I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DR. NEAL PATEL TO ANYONE. I was involved in an accident on 8/25/22 and was referred to Dr. Neal Patel on an emergency basis to handle a broken front tooth that would require removal of what was left of the tooth and roots, grafting within the bone, making a retainer and inserting of post for the final tooth implant. My first visit was on 8/26/22 and lasted five hours. Dr. Patel started by injecting lidocaine into the roof of my mouth without the benefit of any numbing agent. Considering that I am a new patient to Dr. Patel and I have no history with him, I would have thought that he would have been more careful as to any pain that he may be causing me. However, after my initial flinching, I took a deep breath and was ready to move on. When I flinched during him injecting my mouth without the numbing agent, Dr. Patel looks at me and asked "Did that hurt?" to which I responded "Yes". He was sort of "Oh well". I continued to take deep breaths and focus on getting through the procedure. So the tooth pieces and roots have now been removed and I had to have some bone grafting done to get it prepared for the implant post. The lidocaine had worn off by the time the post was imbedded and he again had to give me additional injections. More flinching on my part. Throughout the five hours I must have had two or three hands (plus tools) in my mouth and never did they think to put Vaseline on the corners of my mouth. Once this procedure was done, the corners of my mouth were so torn it took four days before they healed. He was incredibly rough throughout the entire procedure so much so that the maxillary labial frenulum was torn - and again I had to wait for it to heal and the pain to pass. The retainer that he made for me to wear in public while I am waiting for the final implant tooth was great. However, as he was initially fitting it to my upper teeth, there was a sharp point on one of the edges. As he "shoved" it into place, he cut my gum. Again, I flinch. He asks "hmm, did that hurt?" Again, additional pain. Unfortunately, the button that covers the implant post until the tooth is inserted fell out and I had to return to his office on 10/12/22. The button had been out for six days and the gum tissue had started growing over the open post. Dr. Patel walks in and says "Oh this is going to be easy, I just need to screw it back in". I almost fell out of the chair the pain was so intense. He stops and says with a completely dumbfounded look on his face "does that hurt". I was almost in tears by this point. So again with the injections. Again with the pain. But on top of that he IMMEDIATELY starts screwing in the button again without waiting for the lidocaine to take effect. My reaction made him stop and he then left the room to wait for the injection to take effect. I absolutely hated that I had to make one more trip to his office on 11/2/22 for him to check the implant post and release me so that my dentist could take over my further treatment. Dr. Patel walks in and in a pleasant manner proceeds to take a hard metal instrument and start bouncing it off of the metal post. It is not that it was actually painful but he did like eight or nine times - which by the fourth time, it was reverberating through my skull and was just more than uncomfortable. I had made known my feelings and interactions with Dr. Patel to my regular dentist and several individuals in my dentists' office. So I think some of my comments must have made their way back to Dr. Patel because as I am still in a flat chair position with him standing over me (pretty much at his mercy), he stated "Now, I am sure you will agree that this has been a painless process?" My eyes must have almost popped out of my head because he kind of stepped back and reiterated "Nooooo, you can't tell me that this has been painful to you?" I stated that if he had been in my place in this chair - his outlook would have been vastly different. Got up and left.
Upon reflection on his personal physical treatment of me, I would almost classify as sadistic. read more