Dr. John Theodore Zaffer

My daughter had to get a police escort in order to get granddaughter's dental records. He charged $1680 for a bridge he didn't provide, my daughter went to him, got an xray, he sent her to an oral surgeon and in that week she decided to change dentists, his work isn't good, and she never returned. He still charged her for the bridge. I'm suing.

I am a former patient of Dr. Zaffer's who recently decided to go elsewhere for my dental needs. I really liked Dr. Zaffer and his staff for the majority of my time there but the last two years there were a few things that didn't sit well with me. It seemed like every time that I went for my six month check up/cleaning, I was told by Dr. Zaffer that there was a problem with a crown and it needed to be replaced. After this happened a few times, I started to wonder if he was making this up in order to generate income for himself. Additionally, I never received any kind of billing statement from his office indicating what portion insurance covered and what portion I owed. I was told that insurance did not cover a certain procedure and that I owed the full amount and later I found out differently from my dental insurance company's Explanation of Benefits. This discrepancy was very concerning. For the above reasons, I decided to go elsewhere for my dental needs.

I'll begin by saying that Dr. Zaffer has always been a nice man and his staff was very good in my nearly 11 years as a patient of his. Unfortunately, I have recently had increasing concerns about Dr. Zaffer's abilities and judgment as a dentist. I have moved on to another dental facility and I have two family members who have left Dr. Zaffer after nearly three years with him. The main point of contention is simple: Dr. Zaffer does not stand behind his bridge and crown work. To elaborate, we've all had bridges made by Dr. Zaffer and all have failed within 3 years - in one case, less than a year. In all cases, decay and/or cavities developed on the underlying teeth which rendered the bridges unusable and necessitated, according to Dr. Zaffer, that new bridges be made. And at full or near full price... again. We've also had crowns that came loose in as little as 8 months. And a couple of times, instead of just replacing the crown, Dr. Zaffer opted for a much more expensive three… tooth bridge - which necessitated the grinding down of two good teeth. It just didn't make sense, at least in my lay opinion. And since I'm not a dentist, I asked one about it. It is the opinion of my new dentist that the teeth involved in my failed bridge were not properly prepared for the bridge in the first place, resulting in unavoidable failure. Either some decay was missed on the underlying teeth before the bridge was put on, or there was a gap somewhere between the tooth/teeth and the bridge - or both. As for crowns falling out, it's a similar reason. The underlying tooth was not properly prepared to hold the cement to keep the crown affixed. I am beyond diligent in keeping my teeth clean and the fact that this happened to all three of us is a bit much to dismiss as coincidence or patient neglect. I know people who have bridges and crowns in their mouths that are 20-30 years old that are still just fine. I find Dr. Zaffer's claim that a bridge would need to be replaced after only a couple of years (or a crown coming uncemented after only 8 months) to be dubious. Ultimately, my advice would be - if possible, insist on a written guarantee from Dr. Zaffer for expensive dental work. Otherwise, you very likely will be charged twice for the same procedure, even if its failure is not your fault. Obviously, things like trauma or an individual patient's poor dental hygiene are out of Dr. Zaffer's control, but neither of those situations apply here. Additionally, Dr. Zaffer owns equipment that not only manufactures crowns, but up to three-tooth bridges as well. He should be lowering his prices since he no longer has to pay a lab for crowns and bridges. That should be another topic that prospective patients bring up with him before agreeing to an expensive procedure.

I'll begin by saying that Dr. Zaffer has always been a nice man and his staff was very good in my nearly 11 years as a patient of his. Unfortunately, I have recently had increasing concerns about Dr. Zaffer's abilities and judgment as a dentist. I have moved on to another dental facility and I have two family members who have left Dr. Zaffer after nearly three years with him. The main point of contention is simple: Dr. Zaffer does not stand behind his bridge and crown work. To elaborate, we've all had bridges made by Dr. Zaffer and all have failed within 3 years - in one case, less than a year. In all cases, decay and/or cavities developed on the underlying teeth which rendered the bridges unusable and necessitated, according to Dr. Zaffer, that new bridges be made. And at full or near full price... again. We've also had crowns that came loose in as little as 8 months. And a couple of times, instead of just replacing the crown, Dr. Zaffer opted for a much more expensive three… tooth bridge - which necessitated the grinding down of two good teeth. It just didn't make sense, at least in my lay opinion. And since I'm not a dentist, I asked one about it. It is the opinion of my new dentist that the teeth involved in my failed bridge were not properly prepared for the bridge in the first place, resulting in unavoidable failure. Either some decay was missed on the underlying teeth before the bridge was put on, or there was a gap somewhere between the tooth/teeth and the bridge - or both. As for crowns falling out, it's a similar reason. The underlying tooth was not properly prepared to hold the cement to keep the crown affixed. I am beyond diligent in keeping my teeth clean and the fact that this happened to all three of us is a bit much to dismiss as coincidence or patient neglect. I know people who have bridges and crowns in their mouths that are 20-30 years old that are still just fine. I find Dr. Zaffer's claim that a bridge would need to be replaced after only a couple of years (or a crown coming uncemented after only 8 months) to be dubious. Ultimately, my advice would be - if possible, insist on a written guarantee from Dr. Zaffer for expensive dental work. Otherwise, you very likely will be charged twice for the same procedure, even if its failure is not your fault. Obviously, things like trauma or an individual patient's poor dental hygiene are out of Dr. Zaffer's control, but neither of those situations apply here. Additionally, Dr. Zaffer owns equipment that not only manufactures crowns, but up to three-tooth bridges as well. He should be lowering his prices since he no longer has to pay a lab for crowns and bridges. That should be another topic that prospective patients bring up with him before agreeing to an expensive procedure.

Had a crown made and 9 months later it fell out since I could not find it I had to pay him again another $625.00 .now 3 months later again it fell out!- I have the filling but I am sure if I call him he will charge me again. He is money hungry I would not use this dentist if he was the last man standing on earth!

Good Points: 1) Helpful, friendly staff. 2) Any dental work he has done for me has held up well. 3) Says if I have any problems with work he has done, to call and they will fit me in immediately. Bad Points: 1) On a couple of occasions I felt rushed. 2) Has not addressed a significant problem with my gums. 3) Told me one procedure was not covered by insurance and I would have to pay for it out of pocket. I subsequently found out they did submit it to my insurance company. While my insurance company did not pay for it, they wrote off a portion. Office should have refunded to me the portion that was written off.

Had a bridge made and been experiencing pain since. I had a bridge done by him. Was experiencing pain right after I left the office. So I Went to another dentist and he said the bridge is poorly made, not sealed good enough which would allow fluids or food to get inside my teeth. He also said there could be a potential nerve damage depending how negligence he acted. So unprofessional. And he also chanrged my for work he didn't even performed, he is a liar, never trust him.

He ruined my teeth, biggest liar I've ever met. Chanrged me money for procedures he never performer. I had to spend thousand of dollars going to specials, that's how bad he messed up my teeth. I would never recommend this guy to anyone.

Beware!! Horrible I can't tell you how many times he either cracked/completely broke my 8 veneers. So I had walk around for a couple months missing one of them. He didn't do the veneers right and resorted to grinding the inside of my teeth down so I could bite down. My new doctor said he really screwed my mouth up. And know it's going to cost me a lot of money to get them fixed correctly. He was always in a rush and always offered the most expensive options possible.

Not very happy with this dentist and it should have been crystal clear to me the first time I dealt with his arrogance, but sometimes you try to give people a chance to prove you wrong. The first incident happened as he was doing work in my mouth, he accidentally hit my lip which ended up becoming fat and started bleeding. He never acknowledged the event nor did he apologize. Secondly, he did not listen to me where I was indicating pain. I used the last of my insurance money on a procedure that could have waited till the next year and had to pay out of pocket an exorbitant amount to fix the tooth that was the issue. That was the last straw. Beware of this dentist!!