Dr. Stephen Alfred Schendel, MD

Dr. Schendel left me with an open bite so bad that the teeth no longer function properly. The bite needs surgical correction for a stable outcome, yet he refused to issue a refund or revise his poor surgery, instead leaving his patient in permanent pain in order to protect himself. He comes off as nice and grandfatherly, but he is NOT a good guy.

I saw Dr. Schendel from 2006-2009 (I think) for corrective jaw surgery, when he was still at Stanford. If I knew now what I knew then, I would have found a different surgeon. My surgery (upper and lower jaw surgery, where my jaws were broken in several places to correct my bite) was in the summer of 2007. It's been nearly 9 years and I still have nerve damage in my face from the severing of nerves from lower jaw surgery. Only top jaw surgery was needed to fix my bite, I was told, but my insurance company approved lower too and he said it would be aesthetically better if I had the lower one moved slightly. I stupidly agreed. I was in my 20s and that sounded good, and if I had known that almost 10 years later the whole lower part of my face would still have numbness, tingling, itching, discomfort I would have NEVER agreed. He did not warn me. Did he just do it for the money because my insurance agreed to doing both jaws?? I'm starting to think that might be the case! When he was at the… Stanford clinic, it was complete chaos. They lost my records more than once and I feel like usually he was just going on whatever he felt like doing and not making solid medical decisions based on medical fact. He had a very casual attitude. Like, "Oh, once I get in there on the surgery date, we'll see what we do." Yes, he didn't even KNOW for sure if he was going to do both jaws or what he was going to end up doing! (Again, if I only knew better!) We want to trust our doctors because they claim to know best but I really wish I had not stayed with him as my jaw surgeon. :(

Dr. Schendel is a horrible surgeon. Not only because his lack of skill, but also he's unethical. I had a jaw surgery done by him to correct my TMJ and the results were terrible. I ended up with an open bite and overjet on both the front and left side, and my jaw still has some problems after my surgery. The open bite on the left side is so huge that it causes many problems for me, and even prosthodontists can't fix this for me. I also had genioplasty done by him because he claimed to also do plastic surgery, but he didn't even know the basics of plastic surgery. He did not have me wear a strap around my head while healing, and my chin became so long I looked like Jay Leno. No fillers were used either so there was a very obvious line across my chin as well and my flesh grew into that groove, and to top it all off, the chin was crooked. He sewed my lower lip so low that I had trouble closing my mouth, and my mouth became crooked and half the size it used to be. At first I was… hesitant to go see him because he was a professor and I didn't want fellows involved in my surgery, but later I found out that he had his own private practice. I told him that I was concerned about fellows participating in my surgery, but he assured me that since he has a private practice so he can make sure that they won't be a part of my surgery. However, after looking through my records after the surgery, I found out that fellows had participated, and once I confronted him about it, he admitted this. This is very unethical and dishonest of him. Thanks to him, I had to do revision surgery, but the damage done by him is permanent. Nothing I can do can get rid of the line across my chin, and my mouth still has terrible scarring and is still much smaller than before. I still have trouble speaking because of the scarring. He even tried to settle with me for a sum of money for the damage that he's done. I would give my contact information so I can show you the horrible damage that he has done to me, but yelp does not let me post my personal information up here. Please think twice before you see this horrible unethical doctor, especially if you're thinking about plastic surgery!!

Amazing surgeon! Surprisingly friendly and very helpful.

Dr. Schendel was recommended to me by another Palo Alto plastic surgeon who is himself well-regarded. He told me that Dr. Schendel was the absolute best. I had a complex problem --- revising a poorly done sliding genioplasty which itself was a revision of an old chin implant from 1969. My situation was unfortunate --- I had developed a sagging chin and all kinds of other undesirable outcomes including difficulty chewing and speaking. I had originally had a receding chin, but in 1969 the implants were primitive, made of old silicone and the implant had worn at the roots of my lower teeth. Another doctor in trying to fix that, had caused an asymmetry and weakened the chin muscles. Dr. Schendel gave me beautiful symmetry and function to my jaw, and it looks and works terrific, perfectly natural. He has a calm air of expertise, and I knew that he understood what needed to be done to set this all right. He is very friendly and informative. I can't recommend him highly enough. His… office staff is also wonderfully helpful and personable. What a relief after years of bearing up with my unfortunate appearance and inability to chew or talk properly. Now I am completely satisfied.

My son was born with a cleft lip, and Dr Schendell did the first and the revision surgery for him, The surgeries came out nicely and I am very fortunate to have him to do the surgeries for my son. He is very professional, experienced, and patient.