Salma Salimi, DDS

Dr. Salimi’s office was one of several suggested to us by our pediatrician. I selected her practice after reviewing online reviews and websites, and the location is convenient for us.
None of the following disappointments are deal breakers in of themselves, but all together — one disappointment after another, the experience fell flat.
I left a message the first time I called. No one called back. After one week, I had to call again to make an appointment.
The website advertises Mommy & Me mini-​seminars. Even though we were calling for the first time with a young toddler patient, we were not offered an opportunity to sign up for one of these sessions.
When making our first appointment, the times available were limited. When you have a young child that takes regular naps, it’s ideal to have some options. «Oh, 11 AM on Tuesday doesn’t work? How about 11 AM on Thursday?» Um, I guess I’ll take what you have.
I was told that we’d receive a «Welcome Packet» in the mail. We never did. Maybe the postal service dropped the ball. Maybe Salimi’s office did. Who can know?
We arrived on time at 11 AM. Greeted with forms to fill out. It would have been nice to receive the forms ahead of time so we could pre-​fill them out. When I asked the receptionist about the «Welcome Packet», she implied that it should have been sent and then shrugged.
I chose not to sign a form about financial responsibility for paying insurance co-​pays because I intended to pay in full out-​of-​pocket. The receptionist asked me to sign the form. When I explained why I didn’t sign it, her response was, «You still have to pay.» As if I was going to dash? Insulting. Honestly, I suspect she doesn’t understand the legal language of the form, but maybe I’m not giving her enough credit.
We were taken back to the exam area which is clean, comfortable, and daylit with nice view windows. The first thing offered to us was a selection of videos. Perhaps this is their way of making us feel welcome and comfortable? I’m not against screens and videos, but it seems presumptuous to think I just wanna come in and park my kid in front of a screen right away — especially for a 17 month-old’s first dental visit.
Appointment was at 11 AM. We were not seen until almost 11:40AM. With a toddler. Even though the timing was not ideal relative to her nap, she was patient and cheerful. Until she wasn’t. Which was right when Gianna, a dental hygienist, came to see us. Gianna did her best to show us her tools and help us feel comfortable. No fault of hers, but it didn’t go well.
Dr. Salimi came to check my daughter’s teeth. She was apologetic about the wait and explained that she was treating another patient who had extra needs. I get it. I’d want to have that care if I had extra needs. She was kind, seemed effective, and open to hearing feedback.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Office communication (phones/​mail/​reception) is subpar (with the exception of Gianna who emailed us with an appointment reminder). Technical staff (hygienist and dentist) seem great. Nice atmosphere.
VALUE: I payed $ 65 for a hygienist to show us a toothbrush, squirt ½ an ounce of water into a dixie cup, and demonstrate the mouth vacuum. She provided some reassurance that my kid’s disinterest in her demonstration was normal. It took 5 minutes. That was the highlight. Oh, and we received a toothpaste and toothbrush kit. I suspect that the ziplock packaging will be well loved — priceless!
RECOMMENDATION: If you have a young child and need light guidance with a first time pediatric dental visit, I’d recommend going elsewhere. They don’t have their shit together enough to address first time newcomers. I’m guessing they are great with older kids though, so maybe we will go back someday when my kid is older and my expectations are lower.

Much improved! Helped my kids with parking while managing a busy schedule. Thanks!!!

We’ve had a great experience with Dr. Salimi. The office is very kid friendly and the nurses are wonderful with my daughter. Only downside is that it’s located in the Richmond which is really far from Soma. But parking is simple.

Though we live in East Bay, we come here for different reasons: the comfort of this place for kids AND parents, the friendly staff who are good with kids (I especially like Buffie!) and Dr. Salimi of course. She takes time to answer my questions. They use this special flexible film for x-​Ray so that it’s easier for the kids. Everything here is kids friendly!

we’ve had good service from Dr. Salimi, but I feel like her administrative staff and billing have taken a nosedive. If you rely on insurance to pay for dentistry, like my family does, you should be careful with Dr. Salimi’s office.
They scheduled 3 appointments for my kids within 12 months — this is somewhat of an excusable oversight, but my insurance only pays for 2 exams within 12 months. When I asked to speak to someone at the office, including leaving repeated messages, all i get are more bills.
It’s not hard for the dentist — with all of their sophisticated scheduling software, to check and see if they’re going to schedule a visit that is or isn’t covered. One of the factors I naturally use to pick a healthcare provider is whether or not they accept insurance.
**UPDATE** — after my call to them and complaining, they waived the fees for the last visit. I’m keeping the prior writing in, just to show the problem that Dr. Salimi’s office resolved. 5 stars!

When I brought my son for his check up I was not informed the Panorex scanning x-​ray machine would be used. When I asked the technician, she insisted it was a single point x-​ray. When I asked Dr. Salimi, she too said it was single point and «Not much radiation.» I was lied to and denied the right to make informed consent for my son. I am outraged by Dr. Salimi’s lack of medical ethics and willingness to lie to my face.

Dr. SAlimi is WONDERFUL! I think the fact that our daughter cannot wait until her next dentist appointment is a tremendous testimonial to Dr. SAlimi, Buffie’s loving and sweet way with the children and the rest of the staff, who are equally as wonderful, efficient and friendly.
I want to go to Dr. SAlimi myself and watch Dora flicks and get strawberry flavored toothpaste and toy!

I love Dr. Salimi.
My kid still sees this dentist even though she’s now in her 20’s and doesnt live in SF anymore. Kid wonders when they’ll kick her out. We hope never.
History: My kid needed a lot of work done when she was a toddler. She was terrified. The dentist she was seeing was very good, and tried everything under the sun to make it work out including having the kid come several times a week, sit in the chair, have the mask put on, then get a prize… But no, not effective.
When it was time for the actual work to take place, the kid kicked the dentist in the face. Hard. Thank god the dentist’s nose wasn’t broken. But that was the end of that. The suggestion was that kid would be hospitalized and put under general anesthesia to get the work done. I understood the dentist’s recommendation, but wasn’t thrilled.
So, we needed a new dentist who was experienced with REALLY difficult patients.
Enter Dr. Salimi. Whoo hoo! No hospital visit. Kid did fine with her.
Dr. Salimi has moved 2 times since then and we just keep on moving with her.
She is a lovely person, great with scared kids, great with not scared kids, great with teenagers, great with parents. Yup; she’s great.
Other reviewers are irritated by the wait. Yup. I have been too. But SOOOOOO worth a wait. Dr. Salimi is the best.

I’m not very happy with the way we got treated. My son had been Dr. Salimi’s patients since he was a todler. We always go to her as my dentist recommended. Today we experienced the wait time of 45 minutes. She always over booked the patients. This is not the first time that we have to wait for her over 40 minutes. I did complaint to the staff. The staff is very nice and apologized to me and totally understand how I feel and she would feel the same way if she has to wait this long. I wondered «why you have this many patients at the same time if you are the only dentist in the office?»
When Dr. Salimi came to treat my son, she didn’t even say anything… no sorry for the wait, no apologize. No words from her even an eye contact to me!
The billing we got every time is always overprice compared to other dentist. There always a charge that insurance not covered like «laughing gas» they use for your kids… that is $ 75. We knew but we still go see her coz we hope to get a better service. Why would I pay more if I still didn’t get treated right? Now, I decided to change my kids dentist after 5 years of service seeing her.

Dr. Salimi’s staff have been amazing both times I have taken my son in for dental work. Like others said, her practice is state of the art and really child friendly, and Buffy in particular does a good job of calming the patient and walking them through the procedure. So impressed.
Having seen the new Dr. on my first visit (Dr Connor, I think), I mush prefer her over Dr. Salimi, but that’s just a personal opinion. Dr Connor just seemed more relaxed and friendly.

I was referred to Dr. Salimi through a friend and I am so happy! She and her staff did an amazing job. I have twin boys who are 3 years old and her staff did a great job with making them feel welcome and comfortable as it was there first visit to the dentist. I 100% recommend Dr. Salimi!

My kids have also gone to Dr. Salimi since they were toddlers. So they’ve been Dr. Salimi’s patients for the past 9 or 10 years. She is a very good dentist — that part is true. Her new office is gorgeous and state of the art, and very fun visuallly for the kids to visit. Here’s the «however» though. After years of getting all the recommended treatments and not caring because we had dental insurance, we suddenly stopped and questioned her recommendation that my older child get sealants on the back 4 molars. We are now self pay, and I wanted to know how much it would cost. The receptionist, after grilling me about no longer having insurance, finally said «it’s only $ 80.» Yeah, $ 80 per tooth! My sense in talking with her was that they just didn’t care that we needed to watch costs. We finally decided to switch dentists and find one much closer to our West Portal neighborhood. The new dentist yesterday took a look at the records and my daughter’s teeth and said «the sealant is fine on two of the molars, and the other two haven’t grown in yet enough for sealant.» And new dentist charges $ 60 per tooth. So there you go. I’m feeling even more convinced that the sealant suggestion was more to pay for her fancy office than that my kid needed it. Dr. Salimi is very nice and the kids liked her. She obviously is a really knowledgeable dentist with an established practice. I just didn’t like feeling as if we were being asked to pay for treatments that may not have been necessary or within our means. As my kids are older now and don’t necessarily need a pediatric dentist, I think we’ll be going as a family to the new dentist closer to home.

Excellent service with great technicians who explain everything to the kids. However, early morning appointments are not worth making as I have always ended up waiting for the doctor to arrive and she has never arrived before 9:00 a.m.

Clean, competent, friendly, on-​time. The office is great, the staff wonderful at putting kids at ease, and Dr. Salimi is knowledgeable, fair and lovely.
So glad we found this dentist!

My 16 year old daughter has been a patient of Dr. Salimi’s since she was a toddler. Dr. Salimi and her staff are always professional, and try their best to be punctual with their appointment schedule. The anxiety of waiting for dental services can scar a child for life… regardless of how many books there are in the waiting area!
Jaime the office manager is always professional and pleasant to all the young patients and their adult units.

We went there on a short notice to check out a knocked out canine tooth. I called them first and was able to come in within 30min. We didn’t have to wait long– maybe about 7 min alltogether. My 4yo son and I were surprised how nice the office was– new, sparkling clean and very well disigned. Very calming and relaxing! I am not a dentophobe, but it does help when you go to see the doctor not knowing what to expect. I would even live there! Every team member was super nice and very professional. They took a good x ray (my son is super active, hence the knocked out tooth and a couple of chiped ones) and then examined my son’s teeth while he wached Tomas. Dr. Salimi explained to me (using the x-​rays, which btw. were later copied and given to me) what was going on with my son’s teeth and what to expect and to look for. And it was also very important to me that they didn’t make it look like he was a freak of nature– it turned out he had 3 extranumeral teeth in place of knocked out one. I’ll definitely recommend this place to anybody and we will come again.

Friendly with my kids and seems competent. Problem is that she and her staff tries to sell you things that your kid doesn’t need. Expensive enamel protection on baby teeth? No thanks. Pay to pull out a loose baby tooth that will fall out in a few days? No thanks. Annoying things like that. She also likes to «remind» you that she’s the one with the doctorate and knows better than you uneducated parent. Like when an x-​ray supposedly showed tooth decay that was invisible to us, but she’s the «expert». We changed dentists, and the new one looked at the x-​ray and didn’t see the problem either. In all fairness, though, if you say no to her «suggestions», she’s fine with it.

We (7yo DS and myself) just went to see Dr. Salimi this morning. She is such a wonderful caring person. DS has been seeing her since he was 2yo. He is one of her most difficult patients, but she persists and will work with him!
DS has a very sensitive reflux (he’ll gage if anything touches his mouth!) and I have never been able to help him brush his teeth (else he’ll throw up his dinner). Now, he’ll scream if anything touches his mouth without his permission.
At today’s visit, I apologized for DS’s screaming. She said that though, he was screaming, she appreciated that he listened to her instructions while working on him. She told me that she had 2 other patients who were much more difficult that my DS. DS was older now and gets easier each year.
Her staff is also wonderful and caring.

What a find. What a woman. What a practice!
My daughter is now 4. She’s been to Dr. Salimi three times now I think. Each time was a breeze.
Every woman who works with Dr. Salimi is smart, gentle and genuinely caring towards the kids. The office sparkles with color and good energy. They play Dora on the TV. They have tons of «tricks» — of a very gentle nature — for getting kids to mellow into the process.
Wherever Dr. Salimi learned how to do this, she deserves an A+ for how well she’s practicing pediatric dentistry.
She takes genuine interest in the families who come to her. Everyone refers her enthusiastically. She makes it easy for parents and kids alike…
If you’re looking for a dentist for your kids, look no further. You’ll feel at home right away.