Santos Cortez, DDS

I haven’t been here in years but I’m giving a five star review because as a child it’s traumatizing to sit in a big chair and have someone examine your mouth when your two but dr Cortez was always very gentle, funny and very nice my mom used to work for him years ago … Now that I have a two year old I better visit soon !

Our daughter who has special needs has been coming here for about 2 years. she finally had her 1^st cleaning and it was a traumatic experience for her and for my wife. My daughter was choking in her own saliva and the dental assistant was doing who knows what. Dental assistant must be paying attention during the exam at all times. Dr Cortez also seemed like in a hurry. My wife isn’t sure if she’ll bring our daughter back in this clinic.

We’ve had good experiences here so far. Doc has been very patient with both kids, and one of them really squirmed when he was trying to examine her and he was calm about it.
I have a hard time imagining him being as impatient with squirmy kids as some of the other reviewers claim– seems like a lousy business to get into if you can’t handle kids being pissed about you being in their face.
My kids have never had «procedures» (by which I mean fillings) because they haven’t had any cavities yet (hint hint). I’d probably be reluctant to have a child under as well, of course there are ways of avoiding that (hint). I’m guessing the «condescension» that some people were detecting was a dentist’s disappointment that a very small child already had *several* cavities (hint hint hint: brush your kids’ teeth, savages!). We’ve never gotten that treatment. Gee, I wonder why.
Hint. Hint. Hint.

Dr. Sanchez is great with my two boys I have been coming to this office since they were Toddlers and it’s a good dental office if going to the Dentist can ever be fun this is the place ! Plus Dr Sanchez is a Trojan Fight ON ! That Always helps

I first brought my son to this dental office when he was about a year old. After a few years, i decided to see another dentist closer to where i live. However, that dentist was not a pediatric dentist so I decided to return to Dr. Cortez’s office recently. During a recent visit, my son was seen by a female dentist. She did not introduce herself. After discovering calculus buildup on several of my son’s teeth, this dentist talked to me in a condescending way, even calling me «negligent.» She had me return 2 more times at very close intervals (2 – 4 weeks apart) so she can perform the work on my son’s teeth. Each visit, she required xrays, and each visit she always sounded frustrated. I understand her concern about my son’s dental health but I feel that her manner of talking to me was demeaning. I also work in the medical field but I always talk to my patients in a respectful way and nonjudgemental way because I think that that’s what professionalism entails. I always got anxious before our visits because I was always anticipating her negative remarks. The receptionists could also use more training in public relations. Today, I’ve had it with that place and literally walked out of there with my son. I do not need to subject myself to judgmental health care providers. I pay for my insurance, and have been prompt with my payments. I would rather take my business somewhere else. I highly DO NOT recommend this place.

Dr. Santos is rude and condescending. When we inquired as to why he was ordering X-​rays on our child for the third time within a 12 month period even though our insurance only covers X-​rays once a year, his response was, «I treat patients, not insurance companies.» This doctor insists on using nitrous oxide on young children for even the most simple procedures. Rest assured, we will not be returning to this over billing, nitrous oxide using dentist.

Glad I didn’t go with the appointment, soooo relieved. I literally walked out of the future medical abuse for my kid
We had scheduled an appointment for my 1 year old son and the office seemed to be very friendly… on the phone.
The day came and we happily went in with my little one hoping for a good information and a basic first check up. We came in early and checked in 15 minutes before the appointment, mind you we had diligently filled all of the forms that have been sent to our home, so it really should have taken less that 10 minutes to go in for a check up. after all of the info was taken from us we waited for 25 minutes only to be told that Dr Cortez will be seeing us soon. another 10 minutes went by no one even told us that we had to wait for an appointment beyond our appointment set time, I find it very inappropriate, but still i sit and wait. so from the time we came in and the time we were taken to a room …to wait further. passed good 45 minutes. My little son became fidgety and impatient, cant blame him, i was fed up too. I thought they would be more efficient with little ones of that age, but had a great disappointment, they could care less about your kid and your time. after nurse took my sons pictures for his first dental appointment book and left us, i thought Id look up this office’s credibility. and to no fail i found it right here and would like to thank those parents who cared enough to warn other naïve parent to watch out and perhaps reconsider this office for their babies.
I got up and left the office, came to the reception area (the receptionist wasn’t nice anymore to me after hearing that i wasn’t pleased with the wait time, that hasn’t been even indicated prior arrival or during the wait. She, on the other hand, instead of apologizing and correcting the situation, with her stupid mic on her ear, started literally accusing me for not being patient and waiting only 15 minutes, citing that the appointment was for 10:45. That was a final fit for me, proving that they dint care enough to check the time the patient should have been seen by the doctor, so that tells me that this office is bogus. I had an appointment card in my wallet that clearly stated appointment time for 10:30, but at that point i just wanted to get the hell out of it and never come back. Please read other reviews on here by other parents and choose another doctor for your child. they are not only disrespectful but also could be dangerous for your kid, apparently they treat simple cavities under full anesthesia. wow? really? no thank you. there should be some kind of a regulation that regulates administration of a anesthesia to a kid during dental treatment. I’m definitely going to dig deeper on this issue and find a doctors office that meets regulations of dental practices.
Parents, be good advocates for your own children, because they are little and don’t know any better.
I think if we as a community didn’t go to the practices like this office, there would be space for good doctors to blossom and care for us the way we deserve. after all they get paid very well not only by insurance but by you too.

This review is based on an appointment I had for my daughter (then 3 years old) with Dr. Cortez. Our appointment was made based on a recommendation from a neighbor/​friend, however I could not have been more disappointed. I feel the need to post an opinion to let other parents know what our experience was. My husband and I both came in for the appointment with our daughter– after a 40minute — 1 hour wait to see the dentist, my husband had to leave to get back to his office. Dr. Cortez thereafter visually examined my daughter and declared that she had several cavities which he would only treat under general anesthesia in his office. He was rather abrupt throughout the appointment and highly impersonal. When I inquired as to what we can do to prevent future cavities, Dr. Cortez stated that I «should have educated myself earlier.» I was blown away. Keep in mind that I am a woman of color and was dressed in casual clothes on this particular morning. As a professional w/​graduate degrees I have a hard time believing that he would have made the same comment with my husband in the examining room. Nevertheless, I continued to inquire if an xray would be possible to confirm the dental work needed and he responded that he would not take an xray until the child is sedated on the morning of the surgery. His exact words were that he did not want to «deal with a squirmy child.» On a side note, my daughter was very well behaved and Dr. Cortez made no real attempt to interact with her. Well following a second opinion, X Rays were taken without issue by another pediatric dentist and we have now determined that my daughter has a medical condition that restricted her enamel from fully forming thus causing dental issues. We have been provided with other options to combat future cavities and present cavities will be treated under either local anesthesia in office or if we decide, general anesthesia in a hospital setting (Dr. Cortez performs surgery under general anesthesia in his office– which is very troubling). I highly recommend that any parent obtain a second opinion instead of rushing into surgery with Dr. Cortez..

My two kids have been coming here for years since each of them was a year old. The place is very kid friendly with an aquarium, computer games, and seascape lobby. Staff is efficient and friendly.

Dr. Cortez is amazing. My son, a week before his first birthday, pulled out his front tooth and I was given a card from my pedriction to callDr. Cortez. Bc it was an emergency, I got to speak with their 24 hour emergency operator who then contacted Dr. Cortez and on a satruday night, Dr. Cortez called me and cleared his schedule for monday morning for the surgery. And did an excellent job on my son. The care was amazing. and even a few months later when my son scrapped his other tooth, they checked it, cleaned it and never charged me.

I have taken both my kids to Dr. Santos Cortez. The place is clean and the front desk is always very friendly. I can say that I only have positive experience with them. My kids are now teenagers: 19 and 16 but when they were young they loved having their teeth cleaned because they say it’s chocolate flavored. My 19 year old no longer goes to Dr. Cortez but my 16 year still goes.

Dr. Cortez was my dentists YEARS ago when he was first starting out and when I had my first child, we started seeing Dr. Cortez again. He now has a super cool underwater-​themed office, very kid friendly.
I now have all 3 of my children see him for their dental care and until we had to have fillings done for my son about a year ago, we had no problems with this office. I had a similar experience to Avalon with his office requiring sedation to do fillings.
My daughter who is now 12 years old, had fillings by him in the past without any sedation, just a local anesthetic. My son was barely 5 years old and I didn’t agree with knocking him out for two fillings.
I took him to another dentist that did laser drilling, which is virtually painless, but it turned out that my son was not a candidate with where his cavities were located, so that dentist gave him a local anesthetic and did the fillings.
Since that DDS is 30 miles away, we came back to Dr. Cortez who basically did not want to treat my son for further fillings and told me to see the other DDS. I told him I wasn’t planning on seeing that DDS again because of distance and he reluctantly agreed to do the new set of fillings my son needed with just a local. My son did fine, but this office likes to make it easier on themselves and not deal with squirmy children, so they like to sedate. I did find that this seems to be common practice currently with pediatric dentists.
Their orthodontist is really nice as well, but they took a mold of my daughter’s mouth for an ortho consult and it was done improperly, so they diagnosed my daughter with bad bone structure on her face and said they couldn’t treat her and referred us to a GREAT orthodontist who laughed off their «findings».
Anyhow, nice office overall with friendly staff and I would recommend them to others, but with my own personal recent experiences with this office we will not be returning after being patients for years.

This office bills itself as a dental office for children. I came here on the recommendation of our pediatrician, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed in the level of care received. They have a really cool fishtank in the lobby, video games in the waiting area and are geared towards kids in that sense. However, I don’t think they actually care about children’s health. My daughter was 5 years old and had several cavities. They only wanted to do the procedure if they had her under general anaesthesia! #1 — how safe is it to put your kid under to fix a few cavities! #2 — they wanted to charge me an extra $ 1600 that would not be covered by insurance for this. When I tried to talk some sense into them, they were so condescending — «Mom, this is how kids get traumatized and don’t want to go to the dentist.». I hate when people call me «Mom» except for my own kids. So, I booked it the hell out of that place, and went to another dentist who filled the cavities in 2 visits. No trauma at all to my daugther. Don’t take your kid here!!!