Anthony M Pogrel,DDS, MD

* too bad I cannot select zero stars *
Dr. Pogrel removed one of my implants Jul 28, 2015, he did that in less than 1 minute using some kind of drill instrument and pliers, he told me I don’t have to see him again because the stitches will drop by themselves, besides he added; «you have done this before and you know what to do», something amazing to here from the mouth of UCSF doctor, he also added that he could remove all my implants if I wanted him to???
Two days later when I visited Dr. Range for a final discussion on my prosthesis, he checked the wounded socket and told me that it was in a mess, there was an obvious bad infection, he cleaned the socket and asked me if I wanted to see Dr. Pogrel, but I declined, for the simple reason that I do not trust him as a dentist any more and don’t want him to touch my mouth ever again.
Dr. Range gave me penicillin which I took to completion, but the pain did not stop. I went to Kaiser where they took CT-​scans and X-​rays and determined that there was a broken jaw bone fragment in the socket. They referred me to Santa Clara Kaiser Maxillofacial Surgery department where they removed the broken bone on Aug 31 and asked me to wait two weeks to give a chance to the wound to heal.
Seven weeks later today, since Dr. Pogrel removed the implant and I am still in acute pain. If the pain does not stop I may have to take a legal action for negligence against Dr. Pogrel.
I don’t know what school Dr. Pogrel attended for his implant training but for sure they did not teach him how to remove implants gracefully. What makes it worse is that he is the Director of the Dental Implant Center and much worse that this is happening at the UCSF one the most respected schools of the world. How do you expect him to teach young students to remove implants when he does not know how to do it himself? it is a shame!
I sure hope that the Dean of the UCSF Dental school will take a corrective action.

We are going into phase 2 of my daughter’s orthognatic surgeries with Dr Pogrel and his staff. My daughter had her first surgery last June and all appointments leading up to the surgery were knowledgeable and successful. Dr Pogrel made sure we were aware of every detail that was going to occur and made sure my daughter was included in decision making as well. Once the surgery date came, all at UCSF were amazing to her and us and Dr Pogrel was as kind hearted as he had always been. I’ve never experienced the rudeness others have on Unilocal.Saw him today in preparation for the next, much larger surgery coming up this June. He again, educated us in this next procedure and made sure my daughter was included in decisions. I highly, highly recommend Dr Pogrel and his staff! As a matter of fact, I placed a call to him last night after hours and he promptly returned it personally first thing in the morning.

Let me say a word in defense of Dr. Pogrel
First of all: yes. Dr. Pogrel asks how you are going to pay. But this is not because he is greedy. This needs to be clarified before he could determine who and when is going to do the procedure to you. UCSF OMS is government funded clinic and no patient could be refused in service, even if he is not able to pay. The matter of fact, doctors in UCSF volunteer to perform free of charge surgeries, but this happens not every day, only once in a while, like twice a month or so (clinic could go bankrupt, if free surgeries are performed all the time). The are also some charities who pay for the patients in need, but they could only give certain amount of money per period of time. All of the above means, that when Dr. Pogrel asked you «how you are going to pay» he actually tried to figure your financial situation and whether you need to be placed to free or charity funded time-​slots (which usually are all booked for long time ahead). Besides, if you can’t pay and your surgery could not wait, there are other options: residents could do some procedures, or, if it is not an option then doctor needs to look for other possibility (like urgent free of charge surgery, or partial charge) and look for a volunteer doctor who can do it.
All the money-​related questions asked are for the sake of needy patients, remember that, please. If you say that you have an insurance — then the task is easy, Doctor just transfers you into the hands of financial department and they schedule your appointment to the next available time-​slot (which is usually quite soon for paying patients). Again, it is not a private clinic, when you must present your insurance upfront before even the first appointment; it’s government-​funded clinic, and doctors try to work in the best interest of every patient even of those, who could not pay. And yes, they need to clear it before planning the procedure.
For the same reason, please do not complain if doctor Pogrel does not give you as much time and answer all the unnecessary questions as doctors in private clinics. The appointment schedule is very busy, so the clinic could maintain the low prices (and even free procedures) and survive. Respect this!
Second: Dr. Pogrel is the best surgeon with golden hands, and also a wonderful scientist with wide scientific interest. Just go on his website and look at the articles he had published for the years of his practice. There are about two hundred publications! This is an unbelievable number. He performed many procedures no-​one had done before him, he developed several important techniques and did a LOT for the science of dentistry. Just read about him.
From my personal experience:
Dr. Pogrel did a very rare procedure to me: Tooth auto-​transplantation. He transplanted my healthy wisdom tooth to the place of a molar which needed to be removed. Doctor removed my old tooth (which was rotten and had cracked in pieces) during couple of minutes. Yes, it usually takes much longer, when tooth falls off in pieces; for other surgeon it would take more then a hour, but not for Dr. Pogrel. He has very strong and very gentle hands. He did it momentarily! After that he pulled off my wisdom tooth, which he was able to extract very quickly and totally intact. He placed the wisdom tooth into the prepared socket and placed a couple of stitches. I was given antibiotics and I was using Advil as an after-​surgery pain relief. Actually, Dr. Pogrel made the surgery so neatly I didn’t need a pain relief at all. I felt uncomfortable for couple of days, but this wasn’t really painful. In four days the swelling was gone, and in a week my gums almost healed. It actually took a couple of weeks to heal totally. Dr. Pogrel said that I can not chew on transplanted tooth for 6 weeks, and we could see if transplantation was successful after 6 months.
I want to emphasize — no one, not a single oral surgeon in California wanted to do a tooth transplant to me, all of them were afraid to even try. Except for Dr. Pogrel. Dr Pogrell made that rare procedure as skillfully, as though he makes ten such surgeries a day. It is very sad that such a talented scientist needs to work as regular surgeon — just pulling the teeth and do implants. But we should be lucky to have him here in SF, because he does tremendous non-​standard surgeries. And he does them just great. I’m immensely grateful to Dr. Pogrel for performing my auto-​transplantation.

Anthony Pogrel has to be the rudest most condescending doctor I have met in a long time. He has no compassion or respect for his patients. I went to see him with my mom this week since she doesn’t speak English very well. This guy talks over you and does not allow you to ask questions & does not provide relevant information about the consequences of treatment. For example, he didn’t see the significance of telling my mom the potential damage to a nerve in her jaw which would be a side effect of the surgery and that my mom would not feel half of her face and mouth if the nerve is damaged. Shouldn’t a doctor advise the patient that they may lose partial feeling to their face if a surgery is done? Luckily, I had done some research ahead of time and asked him. He got very impatient and said «Well…this is America. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to have surgery. It is up to you what you want to do» This doctor is very angry and unhappy. He made inappropriate comments the entire 8 minutes we spent at his UCSF clinic. He was still giving his diagnosis as he left the room shouting at us from the hallway so we can hear.
During the 8 minutes we were there, he spent half of it talking about insurance and wanting to see my mom’s insurance documentation. We could have handled this with the front desk receptionist. My mom has insurance and why is the doctor wasting the visit time over administrative matters?
Finally, I do have to say that the young resident, his assistant that came in before him and was present during the appointment was very sweet and personable. He got quite after Pogrel came in to the room and had a look of surprise on his face by how rude his boss was.
I hope I never have to deal with this guy again and for my mom to find a good doctor.

Dr. Pogrel should step down from his post at UCSF Medical center. My daughter had a horrible infection from a wisdom tooth extraction gone bad and he was referred doctor for follow up care. This appointment was a freak show gone bad my daughter cried for an hour from his examination of her infected cheek it was so painful he then proceeded to tell us she needs immediate surgery and he will have to remove some of her teeth and jaw bone because there is a bone infection! He also was concerned about who was going to pay and her co-​pay… we got a second opinion 4 weeks later and after Bone scans and Mri’s «NO BONE INFECTION» but he was willing to get her under the knife and start removing her teeth and Jaw! I don’t think so Dr. Pogrel time for you to go sit in a rocker you hack!
Theresa

How tall are you?
5’5.
How much do you weigh?
132.
Hmmmm… I wonder how much of this you are going to need…
As I worried about my new dentist overdosing me and subsequently stopping my heart with general anesthetic, I accepted my fate, as nitrous was already being generously pumped into my nostrils and Amy Winehouse’s, «Rehab» was softly sealing my fate in the background.
I took one last look at mom, who asked Dr. Pogrel to please be gentle with her baby. The doctor looked at me, looked at moms and said, «I don’t know how to answer that…»
I laughed it off, told the good doctor that mom wanted to help out with the surgery. He told her to go scrub up and looked at me and said, «You’re probably feeling pretty good right about now…»
I think I sang, «They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, no, no, no…» before shutting my eyes.
And as an FYI — the 30 seconds you get to spend with General Anesthetic before you pass out is like running through a golden field on a rainbow unicorn with fistfuls of chocolate and bacon. Magic.
I woke up without my wisdom teeth and with an overwhelming surge of emotion that manifested itself in the form of uncontrollable fits of laughter and tears. The nurse told me that it was totally normal. I think I just missed my teeth.
Needless to say, recovery has been quick and painless (vicodin) and if you don’t mind a doctor who jokes while he holds your life in his hands (which I happen to adore), then Dr. Pogrel is just the man to make your mouth bleed.
On purpose. For money.