Last year I began a Women's Wellness channel on Youtube and since then I have been a strong promoter for women's health and overall wellness. When I moved to NYC in my early 20's I had a horrible experience where I allowed a dentist to fill my mouth with mercury (not knowing the effects it could cause in my mouth or overall health). Knowing all the dangers of mercury and the issues that they cause with women's health now, I've been on a mission to not only remove my current mercury fillings but also do some restorative work from the damage done from prior dental experiences.
I chose this dentist because of the yelp reviews (even though it is very far from where I live).
This is a small office and the receptionist's are surprisingly great. My first consultation seemed to go well until I spoke to Lucente about my mercury fillings. This dentist is definitely a pro mercury filling dentist. I asked him about removing the mercury that was in my mouth and he told me that he would keep them in. I talked to him about the issue at hand which was a food trap that I had identified between 2 fillings. He said that he would place a new filling there to fix it. This is where I became somewhat leery because I didn't want anymore mercury in my mouth.
Lucente seemed okay during our consultation, however all of our subsequent interactions were horrible. To put it simply, he doesn't have good bedside manner and lacks basic customer service and people skills. During our last interaction it was clear that this guy is very unprofessional. He cancelled my 12 pm appointment after I had traveled almost 2 hours to get there stating that I was 10 mins late...I was the only patient in his office with no other patients waiting to be seen. He said that they would be coming in soon possibly at 12:30pm .....I asked him if he was joking, because it seemed like no one else in his office was made aware of this decision, as they greeted me and had me sign-in when I arrived. He said that he made the decision when he saw me that he didn't want to see me and that I should have arrived early. He then argued with me in front of his staff about it. I ended the conversation simply stating: if for whatever reason you didn't want me as a patient you should have let me know so that I didn't have to waste my time and money travelling all the way out here only for you to cancel my appointment. I also let him know that If time is a factor for him all he needs to do is schedule them earlier instead of cancelling them. In this case 11:30am instead of 12pm if he knows that he needs an hour to complete a filling...I want to also add that like most dentist Lucente does make patients wait also. For my first appointment I waited almost 40mins... Lucente doesn't understand how his word choice and actions can create tension for patients. Especially when considering that most people don't like going to the dentist or have anxiety about dentists in the first place.
I have never experienced a dentist or medical professional like this before. I left my last visit with Lucente letting him know that I would be writing a review of my experience, he seemed to not care and shrugged it off. I guess he doesn't really care about obtaining new patients, his bedside manner, or the quality of customer service. OR it is more than likely he picks and chooses patients and who he will provide quality of care to as he stated to me "it might be better if you find a dentist that is closer to you" I am an African American female from Brooklyn. At the end of the day I don't want anyone like this getting money from me or working in my mouth. In addition I am okay with him being completely off-putting because it means that I can get the proper work done by someone who is trained in overall wellness, which Lucente is not (as he still prefers to use mercury for his clients).
I would not recommend this dentist to women, anyone with compromising health issues that could be exasperated by mercury or anyone who just wants to be treated nicely by a professional. I hope this is helpful. Most dentist function as money grabs you must do your do diligence to find decent ones.
If you are looking for a good, professional dentist, keep looking! read more
