I’ve lived here for 4 months now and I have no idea how to find a good dentist in the Lake View/Lincoln Park area. At work, I put the various names that came up on the Cigna insurance website into the Yelp! website and each practice ended up with either mixed or negative reviews.
Yelp! probably isn’t the greatest way to evaluate a dentist since most people are far more likely to post negative experiences than positive ones.
Any other ideas or suggestions?
Awesome dentist - you asked for good, this place is it. You want super cheap, ignore this post, but really good is what you’ll get.
I’ve been seeing Dr. Wojno (Dr. Jeff) at Always There Dental Care on Lincoln/Racine/Diversey. A cleaning runs around $150 IIRC, and my insurance gives me back a whole $80. They do require payment up front, will submit all your stuff to your insurance for you, and then it’s up to you to follow up with what insurance will reimburse you.
I needed two crowns due to bruxism at the end of 2010, and was able to stagger them between 2010 and 2011 to get the most out my insurance coverage. I just got gold crowns since it’s my farthest back molars that no one can see. Dr. Jeff is very picky about making sure they fit properly and had to send the second one back because he wasn’t satisfied with the fit. No additional charges for the extra appointment, all included in the original (but not cheap) price. The crowns are perfect, and he expects them to last 25-30 years. He gave me no guff about choosing the gold over porcelain (same price) and said they would likely last the longest for me, anyway. After all the horror stories I’ve heard from other people about their ordeals with problem crowns, I was nervous even though I wasn’t getting root canals, but I floss these with no worries and my mouth has been pain free since I got them. The old enamel was worn off and cracked down the back of both of them. So much better now!
Dr. Jeff also finally convinced me after many years to get a fitted-by-him mouth guard rather then using the ones I was getting from Target, and he guaranteed me that it would last for 5 years (the equivalent in price of me replacing my Target ones every 6 months). Anyway, what I was getting to is as far as crowns, for people without clenching/grinding issues, they do in-house porcelain crowns for which there’s no interim temporary time.
His hygienist also convinced me to purchase a Braun electric toothbrush, and I have to say that after using it for a year now and having two stellar checkups with now-perfect gums (formerly pockets of 3-4-5 mm and stern conversations about gum disease, now all 1’s and 2’s), it was by far the best thing I’ve done for my teeth after the mouth guard.
Ah - they appear to have a new website. It’s focusing on making you look like a celebrity, but believe me, I’m a basic kind of girl, and they do the basics quite nicely. Not cheap by far in the city, but you asked for good, and I recommend Dr. Jeff to everyone. I know two other people who go there regularly, plus a third who used him to fix what a different dentist messed up.
Try poking around on Zocdoc. It’s lets you enter your insurance plan and where you are, and will give you not only nearby dentists, but also their ratings, and will let you schedule an appointment right online. Pretty slick. Not every dentist is going to be on there, though (I found my doctor and optometrist through it, but my dentist is not on there).
I like my dentist a lot. He’s at Fullerton and Sheffield. If you want his name, let me know, but he is retiring in a year or two so you’d probably best look elsewhere if you are seeking a long-term dental relationship.