Dennis-Duke Yamashita, DDS

had a broken jaw needed it to be wired shut. i was discharged from two hospitals including usc medical. they told me i had to go see a specialist. so i had to find a doctor asap myself. i found dr. yamashita because he was local (my only hope) and they took me in the same day to look at it. very knowledgeable guy and also funny lol. he explained what need to be done once xrays were observed. scheduled the wiring and was set two days later. he checked up on me every week to make sure no infection or improper healing, but he was alot more help than the hospital which wasted my time in the ER for 8 hours waiting. having your jaw broken is the most painful thing ever. you will loose weight, i lost 20 pounds due to the liquid diet i was on for a month and half. the front desk girls are nice and cool. kathy provided me with a diet sheet on which i should eat and more rubber bands/​wax for my mouth. they’re willing to work with you. office is nice, quiet, and very cool with AC. they do have there own parking lot which is good and not having to find parking. becarful pulling out tho cars on the road tend to block the view when leaving the lot.

My husband is referred to Dr Yamashita from Dr Hyman next door to consult for an orthognathic surgery prior to putting his braces on. This bad review is mainly for his front desk unbelievably bad attitude. Dr Yamashita himself is very patient in explaining details of the surgery, and seem to be a nice person, but my husband immediately after his consultation, decided not to have Dr Yamashita as his oral surgeon due to the front desk. He thinks an incompetent, impatient and rude front desk will most probably, or definitely bring a lot of pain and unfortunate to a surgery, which is unnecessary. Front desk did not want to deal with insurance, even thou our Blue Shield PPO insurance is already a much better insurance company to deal with (believe me, some other insurance company are way more headache to deal with).
Anyway, this bad review is solely for the front desk, which then leads to us not choosing Dr Yamashita. Based on the Unilocal review, Dr Yamashita would sure be an awesome surgeon, but please please please change a better front desk helper. She is just turning away patients from you.

I called on Monday because I had a wisdom tooth with a a vengeance, was able to be accommodated that same day but due to work had to wait until Thursday. Like most people I dislike going to the dentist and knew all of my wisdom teeth needed to be pulled but never went back lol. The office is easy to locate, parking is easy to find on site or on the street. Seriously you can’t miss it and if you have an iPhone Siri will tell you where to go. The office is very nice and the girls were so welcoming. Kathy was so nice I spoke to her on the phone and she made me feel so comfortable. I was seen quickly had my x rAy and met with Dr. Yamashita. He is very funny, could tell I was nervous and made me feel relaxed and told me exactly what he was gonna do. The whole procedure took less than 20 minutes. I didn’t feel a thing! The two girls he has working with him in the back were so sweet and joking with me. I highly recommend him! Definitely going to go back and get my other three pulled. Thank you Dr. Yamashita !!!

I had a very rare tumor called Ameloblastoma. I looked on wikipedia and it said about 1 in 5 million people get it with my demographics. I went to several surgeons and they all told me that my jaw would have to be removed and replaced with a prosthetic jaw. I most likely would look deformed, have had trouble speaking or eating, or have lost many facial expressions from nerve loss to my face. But Dr. Yamashita recommended trying a different technique to save my jaw. 8 years later I still have my jaw and I am very thankful to him. God bless him. I highly recommend him for oral surgery if you have a tumor. The staff are very friendly and on top of things too.

Wonderful experience with the whole office, very friendly and upbeat. Receptionist made me comfortable from the moment I walked in, procedure went smoothly, Dr. Yamashita is a great surgeon! highly recommended!

Extremely Disappointing experience as I choose this Dr. based on Unilocal reviews but mainly for his association with USC, that’s saying a lot cuz I’m a Bruin.
I was to remove 4 wisdom teeth and thought it would be a simple process which he assured me that it would. Made no mention of possible risk or complications whatsoever (xray was taken). Low and behold, what was a simple process left me with Paresthesia (nerve damage)
that’s now permanent! Not the outcome I’d expect or was even warned about. I went back for check up and was given the dance around that there isn’t a time frame b/​c each person heels differently but window is approx 18months. I waited and waited and waited… No improvement! My surgery was 11/​13/​2012, more than a year ago. It’s safe to say that I’m never going to get better. I believe it’s negligence! It’s his and his staff’s duty to fully disclose the risks and/​or complications that can occur during or after surgery.
I WOULD NOT EVER RECOMMEND ANYONE TO GO HERE!!!

UPDATE:
Well, perhaps I reviewed too prematurely. After getting denied coverage for one of the imaging tests that the Dr. had prescribed, the staff told me that they would follow up with the insurance company. I called back, and they said they’d get to it shortly. Then nothing happened. I called back again… and again… and again… and again. Finally, the lady in charge of that stuff said, «oops, it’s been sitting at the bottom of my pile. I’ll do it today.» Umm… sitting at the bottom of your pile? This was almost 4 or 5 months later. I felt like my issue was not important to her. But for me, having this follow-​up was very important.
The service here after my initial review kinda sucked. I still have yet to receive any reply from her. I’ve tried being nice and tolerant, but the service here could use a little work. Maybe she was busy, which I’d understand, but all it takes is a little acknowledment that my case hasn’t been forgotten. I could probably be forgiving with that a little. To give her some credit though, when I finally did get chances to talk to her, she always seemed nice.
I give it a couple stars for the Doctor and his referrals, but I would suggest finding a place that puts the patient as at a little higher priortity. That’s just my opinion.

Dr. Yamashita does fantastic work, is trustworthy and master oral surgeon. His commitment and desire to give back to his community is second to none. The best I’ve ever seen.

The service provided by the receptionists was the worst I have ever experienced. I heard good things about this place from previous reviews I had read, but I for sure will never be coming back. What little respect I had for these individuals vanished in an instant due to their lack of civility in the workplace and their «I’m better than you and it is always your fault» attitude.
I made an appointment at 10:00am for an orthognathic surgery consultation and was only notified that I had to bring my x-​rays, which I did. The morning of the appointment, I received a call at 9:00am asking me to come in early if possible. On my way to the office, I received another call from a different receptionist reminding me that I have my appointment at 10:00am and I specified to them that I was already notified of this information and that someone else at the office had already given me a call only 15 minutes earlier. The lack of communication between individuals working at the office put my guard up.
When I arrived there, I walked up to the counter and waited while the 2 receptionists there started chatting and didn’t even seem to notice me. I wait 30 seconds until one of the older ones ask «Can I help you» and I tell them that I have an appointment at 10 but someone called to let me know I could come in earlier.
I filled out the new patient form and they asked me if I had my insurance card with me and I gave it to them. However, when they returned it back to me, they told me I had to have a referral from my school, since I was under an educational PPO-​referral only plan. I tell them that I was never notified of this information and no one told me when I made the appointment or when I received the 2 calls that morning. Suddenly, the older receptionist drops whatever kind demeanor she had and starts giving my mother and me attitude. We tell her again that we weren’t notified and ask if it is still possible to see the dentist and she replies back with «Give me the referral. You can’t see the dentist unless I have the referral». By this time, I am already fuming and can’t seem to get one ounce of respect from the lady. She starts telling us that we might as well leave unless we want to pay the 300 $ for the consultation.
We tell her that we will make another appointment with the referral and she just sits at the counter without looking up and without saying a word. We repeat ourselves again and she said we can go home and grab the referral and come back again but by this time, my mother and I decided that this place is not what we are looking for for my orthognathic surgery and make an appointment (which we will cancel later today).
Whether or not the dentist/​surgeon who runs this place is a good dentist, I will never know because the people working as his assistants show a lack of respect for the patients.
Note to Dr. Yamashita, you and I may both be USC Trojans, but perhaps you forgot that Trojans treat others with respect and who you decide to hire as your so-​called assistants influence what patients will think about you and whether or not they will decide to give you their business.

Look peeps. my 4 wisdom teeth got the boot about 5 years ago and Dr. Yamashita was the one who took them out.
Let me just say, AMAZING work! I was so afraid to get them out since I saw all my friends get chipmunk faces with sad, starving eyes.
After recovering from my sedation, I was about as good as you can get. no need for painkillers. In fact, I had PORK CHOPS the second day, but please don’t tell the doctor that! The most painful part of the experience was finding that Dr. Yamashita is a die-​hard USC Trojans fan.
I don’t care if you live close or far, it’s worth going the distance, and worth the extra hundreds I paid out-​of-​pocket for it!