance of success and recommended me to talk to my general dentist about tooth extraction. He seemed like a good person and would trust him to do my next root canal. (I hope not. but you know what I mean.)

Dr Wilkinson is a very thoughtful and caring doctor. I had a root canal that required a couple of visits, but it went well and was painless. Although the medical buildings are a little old, he has the high-​tech gear.

Not that a root canal can be a 5-​star experience, but Dr. Wilkinson and his staff made it as painless as possible. Dr. Wilkinson’s office staff (Darlene) contacted my insurance company promptly to make sure the procedure was covered and how much my out of pocket expense would be. She was pleasant and cheerful in all my dealings with her.
Dr. Wilkinson was very patient and understanding of my extreme anxiety and claustrophobia, explaining what he was doing during the procedure and about how long each segment of the treatment would take.
Post procedure, I am pleased to have experienced only a minimal amount of discomfort that was relieved with a couple of over-​the-​counter ibuprofen.
If I need a root canal in the future, or if I had to refer a friend or family member, I would recommend Dr. Wilkinson without hesitation.
Edit: Bonus points for the office to call me up the next day to see how I was feeling!

Had a Root canal. Dr Wilkinson was on time, friendly, and professional. The procedure was painless. Very impressed.

Dr W’s called me for a follow-​up visit. I appreciated the care taken to make sure the treatment was successful.

Unilocal did this same thing (removed positive 5 star reviews) to a restaurant I owned, pulled the 5 star, but left the cr*ppy reviewed left by (clearly) family and friends of the competition, it just undermines Unilocal’s credibility. 4 star (or Unilocal will yank it).

It’s unjust that Unilocal squelched all the five-​star reviews for this fine dentist. This doc IS five stars, as good as it gets if you need a root canal. And if I ever needed a root canal again, I’d go halfway around the planet to get back here. He’s done just root canals for 20 years, it’s his specialty, he’s amazingly skilled and fast and painless. They kindly called the person after me to tell him that they were running five minutes late, because they were willing to combine root canal and consultation into the same visit.
Thanks Dr W!

I had my root canal done by another general dentist but unfortunately got infection. Had Dr. Wilkinson performed a root canal retreatment. He is a good, trustworthy root canal specialist and his office is clean, with polite and helpful staff. Dr. Wilkinson is great at talking to patients and discussing treatments — he explained to me through problems I was having and recommended treatments without jumping to surgical procedures or high-​cost solutions. He answered my questions and addressed my concerns with respect and kindness. During the retreatment, Dr. Wilkinson worked swiftly and skillfully. When all were done, he checked his work meticulously and made several adjustments before he was satisfied. Within couple days all my pain was gone and I had no discomfort anymore.
I would highly recommend Dr. Wilkinson to anyone.

I booked an appointment for a consultation for Root Canal to see this dental office (a month in advance). My appointment wasn’t ’till @8:45am. I was coming from a few cities away and have never been in the city of Sunnyvale. I arrived and phoned the receptionist @8:50am; Diane, of being 5 minutes late in and was just pulling in. Her mannerism was awful as she yelled at me that she was too busy to allow the dentist office to convenience me and 5 minutes was far too much as the office was one that was very busy. She stated they schedule patients back to back and was overbooked as it was. I told her I was coming from far, was lost and was only running 5 minutes behind if she would please understand. She wouldn’t allow me to speak and continued with an over-​toned demeanor, she said they wouldn’t work me in at all and I would have to return for another day. I phoned back later to speak to her superior regarding her discourteous behavior and abrupt attitude of carelessness and she stated «there was no one above her to speak to»…terrible receptionist