Jeffrey Gitelman, DDS

Dr. Gitelman removed 1 wisdom tooth in May. I was really worried about the procedure as it had been about 10 years since i had had other wisdom teeth removed. He made me feel very comfortable about the procedure and calmed my nerves. I found him to be very nice, trustworthy, and also direct, straight to the point. On the morning of the procedure he came in the operating room and was very pleasant, again reassured me not to worry and said the only pain I would feel was the needle for the anesthesia. next thing i knew i woke up to gauze in my mouth and the whole experience was over. After that, I had no smelling and minimal pain. He did not prescribe pain medication and I was fine without it. the next day after the surgery I was up and about doing errands and sitting outside. The nurses were also very helpful and put me at ease.
I have noticed a lot of reviews claiming the office to be fraudulent. However, most reviews that describe Dr. Gitelman’s actual surgery skills give him high praise. I have not had any issues with the payment-yet?-but I cannot say enough about his skill as an oral surgeon. Highly recommend.

Horrible. They told me I had to pay a large sum of money and would get reimbursed from my insurance. Then they sent the claim to my insurance company and collected the money themselves. When I called my insurance company they told me i should have only paid $ 70 but they charged me over $ 700. In my opinion they are corrupt. Just find someone else.

Got my wisdom teeth out a few months ago. I had a completely pain free and successful operation and would definitely recommend Dr. G. I saw some people had trouble with payment, I was billed exactly the amount of my original quote and had no troubles.

I had my wisdom teeth removed by Dr. Gitelman in July and my experience here was wonderful!
After my initial consultation, the office emailed me an estimated co-​payment that detailed the surgery fees. On the day of the surgery, I arrived at 8AM and was done within an hour. Although the swelling lasted a couple of days, the pain was minimal with no complications.
Dr. Gitelman and his staff were friendly and very efficient. I also did not experience any problems with insurance (Aetna) /​billing.

As a few others have mentioned below, I also had a very strange experience in terms of undisclosed costs. I had my wisdom teeth out, and the estimated cost after insurance was $ 800. We received a bill for $ 2400. After many angry phone calls and back-​and-​forth, they were completely unable to explain how a commonly performed procedure came out at a much higher cost. Long story short, we paid to get rid of the whole situation, but obviously would not recommend. 2 stars because he procedure itself was successful.

Great doctor, great practice. Took literally two seconds to get my two wisdom teeth out. No complications, everything is healing out perfectly. Extremely nice personality. I mentioned that am sensitive to sedatives, so he used the gentlest available, and I did not suffer any side effects. A little numbness for a couple of hours — and that’s it. Did not even have to take painkillers, minor pain, totally tolerable. Back to normal life in the morning after. And everyone else in the practice is extremely nice. Don’t look anywhere else. Seriously. Highly recommend.

P.S.
1) Dr. Gitelman also failed to disclose long term risks associated with wisdom teeth removal. I’ve always had perfect teeth, but since the surgery (which was elective since my teeth weren’t doing anything other than causing me minor pain) my other teeth have shifted and I may need orthodontia.
2) I complained on the BBB and Dr. G caved. Good because he was lying!

BILLING FRAUD BEWARE!!!
Just had a procedure done by Dr. Gitelman. Took about 10 minutes. Everything worked out fine. Went there from a referral from my regular dentist. Would NEVER go back.
The part I would like to share was the billing practices. Dr. Gitelman was in my network. After getting my pre-​cert for the procedure I came back to the office for the actual procedure. Before anything was done, they charged me «estimated» costs based on my insurance company and their coverage. It came out to $ 466.00. Obviously I paid thinking that my insurance did not cover any of it.
When we got the explanation of benefits from our insurance company, Dr. Gitelman’s office billed my office an additional $ 575 for the same procedure. I called my insurance company and told them that we had already paid $ 466 and was told by my insurance company that since the office was in-​network, there was already an agreed upon cost for the procedure which was $ 174 and we should NOT have been billed $ 466. The $ 174 was to have been paid by our insurance company, not to have been paid by the patient at the time of care.
To add, Gitelman’s office sent us a balance notice that we owed them an additional $ 23. So, I called my insurance company and they called Gitelman’s office on a conference call to find out what was going on. Gitelman’s office said they would update my billing, but I kind of thought as medical professionals they would of done the right thing to begin with.
After calling and calling for an update, Gitelman’s office finally sent us the refund after almost 4 months, but we ended up paying much more than our insurance company told us we should of paid.
Yeah… stay far far away from this place.

Just had my four wisdom teeth extracted. It took like 2 mins and the whole experience with Dr. Gitelman and his staff was very pleasant.

I am a undergrad at Georgetown who needed to get my wisdom teeth removed fairly quickly and far away from home and my normal doctors. I spent a lot of time doing online research and was puzzled by the mixed reviews Dr. Gitelman received.
Here’s the bottom line. Dr. Gitelman cranks out wisdom teeth extraction. He is by no means warm and fuzzy and probably not the best bet for someone apprehensive about the procedure. During the initial consultation, you view a stock video that explains the procedure, then the doc takes a look around and asks if you have any questions. He is very matter-​of-​fact and to the point. He certainly answered all of my questions, but is not looking to become friends. This is good for some, bad for others.
But the doc gets five stars from me because the procedure itself was perfect. For all the talk about wisdom teeth extraction killing and not being able to eat for a week, I must have really lucked out. It was easy to schedule the extraction quickly (they even offered me the morning after my consultation!), though do know you need to bring an escort if you’ll be going under anesthesia.
I arrived early on a Friday morning and went immediately into the chair. They placed a quick IV in the arm, plus an finger EKG to monitor heart rate. The doctor came in, verified I was having all four teeth removed, and pushed me a needle full of anesthesia. I woke up 40 minutes later with cotton balls in my mouth and in relatively little pain.
I’m not sure if it was Dr. Gitelman’s work or I was just lucky, but after one day of consistent icing and popping just a few vicadin, I was back to normal and eating basically anything. I used less than half of my painkillers and felt fine. My follow up appointment lasted thirty seconds, and I was on my way.
There are a lot of reviews on here that talk about the Dr’s billing practices, which do seem a little out of date. They originally over-​charged me, but I promptly received a refund check one my insurance figured things out.
In short, go for a competent doctor who gets your wisdom teeth out painlessly. I had a great experience, but those with serious fears or tons of questions/​concerns, may want to look elsewhere.

So I read all these reviews (both for Dr. Gitelman and the Oral Surgery Office) and I’ll admit I showed up for my initial consult pretty wary — and ready to not schedule the procedure if I didn’t get a good feeling about what was going on in that office.
Frankly, I could not have been more blown away by how nice and professional both the office staff and Dr. Gitelman were. It’s true, he’s not a warm-and-fuzzy-I’m-going-to-hold-your-hand-while-you-cry-it-out kind of guy, but he took the time to address my concerns and gave me solid advice about taking out all four of my wisdom teeth rather than the three that had been recommended (which my regular dentist later gave a second favorable opinion about). They were even able to schedule the procedure really quickly — just four days after the initial consult. Even though I was pretty freaked out about going under general anesthesia (and the weekend of pain I was sure I was about to experience), on the day of the procedure, everyone was super nice, they got me to the back, hooked me up to the IV, and I can’t remember a damn thing after that point (which is exactly how I wanted it). After it was over, they loaded me up with prescriptions, and while I did have some swelling a few days later, I have had almost no pain at all — maybe some minor soreness and tenderness. I just went back for the follow-​up today, and everyone was really nice and courteous and Dr. Gitelman took the time to answer every single one of my (many, many) questions.
Ok, as for the billing issues: two days after my initial consult, I got an invoice which included my portion of the bill, and while I was initially shocked by how large an amount of money it was, after some investigation I realized that a) I have pretty shitty insurance and b) going under general anesthesia in the District of Columbia is really expensive, apparently. So I don’t really blame Dr. Gitelman’s office for that one at all — it’s just something I’ll have to negotiate with my insurance company.
Fundamentally, I like to be an informed consumer and I read Unilocal reviews to help me get a sense of what I’m walking into, but this really was a pleasant surprise. Obviously I wouldn’t want to do it again (not that I even could), but if I had to, Dr. Gitelman would be my choice to do it.

I have never been so ridiculed about money I’m owed. AFTER A YEAR THEY STILL OWED ME $ 540.00!!!
This is ridiculous. Especially after we sat for hours on the phone listening to my insurance company explain clearly what I’m responsible for.

I realize I’m going to be the bad guy here, since most everyone else has given Dr. Gitelman 4 or 5 stars, but I’ve got to write this review. Maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but honestly… I really don’t think there’s a good enough excuse for the way he acted at the end of my appointment.
First of all, my mind was blown when the nurse put on a VIDEO on wisdom tooth removal after she finished up with my xray and what not. A video? Are you kidding? Anyway, I felt like a 5^th grader for ten minutes as I sat through this video but I figured, okay it’s fine I’ll get to have an in-​person conversation in just a few minutes. Dr. Gitelman walks in, and he’s nice enough. I’m not looking for a buddy in my oral surgeon, just someone who can answer any questions for me and not be totally obnoxious. He barely looked at my x-​ray before he jumped into how I should have all four of my wisdom teeth taken out. He walked me through the problems with the two on the bottom, but couldn’t give me a straight answer as to why the top two need to be removed as well. I didn’t know I was going to be pushing his buttons when I asked him for the second time why I need to have my top two wisdom teeth removed if they aren’t causing any problems. Dr. Gitelman’s charming response: «That’s fine, if you don’t want them removed, then don’t have them removed. I’m not going to break your arm. You can diagnose yourself if you want. Have a good day.» And he just walked out.
There is a 100% chance I will not be scheduling surgery with him.
Just as an aside: if I were reviewing his staff, I’d give them all 5 stars. They were all really professional and friendly and I don’t want this review to reflect poorly on the entire office. Just Dr. Gitelman.

Just had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed — was having minor problems with one of them and the dentist suggested I just get them all out.
I’d say this experience was better than just going to the dentist. Dr. Gitelman seems very good at what he does and I would describe him as friendly, but brief. The briefness didn’t bother me though — he answered all my questions he just didn’t dawdle about it. You can tell that this is all very routine for him now since he’s probably been doing it a long time now and he is clearly experienced.
The staff called the insurance company for me to get a quote and recommended I call myself to make sure I didn’t need a referral. For all 4 teeth it only going to cost me $ 250 (I have United Concordia and they covered 80%, ~$ 1600), which I was shocked by (I thought it would cost a lot more).
There was a little confusion with the office staff when I came down with a cold the week of my surgery and (I think) a new nurse told me that I could still have it done but I got a call back later that day and was told I had to wait 10 days until my cold cleared or a week. I called back Monday though and they squeezed me in for that Friday, but told me I might have a wait when I got there.
Got there on time and only had to wait 25 minutes. They immediately put me under general anesthesia and next thing I knew I was waking up with gauze in my mouth. I only felt a small discomfort in one tooth which was so surprising that I thought they must have only removed 2 of the 4 or something (obviously not the case). I was also surprised because general anesthesia usually makes me feel sick but I felt fine (just a little wobbly). I was able to leave almost immediately.
The bleeding took a little while to stop so I just kept switching out gauze and teabags until it did. Its been almost 24 hours since the surgery and I’ve been icing and taking ibuprofen for some of the discomfort and to help reduce any possible swelling, but have had almost no pain yet. Apparently pain and swelling peak 2 – 3 days after though so we’ll see.

Dr. Gitelman removed my wisdom teeth (all 4) about a month ago. I had to wait awhile before going back to the room, but once I sat down, he knocked me out in under 5 minutes. Over the weekend, I had minimal pain and almost no swelling. I was fearing the worst, but I followed Dr. Gitelman’s post-​surgery instructions and had no complications.
One star is knocked off because I have had problems with the office staff — they were not good about returning my phone calls with insurance questions, and they gave me wrong quotes for the price. I haven’t gotten a bill yet, so I’m not sure if I’m going to have more problems later. But I had no problems with Dr. Gitelman or the actual procedure.

After 6 months of being in pain from an infected wisdom tooth and basically being ignored by my dentist office in Arlington, I had it and literally walked into this office and requested my teeth be taken out that week. I got a consultation and had my appointment scheduled for 3 days later.
Scheduling was really easy — they took me the next day for my consultation and then again for the actual surgery. They got my insurance estimate in a day and a half (where as my dentist took 3 months to do this) and it came out to around $ 400 with Aetna fedvip (1 impacted, 2 surfaced). This was about 250 cheaper than the dentist office had estimated so I was happy!
Dr. Gitelman definitely knows what he’s doing. He’s very nonchalant about the whole procedure so I wouldn’t come here if you need to be coddled throughout the whole thing. I knew I wanted these babies ripped out and wouldve done it that day if they let me. After the whole video he just said «so what questions do you have for me» and i said «how fast can you do this». Everyone I know has gotten their wisdom teeth out so I pretty much knew what do expect and what to do/​not do.
Morning of my Friday appointment — I get there and was let in right on time. They hook me up to everything, find my vein, ask me what procedure I’m doing and what teeth etc as theyre drugging me, and next thing you know I’m sitting there with gauze in my mouth! I literally thought 5 minutes have passed by.
Healing was rather uneventful — I took the painkillers as instructed and iced a lot. Did not swell AT ALL (everyone was shocked) and had minimal pain. The one tooth that was really infected wasn’t healing properly so 4 days later I had to go back and he helped patch up the almost forming dry socket. That was the worst part — but he fixed it immediately and took me that Tuesday. I was eating solid foods 6 days later and 2 weeks later I’m back to 100%.
Overall — if you know you need your teeth out, come here if you want a fast and painless procedure with no bells and whistles!

This wonderful person has 2 other accounts (one personal, one office): ‘Jeffrey Gitelman, DDS’ and ‘Washington Oral Surgery.’ READ the low ratings before you go. please! The high ratings are FAKE self-​ratings! you will notice when you look at the ‘other’ ratings of these folk who only have a 1 – 3 ratings because at least one rates the same office TWICE! about saving a life, or something to that effect, LMAO. So, he flagged my reviews at the other two Unilocal accounts that he has for himself – which he shouldn’t be allowed to have – so they’ve removed them. No worries, the search words therein take care of it anyway, eh? yea, yea, in your face dr. nutso.
I don’t know if it will amount to anything, but I have certainly reported them to the BBB, and I advise you all to tread with extreme caution.
MY 2 MINUTE IN-​CHAIR EXPERIENCE:
Dr. Gitelman is a crude person with an explosive personality. After my one-​hour wait (which also included waiting in the hallway outside with 12 other people in front of the locked office door – all of whom also, apparently, had 2 o’clock appointments – see my two paragraphs below), well, I see this guy and he asks how I am. I thought he meant it. I let him know how irritated I actually was from standing outside the locked door with 12 other people, all of whom had the same appointment time… and then of course, waiting one hour. This was his response: «YOU CAN LEAVE. GET OUT. GET OUT!!! I DON’T NEED THIS CRAP.» Exists premises. Further down the hall, I hear him shouting, «I DON’T NEED THIS CRAP» (again).
BEFORE THE APPT (WRITTEN FROM THE OFFICE):
My appointment today was at 2. There were exactly 12 people waiting outside of the door when I arrived, which was locked – apparently for staff to have lunch, but WTF… let us sit in your cramped, dated waiting room while you stuff your faces… or do whatever it is that requires a locked door. so, a doctor came rushing back into the office and we all filed in, one-​by-​one from the narrow corridor (near the elevator) as the patients took turns holding the door open for one another. Bizarre! Interesting to note that all 12 patients had a 2 o’clock appointment! (I asked them.)
It is now 2:37 and I am still waiting… so, I saw the one star review and said I want a copy of medical billing, and all of the corresponding codes for my consult… so an office manager (??) explained things to me as best she could about estimates and adjustments and said I could have a copy of whatever they send over… although she went and explained things as she saw fit, I do believe there was a defensive undertone to her entire explanation. it is now 2:50…
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Needless to say, I managed to not cry until I got home. Yes. I was so upset that I knew to take a chill pill and not react otherwise. The law most certainly would not have been on my side. But more importantly, the Palm restaurant/​bar across the street makes the best long island I think I’ve ever tasted. In any case, I am scheduled to go somewhere else for a bone graft consult and will happily share and promote him if he’s any good in an edited review (here).

Dr. Gitelman saved my life. I had a terrible infection resulting from bad treatment by another dentist. Dr. Gitelman recognized that the infection was very serious and had me immediately hospitalized and surgically removed the infection the next day. I had no complications. He saved my life.
Also, Dr. Gitelman and his staff really make you feel all is okay, like in the old-​fashioned way — like when you are a kid and the doctor makes you feel better and treats you kindly. Pretty rare today, I find.
In addition, Dr. Gitelman and his staff are extremely professional. They are always prompt and informed. The offices are impeccable.
I cannot recommend him more highly.

I just had 4 wisdom teeth removed by Dr. Gitelman. I am terrified by dentists so this was not easy for me. Dr. Gitelman was Awesome! I left there with very minimal pain, no complications. He used sedation and i was out for the whole procedure. Woke up and felt like 5 mins had passed and was ready to go. Had no swelling after the procedure.
Highly recommend!!! He’s so friendly and the staff is so nice to work with!

I saw Dr Gitelman a couple of years ago; just noticed he’s been rated by Unilocal so let me throw in my two bits. My experience was much like Dan M’s; I had wisdom teeth yanked, all 4 in my case, plus a back molar that had cracked very badly, so 5 teeth in all. I opted for sedation — but of course! — and afterwards, amazingly, I had nearly zero pain and swelling. I was expecting major amounts of both — those wisdom teeth were pretty much growing sideways and were about 15 years overdue to get pulled. Nevertheless I experienced an almost ridiculously low degree of discomfort considering he pulled so many teeth. I’d recommend him to anyone. FYI: when I went, the policy was he does sedation only on Fridays, and you have to have someone show up with you if you opt for it – they can’t just show up at the end. That may have changed but it’s worth checking ahead.