Maxillofacial Surgery Center of San Jose

I have nothing to say but good things about Dr Cheng and Dr Fan’s office and their staff! About three weeks ago, my wisdom teeth started bothering me. So on Monday June 15, I spent a whole morning trying to schedule a consultation ASAP. After speaking to the lovely ladies at reception, they were able to answer my questions about the process, insurance, (I have delta which is in network) and got me in to see Dr Fan who happen to be the only dr in the area that was able to see me the afternoon.
The office is easily located in the rose garden area, they have a easy access parking lot. Upon entering the office, I was greeted directly and brought into my consultation. Dr Fan was very friendly and informative. I work at a medical device company, and he was familiar with our product, so I’m confident that he knows his stuff and we had a good conversation about it. We took an x ray of my teeth, confirming all 4 wisdom teeth needed to be removed, and went over the estimated costs. I was able to book my surgery that Friday! Talk about quick turn around. Since it was so soon, it had to be scheduled with Dr Cheng which I didn’t mind since the dental assistant let me know the Dr Cheng was actually Dr Fan’s mentor.
Friday comes along, I’ve taken my pills 45 mins before the appointment since I was going under general anesthesia, the receptionist collected payment, brought me back, got me comfy and even a blanket! Dr Cheng comes in, puts my IV in and next thing I know I was getting woken up to leave!
The anesthesia wore off fairly quickly and my recovery was easier and better than I was expecting. I had a follow up meeting the next week with Dr Fan and he let me know I was recovering well and that was that.
I honestly didn’t expect such a quick and seamless turn around for the procedure. I would definitely recommend the maxillofacial surgery center of San Jose to anyone that needs oral surgery from my experience with both doctors. THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM FOR AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE!

«I am not scared of death. But I truly do fear dentists.»
— Ancient Chinese Proverb made up 5 seconds ago
I feel like a lone Hobbit standing alone in front of the Black Gate of Mordor when I visit a doctor. Scared. I developed this fear of doctors and medicine in recent years and *touches wood furiously* this would be the first time visiting a doctor in 5 years. I put of extracting 3 of my wisdom teeth for quite some time. The fears were compounded when I heard of horrible things in the aftermath, chief of them being dry socket.
But a week ago, I took the plunge. Time for the Hobbit to grow a pair. I was referred by an orthodontist to Dr. Chien Cheng. The ladies at the front desk were very helpful throughout (if my memory serves me right, their names were Adrianna and Rita), from setting up appointments to giving reminders.
I was given a few prescription drugs to buy (do it beforehand) and a couple of tablets of valium for calming the nerves before the surgery. I tried to get all psyched by listening to some Rammstein before the surgery, but the valium does calm you down. It was like going from 100 mph to 25 mph on an Interstate. I opted to be put to sleep since I didn’t want to see people tugging at my back teeth with local anesthesia. Once the anesthesia kicked in, I woke up after what seemed like a couple of mins (was actually around 30 mins). I don’t remember much but it seems i was talking a lot (didn’t feel anything as my jaw was numb). Heck, I even gave the directions to my place to my buddy accurately. I guess being high so many times paid off: P
I was expecting myself to be writhing in pain for days once the anesthesia wore off. It was a bloodbath initially. Kind of reminded me of some Slayer:
Raining blood
From a lacerated sky
Bleeding its horror
Creating my structure
Now I shall reign in blood!
But I followed all the instructions given to me by the book (I have a habit of breaking rules, not this one) and went for a checkup today and presto! It was all good in paradise. Can eat most foods (Except maybe popcorn and chips).
I would highly recommend Dr. Chien Cheng and his team for extraction of wisdom teeth. They are very professional and will answer any questions that you have. Highly recommended.
Note: Insurance covered almost 92% of it. Yay!
PS: Goodbye, odontophobia and dentophobia (welp, there is a phobia for every goddamn thing)!

Do not use this office unless you want to pay way more than you should. My son had his wisdom teeth out by this office and the bill they sent me was more than double the amount on the estimate they gave me at consultation. When I called the office to question it, they admitted to making an error but said I still need to pay the balance. That is an extra $ 727. I offered to compromise since they made a mistake but they said I needed to pay the entire balance.

Both doctors are absolutely Amazing (with a capital A) clinicians, but their office administrator — Nancy — is an abomination to put it mildly. If you run into any billing issues (particularly if paying with a flex spending account), you can forget about having it resolved in any reasonable manner. Additionally, if you, as a patient and CUSTOMER, feel that you need to speak directly with the doctor, Nancy will make sure that does not happen (even if she promises that it will). To sum up Dr. Cheng & Dr. Fan are great doctors, but I would cation anybody from seeking treatment there until they get smarter about who they hire to represent them. To add insult to injury, the staff will nickle and dime you for a $ 10 rinse (which they won’t submit for reimbursement to your insurance) on a $ 1k+ procedure. I am saddened to give a 1-​star rating to such great doctors based on the actions of their staff (actually just Nancy, everyone else is great), but my primary-​care dentist has set such a high bar, both in terms of clinical services, and staff interaction, that being treated as though you just bought a used car (even if the car is of good quality) is simply unacceptable.

First of all, I had a root canal when i was a little girl and ever since then, I HATE GOING TO DENTAL.
However, the experience there was really awesome, and urged me to write a review.
I was put under full sedation, and Dr. Cheng pulled out my 2 wisdom teeth on the right side. he’s very professional, gentle and kind. I couldn’t expect a better experience on pulling wisdom teeth. The wound was healed perfectly as commented by my general dentist afterwards.
The staff there were also very nice, they tried to explain all questions i had concerns, and they were very detail driven. I accompanied my husband to pull out his wisdom teeth at a different dentist, and i can say it is a totally different experience.
The attention to details really make me very relaxed:
— the pre consultation was very informative
— they provided 2 pills and asked me to take 45 minutes prior to the visit to calm me down
— they were very professional for pre-​op preparation (the lip balm, the heating blanket to keep me warm, holding hands…)
Sometimes, these little details make a difference, and make you think they really care about their patients.
Dr. Cheng is the best. He didn’t smile much during my visit, but you can tell his professionalism, and he is super nice and very good at his job.
I already pulled out the other side when i was in colleague, but if i hadn’t pulled them out, i would have go back there again and ask for Dr. Cheng!
This is how good he is!

It’s rare to find a business where you feel like you can trust them 100% and that’s how it feels here. Everyone in the office is very professional, but still personable. I was impressed at the amount of attention I received during the initial evaluation, I think the gentleman’s name was Ruben. He was a very intelligent, patient, and walked me though every detail. The women in the front office are very helpful and polite.
Dr. Cheng did my surgery. I can’t comment much since I was knocked out during, but the areas he worked looked very clean and healed well. I had 2 teeth removed, one of which was cracked in half and very close to my sinus. A prior dentist actually broke a piece of an instrument inside of one of the teeth that Dr Cheng removed.
They gave me my post-​surgery prescription after the evaluation and they gave me an envelope with 2 pills inside and a note attached, instructing to take them 45 minutes before the operation. They put a valume (spelling?) in there, which had me calm when I arrived for surgery (instead of panicked, like my usual dentist visits).
When they wheeled me in for surgery, they were not playing around. There was like 4 nice women whirling around me, preparing me and other things in the room. Then Dr. Cheng entered (he has this presence about him) and advised he would be putting the IV in. The same second the needle entered, one of the ladies smeared a thick layer of lip balm on my lips and said, «here’s some balm for your lips». Wonderful distraction, bravo! She timed it so perfect, I wanted to hug her for taking away that «cringe» feeling of the needle.
When I woke up from anesthesia I was zoning in and out, but I remember a sweet woman kindly explaining to my boyfriend how to change the gauze in my mouth, saying «it looks like a lot of blood but it’s really not, it’s mostly saliva». She then wheeled me out to the car, the whole time saying re-​assuring and sweet things.
10 stars! Good job you guys, thank you SO MUCH!

I found this facility through Unilocal and a Web list of covered facilities from my dental provider. I had three wisdom teeth removed under local about twenty years ago, paid cash, and my recovery was week-​long, bloody and painful. So when I discovered something growing out of the side of my gum, I ignored it for a couple months — I assumed it was my fourth wisdom tooth finally asserting itself (see P. S. below) — and therefore made an appointment. Based on my phone discussion with the nurse, she set me up for a «consult/​surgical» meaning that the doctor would take a look and then be ready to operate the same day. Note: they were willing to see me without requiring that I see a dentist first. I can’t recommend doing it that way to everyone, but it happened to work out.
I was admitted to my appointment on time, X-​rays were taken, and then the nurse examined the X-​rays and determined that I actually had ‘no’ wisdom teeth left and that Something Else Was Going On. Dr. Fan took a look and figured it out instantly —
— or a normally harmless bone growth, growing out the side of my gum. Given the size of the growth, the fact it was making the gum over it very thin, that it was serving as a food trap and was likely to get abscessed someday (and would block a denture should I need that), Dr. Fan recommended that I have it removed.
Then came the billing. I have a major dental provider but this procedure promised to use up my benefit for the year, plus a few hundred. So I hemmed and hawed and did a little homework on my smartphone. The financial specialist did not budge on the price of the procedure. OK, their privilege. I’m gainfully employed at the moment, the surgery would be needed sooner or later, and I’d arranged for work and other commitments to allow for a planned surgery — so I paid my money and signed the paperwork. If price were a significant factor, I might have shopped around instead — but what value can one place on competent oral surgery?
Shortly thereafter, I found myself lying back in a chair, instruments laid out and pretty much the same relatively awesome experience described by others above. This was my first time on general anesthesia. That was a part of the process I was very nervous about — but turned out just fine. Woke up, taken home by my friend, healing swiftly and with minimal use of pain medication — but took all my antibiotics — and follow-​up visit today looked great.
The post-​care instructions were detailed and the follow-​up was relentless: calls to confirm each appointment, post-​surgical call the next day, etc. The staff was very courteous and thoroughly professional. The entire process was seamless — this is a slick operation. The amazing part was the wide selection of first run magazines in the waiting room. No two year old yellowed copies of Time-​Life for this office!
Thank you Dr. Fan and staff!
PS: Twenty years prior, I’d apparently _​paid for_​three wisdom tooth removals and been operated on for four. So I’d encourage those who might be a touch hypochondriac to consult with a professional and cut down on the temptation to self-​diagnose. I’m glad I did.

I put off getting my wisdom teeth out for about 10 years– which is not smart because I was always told that the older I got, the worse the recovery would be. I watched my mom go through 2 weeks of nausea and pain, looking like a chipmunk after she got hers out in her late 30s. SO, at age 29 I finally took the plunge.
I had my surgery a week ago today, and I don’t know what I was worried about. This office is super professional, and the staff is so nice that after my consultation I had zero anxiety about the whole procedure. I got three wisdom teeth out (two lower, one upper) and the whole thing took 20 minutes (which seemed like 1 minute because I was asleep). I felt no pain that day, or the following days because I had appropriate pain med prescriptions. In fact, I started doing some computer work about 2 hours after the surgery because I felt totally normal. Also — the surgery sites were sewn in such a way that i couldn’t even really tell that any work had been done! No gaping holes or obvious stitches to speak of. I followed their icing/​post op care instructions and didn’t have any swelling or infections after the surgery. I had my week-​after consultation today, and everything looks good, I am back to normal.
Great experience, great staff, I had Dr. Cheng, but I hear Dr. Fan is also awesome.
Thank you guys so much!!!

I was referred here by my dentist to have my lower wisdom teeth taken out. I really should have done this in high school when I had my upper wisdom teeth taken out, but hey 15 years late is better than never! It just takes longer to recover now (old man syndrome).
I showed up for the consultation, and Dr. Fan recommended I go under general anesthesia for the operation. In essence, I’d show up, get drugged up, have my teeth removed, wake up, and go home high on vicodin. It definitely sounded better than being awake and being operated on with pliers. As I left the consultation I got a magical pill I was supposed to take an hour prior to my operation, with a little preparation packet and a RX for vicodin, triple dose ibuprofen, and amoxicillin. You’ll want to have those filled and ready to go day of your op. Trust me — the vicodin is a lifesaver and you’ll be popping those bad boys as soon as you’re done with the operation. They are also good for one refill in case you’re still sore a week after.
On the day of, it was literally as promised. I showed up, promptly fell asleep within 5 min, and woke up an hour later with missing wisdom teeth. You’re not allowed to drive if you go under general anesthesia, so make sure someone can come with you day of. My roomie came with and drove me home afterwards. All I can really recall that day is going on a shopping spree at Walgreens (which for some reason was selling $ 1 cans of coconut juice and grass jelly?!) while waiting for my vicodin rx. I’m pretty sure I was dreaming the rest of the time.
A few days later they scheduled to have me come back in a week later to check up and make sure I was doing OK. I can’t really say the whole process was enjoyable (let’s get real, removing wisdom teeth can never be fun), but Dr. Fan and the rest of the team did a great job making it as painless as possible. I don’t plan on going back (ever), but I suppose if I had to do some oral surgery for whatever reason this would be the place to go.

I am on my 5^th Vicodin as I write this review. However, I have every confidence in my 5-​star rating. I had my 2 bottom wisdom teeth pulled here yesterday and am thoroughly convinced that I made the right choice in picking the Maxillofacial Surgery Center of San Jose to do it.
I spent a lot of time researching various oral and maxillofacial surgeons in San Jose. The website for this place is quite useful. They information on all of their docs as well as some helpful videos on the various services they offer. Check it out!
I decide on booking a consult with Dr. Fan (a Harvard Dental School graduate) to see what I’m in for. The facility is nice, on the 3^rd floor of a mostly medical/​clinical building. Reception is great and the staff is always helpful both in-​person and on the phone. Dr. Fan appears to be rather young, though I don’t mind that at all (in case some people do). At my first visit, they take a panoramic x-​ray and Dr. Fan tells me that the roots of my wisdom teeth are really close to my nerves. Based on the x-​ray, there may be a 10% chance that I would lose sensation in my chin (worst case scenario). I was quite baffled for words when he said this because 1) a 10% risk is quite high; and 2) while i’m not a trombone player or anything like that, I would still like to know my chin is there when I touch it! I ask Dr. Fan for his sincere advice and he tells me that if I were his family member, he would recommend I get a CT scan of my mouth. This would not negate the possibility of damaging the nerve in my chin, but it would provide a much clearer picture of the positioning of everything so that he could give me a better estimate of the potential damage to the nerve. He gives me the referral for the CT scan but at that point, I decide not to go forward with getting my wisdom teeth pulled.
After several months, I finally muster up the courage to (spend money on) getting the CT scan of my mouth. Please see my review of Park X-​Ray for more details:
. I go in again to see Dr. Fan and he says that based on the CT scan, there is only a 3% chance of major damage to my nerves. What a relief! I can live with 3%. So, he gives me a small envelope with instructions and Valium for the day of surgery and an Rx for Amoxicillin (antibiotics), Motrin, and 20 Vicodin.
I got more and more anxious as surgery day approached and I almost debated on postponing it for another month but my boyfriend told me to just suck it up and go (isn’t he sweet?). I wasn’t so much worried about the procedure since I trusted Dr. Fan, but more so about being put under. It would be my first time being fully sedated (minus the times when I pass out after a night of binge drinking). For some reason I thought the surgery would be 4 hours or so but it was actually less than an hour! I literally did not remember anything about the surgery so I was glad I only «lost» an hour of memory of my life. Before the surgery, they gave me a blanket, put headgear on, placed some rubber thing in my mouth, prepped the tools and used my chest as a table, strapped my arm down, inserted the IV, and counted off some random numbers until I was off to lala land! Everything that happened after the surgery was a blur.
My advice:
–If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them. I probably asked a million questions about my insurance to the point of becoming a pestering mosquito but the staff was great and kind enough to give me a breakdown of everything. On the day of surgery, I knew exactly what I was in for.
–Valium must be taken 45 minutes prior to your appt for surgery.
–Fill your Rx before your surgery.
–Ask for their chapstick. It has steroids in them that really help with chapped lips!
–When you get home from surgery, take all medicines right away. You don’t need to take them with food but I had them with a couple bites of jello.
–Use gauze initially when there is a lot of bleeding, but after 3 – 4 times with gauze, use wet tea bags instead. Dip the tea bags in cold water and place them where you would place the gauze. The taste is not as nauseating and I think the herbs help with the healing.
–You may want to get a stool softener as some of the meds cause constipation. I already have bowel problems (sorry, TMI) but at least it explains why I’ve only lost 2 lbs since the surgery. Hopefully with a stool softener, I’ll lose 3 – 5!
–Only watch channels with minimal commercials or shows that anorexia people watch because food commercials seem to come every 2 seconds! Ugh. I am so hungry; I was even drooling over the commercial with that nasty Frito burrito from Taco Bell. Or maybe that was because my gauze was fully saturated.