pediatric dentists: Dana Greenwald, Amy Light, Ricardo Perez

[Anonymous]

Our pediatrician's office recommends all three of these pediatric dentists and I have no question about any of their qualifications. I am looking for some personal experiences.

What can you tell me about wait times, nature and extent of dentist's discussion with parents, likes/dislikes re staffing. Please also tell me how long you have been in their practice. Many thanks.

[Anonymous]

LOVE dr perez - the waiting room is great (video games, books, etc) - and the exam rooms are so nice & clean and also have tvs for kids to watch videos if they want to - the staff is all really nice & most importantly he is a wonderful and kind dentist (the kids go in for the cleaning on their own, but then you speak with the dr, etc). my kids have been going to him for a few years (they are still little, so no cavities, etc) and my sister's kids have been seeing him for like 10 years - i've only heard good things about him.

[Anonymous]

You should add Alan Kuwabara to the list. Often, Greenwald doesn't take new patients, and I believe she may refer people to Kuwabara. We've always had a good experience there.

[Anonymous]

11:40 (or others) - can you speak further about Dr. Kuwabara? Drs Perez and Greenwald have websites I found super informative, but he doesn't have one. Of course, they don't take insurance but he does. I'd love to learn more about him, since while I'd love to get it covered, it's more important to me that dd has a good first few experiences with dentists. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:40 (or others) - can you speak further about Dr. Kuwabara? Drs Perez and Greenwald have websites I found super informative, but he doesn't have one. Of course, they don't take insurance but he does. I'd love to learn more about him, since while I'd love to get it covered, it's more important to me that dd has a good first few experiences with dentists. Thanks.

If you search on this web site, you'll find lots of positive posts about him. He's easy-going, and relates well to kids (and they to him). He also saved us big bucks (and big pain) by confirming that a procedure another dentist said was necessary actually wasn't (and we confirmed Dr. K was right with a third opinion). The office is painted like a beach, and it's open and airy. It never feels crowded. And yes, taking insurance is good.

[Anonymous]

We've been taking our kids to Dr Greenwald for 3 years. The wait is minimal; the staff are great and do their best to make the experience fun. My kids look forward to getting their sticky lizards and nail polish after each visit.

We've also seen Dr Light and Dr Roya (in the same practice, used to be with Dr Greenwald), and I think it's an excellent practice.

I'd go by location. Dr Light is in Potomac; Dr Greenwald is in the Elizabeth Arden building in Friendship Heights.

Also I believe Dr Light takes insurance; Dr Greenwald does not.

[Anonymous]

np here. Our dentist is Kuwabara, we like him very much. Our DS is mildly SPD and has fared surprisingly well with Dr. Kuwabara, who is gentle and calm and patient.

Although he does take insurance, it seems like he just takes 1 or 2 kinds and they are rare-sounding things I've never heard of. So don't count on insurance to save the day there.

[Anonymous]

I will weigh in because we have been to see Dr. Greenwald, Dr. Perez and Dr. Kuwabara! They are all great and honestly, you couldn't go wrong with any of them. We first saw Dr. Perez a few years ago when DS had a dental emergency (knocked a tooth loose on the playground). At the time we didn't have a regular dentist (DS was 2 1/2), and Dr. Perez was the one who could see us immediately. Dr. Perez was excllent--warm, kind, professional. We would have stuck with him except he doesn't like the parent to go back with the child, and for us that was a deal-breaker. So, when we needed a regular dentist, we went with Dr. Greenwald. We saw her for several years. She is fabulous as is her staff; absolutely nothing but good things to say about her. When our second child got to be of dental age, though, it was just too expensive to keep paying out of pocket for two children, since Dr. Greenwald doesn't take insurance. So, we then switched to Dr. Kuwabara because he takes our insurance. He is also very nice and professional, with a good bedside manner and pleasant office. So in a nutshell, choose based on your insurance, your logistics, etc., because they are all fine dentists.

[Anonymous]

Kuwabara is awesome! We were referred by Greenwald's office a few years ago and we've been to see him 3 times so far. His office is never crowded and we've never had to wait (how does he pay the bills?) and he is amazing with my very shy and nervous DD. He makes it easy and fun and she ends up giggling. PLus he hands out a goody bag of treats (floss, stickers, toothbrush, etc. ) atthe end that make sit seem like it's a treat to go there. My DD actually said "I want to go back!" after her last visit and whined about it that night that she wanted to go every day!!!

[Anonymous]

Oh, and he takes our insurance...I think he takes lots of different ones, not just rare ones.

[Anonymous]

We LOVE Dr. Dana! She's been in practice forever; I know a 25 year old who was kicked out when she started college because she was too old for Dr. Dana (otherwise she'd probably still be there...).

The staff are wonderful - the hygienists have water fights with the little hoses and let my DD spray them. Dr. Dana gets in on the action sometimes too. The kids have so much fun, my daughter actually BEGS me to go to the dentist even when we don't have to go. Of course, the free manicure when you leave doesn't hurt either - I wish I got a manicure when my teeth were cleaned.

Dr. Dana is great with problems as well and is not overly aggressive in treatment. When DDs teeth were loose at age 3, she took X-rays to make sure there was nothing wrong, but just had me keep an eye on things. Eventually she removed 1 tooth, but did not remove another because it was not necessary. I've called with questions and been able to get same-day appointments in an emergency (big fall on sidewalk...)

She does not take insurance, (though you could file yourself if you have dental insurance) but we use our Flex Acct to cover the visits.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Light is great but she is way out in Potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will weigh in because we have been to see Dr. Greenwald, Dr. Perez and Dr. Kuwabara! They are all great and honestly, you couldn't go wrong with any of them. We first saw Dr. Perez a few years ago when DS had a dental emergency (knocked a tooth loose on the playground). At the time we didn't have a regular dentist (DS was 2 1/2), and Dr. Perez was the one who could see us immediately. Dr. Perez was excllent--warm, kind, professional. We would have stuck with him except he doesn't like the parent to go back with the child, and for us that was a deal-breaker. So, when we needed a regular dentist, we went with Dr. Greenwald. We saw her for several years. She is fabulous as is her staff; absolutely nothing but good things to say about her. When our second child got to be of dental age, though, it was just too expensive to keep paying out of pocket for two children, since Dr. Greenwald doesn't take insurance. So, we then switched to Dr. Kuwabara because he takes our insurance. He is also very nice and professional, with a good bedside manner and pleasant office. So in a nutshell, choose based on your insurance, your logistics, etc., because they are all fine dentists.

We also had some experience w/ Dr. Perez. While I think the work he did was excellent, and the office is certainly well-appointed, a number of things caused us concern -- 1) he actually missed an abcess because he did not do a full physical exam but rather relied on xrays only even though the patient was present, 2) he does not allow parents back with patients and this is a major red flag/deal breaker for us (had we known in advance and had it not been an emergency near the weekend, we would have gone elsewhere), 3) he dispenses valium for all ages w/ far too little discussion, IMO and 4) finally, he performed more work than we had agreed upon, without clearing it with me, the parent in advance, just presenting it as a fait accompli despite the fact that I explicitly told the nurse no other work or meds were to be given without my permission. The latter, besides being extremely bad practice in terms of not getting patient consent for a procedure, was also a costly financial error for us personally since the work he took the liberty to perform would have been fully covered by a preferred provider and could have easily been performed safely at another time. Instead, we ended up paying hundreds of dollars extra that was not reimbursable but would have been otherwise.

Nice guy, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:np here. Our dentist is Kuwabara, we like him very much. Our DS is mildly SPD and has fared surprisingly well with Dr. Kuwabara, who is gentle and calm and patient.

Although he does take insurance, it seems like he just takes 1 or 2 kinds and they are rare-sounding things I've never heard of. So don't count on insurance to save the day there.

My DC has only seen Dr. Kuwabara once and went with DH so I don't have firsthand knowledge of the office. From the report I got, the dentist is a great guy.

Dr. Kuwabara takes Metlife dental. It's one of the reasons we went with him versus one of the other dentists OP listed.

[Anonymous]

We love Dr. Greenwald. The dealbreaker for us with Dr. Perez was the requirement to go back alone at 3. At 5 my kid is fine, at 3, no.