Esthetic Implant Gold Dental Center

His assistants are fab! HE IS GREAT! He works fast and get the job done. He is also very knowledge and a great guy!

I don’t understand why you have to do separate appointments!!! He is not honest which seems to be a pattern in this field! He over charged me one time he charged me for scaling but only performed a basic cleaning. And he charged me again 85 $ for x-​Ray and «irrigation» (could’ve been listerin for all I know)
I had an issue with my crown and he wouldn’t listen to my concerns or do anything because it was done somewhere else. I changed providers hopefully I can find a better dentist… an honest one at least ughhh

I wrote a review on Dr. Bonilla ’ office just five days ago and for some reason Unilocal already filtered it. Five days! Sadly either the system places a review which should be considered off from the viewers. I still highly recommend this office to do your dental work!

This man is the worst dentist alive! I have great insurance but he always wanted to do a fluoride treatment or something that my insurance doesn’t cover so there was always a cash payment being made at the end of the appointment. (Did you know they have seminars on how to milk your patients?) Esteban Bonilla’s girl in the office told me when I was there for a routine cleaning and exam that he was going to do one of those cash treatments. I said that I am in the entertainment industry and its very slow and right now I’m between jobs and really don’t want to spend the money if it’s not necessary. She takes me to the chair and I hear him come in a talk with her. Then loudly from afar I hear him say «That ought to cost him $ 300 bucks, let’s see how he feels about that!» He comes into the room and starts pushing his fingers into my jaw and says «does that hurt»? I said «no» he says «I think you have TMJ and you have to go to USC and pay them $ 300 to get it checked out before I work on you»
I hope this review losses him $ 300, or better yet his career. He has no business dealing with patients in a professional manner.

This is to respond to the reply from the office to my precious comment. I had two dentists checked out the filings. One is my later personal dentist, the other was the one assigned to me by insurance — for any appeal, the insurance will send me to a designated dentist to double check. BOTH dentists confirmed that ONLY 3 had evidence of filling. Both was shameful of this dentist who claimed 10 but did only 3. It’s because the dentist assigned by insurance confirmed that only 3 was filled did the insurance ask this dentist to refund the credit.
DO NOT BE CHEATED by the office reply. This is completely lie. If you guys did 10, were both of the other dentists blind!!!
You guys can’t be more shameless.

I wish there was a way I could give him negative stars.
I was in so much pain on my upper right side and he pokes in my mouth and doesn’t even look on the right, instead focuses on my left side.
He tells me he can’t touch my tooth because of his dental code of ethics, because another dentist has working on that tooth and it’s there responsibility to fix it. So basically any tooth another dentist has touched, he won’t??? WTF?
After not even looking at my tooth that I made the appointment for, he begins to walk out saying he’ll give me an antibiotic. I ask him to please do an X-​RAY or SOMETHING, that I don’t want to leave without figuring out what’s going on.
He asks me to get up and he’s going to show me something, he walks me out to the lobby and turns around AND LOCKS THE DOOR. I start shaking inside because I am so humiliated and he tells me that he locked me out because I insulted him.
I was so shocked, I couldn’t form words. I left crying and without my antibiotic.
I will be contacting a lawyer. HE IS A SCAM. DO NOT GO HERE.

Terrible experience. They charged me for treatments that were supposedly not covered by my insurance, which I had to pay out of pocket ($ 135). I called the office after my visit and asked for the procedure codes and when I called my insurance to verify what my out of pocket payment was supposed to be they could not tell me because the code the dental office gave was invalid. They also overcharged me for my copay ($ 25 instead of $ 5) and lied to my insurance saying that I was seen after hours (my appointment was at 3pm on a Monday and their office closed at 530pm). I called my insurance to file a claim the same day and the dentist had already called them and claimed that they saw me for an emergency. I am so disgusted with this dentist I feel completely taken advantage of. I wish I would have read the Unilocal reviews before even making an appointment.

Dr. Bonilla and dental staff are wonderful. What a great service I received two months ago when I went to Dr. Bonilla’s office when I lost a crown in my posterior tooth. He is a very knowledgeable and precise dentist. I highly recommend Dr. Bonilla to anyone in need of a good dentist.

Dr. Esteban Bonilla is a used car salesman disguised as a dentist, nothing more. He overcharged me for a five minute cleaning and kept trying to upgrade my fillings to gold – i thought at first the gold in his business name referred to the quality of his standards but WRONG. no, all this guy does is hawk gold at unsuspecting customers once they’re in his chair. it’s actually kind of a GROSS feeling losing respect and trust for a professional so quickly after meeting them, definitely not a good sign of things to come…
what the fu*k am i going to do with a bunch of gold in my mouth, genius? rap with lil wayne?
Such a joke.
Don’t come here unless you like the idea of a slimy Cal Worthington-​type car salesman sputtering broken english all up in your mouth with a $hit attitude, wheeling and dealing just trying to make a gold quota for the day.
Avoid this place like AIDS.

BEWARE OF THIS DENTIST
I switched to Esteban Bonilla because I didn’t trust my former dentist. Esteban has 20 reviews; ALL OF THEM ARE 5 STARS! Instead of seeing that as a red flag, I figured I found a great dentist and set up an appointment.
When I saw Bonilla, he told me I should have brought my x-​rays. I told him my insurance would cover the fee so we can take more, but then he tells me his x-​ray machine isn’t working. Hmm, a little weird I thought for a ‘professional dentist’, but whatever.
He leaves for a few minutes (probably to look over my insurance) and then returns to look at my teeth. He begins listing all this dental work I will need, which would accumulate to over $ 1000, and NONE of it would be covered by my insurance. I asked him why I have insurance if nothing is covered? He just said it wasn’t.
He told me I needed scaling and polishing but it’s not covered by my insurance. (Later, when I checked my coverage, it said this dental work was covered 100%. I even called my insurance group and they said ‘the dentist is misinformed’.)
Then he said I needed a few minor fillings, but I had to get gold fillings, which would cost me $ 80 a piece. I asked him why I had to get gold and not ceramic or silver. He replied these teeth have to have gold. Let me note here that communication is really difficult with Esteban since English is not his native language. I don’t want to sound ignorant (haven’t dealt with accents in my family my entire life), but it was so hard for Esteban to explain the dental work to me that he had to draw pictures.
Now here’s the big one. The reason I saw another dentist is because my former recommended a crown for a cavity when I thought a filling would suffice. I got a second opinion who sided with me, saying a crown was ‘overkill’. Dr. Esteban looked at the cavity and said he wouldn’t know what was needed until he ‘opened’ up my tooth. I asked him ‘wouldn’t an xray show what was going on inside of the tooth’. He said xrays don’t see inside of teeth, he needs to open it up to see what was going on inside. OPEN IT UP? Like it’s no big deal to chip away at my molar and then make a decision once it’s broken open. And I’m pretty sure that’s what xrays are used for. I think he was just trying to cover for his faulty equipment.
I would have stormed out of there then if I didn’t have to pay a damn office co-​pay. He started tallying up all the expenses but I told him I’m not getting his work done. Honestly people, look at these reviews. They all have generic photos, were posted within days of each other, and have nothing negative to say. Doesn’t that seem fishy to you? Nothing less than 5 stars? If I could guess, I would say he or his staff posted these reviews knowing Internet reviews can make or break any business these days.
I should have seen that as a sign instead of wasting my time and money. I encourage those of you who aren’t as skeptical of dentists like I am to avoid this dentist or be prepared to pay a lot of money. I learned my lesson and am switching to PPO because with a DMO, you only find crooks and thieves.

This entire experience was horrible! It was my first visit with him and he pulled off my crown that had been falling off and told me he could not work with me because he didn’t do that crown. I had an infected tooth and he gave me the total run around with this and told me to go back to the other dentist. The only reason I went to him was because my old dentist could not except my new insurance. He barely gave me a prescription for antibiotics to atleast hold me til I saw a new dentist… The next day I had to get a double root canal because of this problem which ended up being $ 1000 out of my pocket after insurance due to going to a specialist because he said he could not help me. He told me I need to respect his time and not be selfish. R U KIDDING ME? WHO DOES THAT? CERTAINLY NO DOCTOR OR DENTIST. There was noone in the office to work with and he couldn’t help me. I don’t know how he taught at UCLA… that doesn’t say much for their program. He is a horrible person and I would not take my cat to see him.

I have no idea why Unilocal would filter my review… What’s the deal? Why hide my review when I’ve been true and legit? So here’s my review again (Copied and pasted it)… Just want to add that my brother goes to him as well, and he has no complaints whatsoever… He fixed the broken molar he had with success! He had no more sensitivity on that area.
(originally posted 1÷31÷2011)
Wonderful experience, the best among the dentists I’ve ever been to my whole life. Dr. Bonilla is very knowledgeable when it comes to veneers and crowns. I just had my lower inlay cemented last week and so far, no complaints. The fit is perfect, and the over-​all work is excellent. Plus the staff is very warm and helpful. I recommend seeing this dentist, and you won’t ever regret it.
Free rear parking is available… =)

TERRIBLE SERVICE. STAY AWAY!
I haven’t been to their office in 1.5 years and their idea of a cleaning consists of an 8 minute floss and brush, which I do every morning on my own. What am I paying for if this is the service that I get. No scraping of plaque and tartar. NOTHING. Just a quick, floss, brush and rinse. He started working on me at 11:14 and I was in my car by 11:25. NO JOKE. I suspect the line of patients stacking up in the waiting room contributed to his half — ass service.
After calling to express my concern and worry about my lack of service and inquiring if they could do a more thorough job they told me «no» and called my insurance company to have me «removed me from their office». As if I’d be stupid enough to waste money coming back to that place anyway. This proves how petty and unprofessional they can be.
Also, if you don’t speak spanglish or spanish, I wouldn’t go to this office. Dr. Bonilla’s English is an D+ at best as other reviewers have noted.
This man is a joke! And anyone working for him, who believes he is giving patients quality care is lying to themselves. He gives dentists a terrible name. If you are in the valley and thinking about this office, I would ask you to err on the side of caution and just choose another office. His current 2.5 star rating on Unilocal speaks for itself. Just trying to save another person the hassle and disappointment.

While there’s no doubt Dr. Bonilla is a very skillful dentist, he’s primarily looking to make a buck any way he can. I agree with the poster who says he’s brutal at cleaning teeth. We caught him billing our insurance for three-​surface fillings when all we had was a cleaning. He loves selling gold inlays and crowns and will insist you need them even if you tell him quite firmly you can’t afford it. He finds something extra to charge you for (over and above your insurance payment) on every single visit. We reported him to our insurance company for a possible fraud investigation and changed dentists. If you’re not made of money, STAY AWAY.

The worst dentist I have ever been to, and one who will decry work done by other dentists prior.
1. He refuses to hire an assistant, so will do your cleaning by himself. And he is NOT gentle, nor does he ask if you are alright as he painfully handles floss as it were razors into your bleeding gums.
2. TWICE this guy tried to sell me expensive $ 900 gold fillings. I don’t want or need them, but he has no regard for polite and uncomfortable «no thank you“s. I see Jack M. also had this unfortunate experience.
3. Like Stephen B.‘s review, I also had the experience with the overcharged irrigation despite having sufficient insurance.
4. With all respect, this gentleman’s speech is incredibly difficult to understand. Thank goodness his receptionist is professional and poised.
STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY

Best dentist in the entire LA area.
First of all, he is a top professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Second, he is sought after across the region for his expertise — he teaches at the USC School of Dentistry as well co-​teaches seminars that other dentists pay top dollar to attend.
Second, he saved two of my teeth that another dentist was too unskilled to work on. Here’s the story: the other dentist wanted to do two root canals and two crowns, which made me very suspicious because I am way to young to lose two of my teeth. Upon the advice of a friend, I went to see Bonilla for a second opinion. THANK GOD THAT I DID!!! Dr. Bonilla saved me from the pain of two root canals, saved the majority of both of my teeth, thus avoiding any crowns, and expertly placed two gold inlays for a perfect fit into my mouth.
Now, the previous reviewer was right about the cost of the gold inlays… they are not cheap… about $ 900 for labor and materials BUT there is a reason (gold is expensive, duh!). Also, Bonilla explained that while choosing a gold inlay will cost more than some other options, but it will last at least 30 years (instead of the composite and amalgam fillings that can last only 7 – 10 years!).
The real problem I think the other two reviewers had is with their crappy dental insurance, not with the quality of care from Dr. Bonilla. He does things «by the book» for optimal best care, just as he teaches his students at the UCLA and USC dental schools — these research-​based methods just cost more than the insurance companies are willing to pay, so you will end up paying more out of pocket. But, it’s your teeth and your mouth — it is totally worth it!
All in all, both my husband and I are very grateful for the amazing care that we are given by Dr. Bonilla. We recommend all of our friends to see him and they all rave about his talent and expertise!
Final verdict: You will pay more money out of pocket, but it is for top-​notch expert care that you will not regret. He is perhaps the best dentist in LA and probably the only one of his caliber to accepts almost all types of insurance!
Do your mouth a favor and see this man.

When I called I was told I had to first schedule a consultation before I could get a cleaning. Well, that’s kind of a pain, but ok. I get there and there is street parking only, and the receptionist is surly. Now for the dentist. This guy has an accent that was so thick I had to ask him to repeat himself several times, and even then I’m not sure I got 100% of what he said. It had been a year since my last dental appointment, I haven’t had any cavities since I was a kid, but apparently in the year since my last appointment I had developed three. Well, ok, not entirely out of the realm of possibility. To his credit he did tell me that I grind my teeth which is probably true, and then told me to come back for a cleaning and flouride treatment. I returned expecting to pay the standard $ 5 copay through my insurance, but when I got there I was told that it would be $ 95 for a gum irrigation. When I said that the dentist hadn’t discussed any such treatment with me, the receptionist said, «well, he did, it’s right here in your chart.» Umm, nice try but no. I think I would remember that, he didn’t say anything about my gums. I even repeated his words back to him due to the accent to make sure I had him straight on what my next visit would entail. She said, «He thinks there might be a problem with your gums so that’s why he recommended that». So I’m supposed to pay $ 95 (that’s with insurance, mind you) because he thinks there MIGHT be a problem with my gums, a problem he failed to mention to me? I don’t think so. I walked out and don’t plan to return.

Wow… I have yet to find a decent dentist in the Valley… amongst the worst is this guy… first of all his breath smelled like garlic, his x-​ray machine was not working… so instead of calling me to cancel, he decided to just poke around in my mouth… then he tells me that he wants to do a deep cleaning (but not today), and that would cost me a nice $ 150…and yes I have insurance people! ohhhh and did I mention he wanted to layer 2 of my teeth in GOLD? I’m a grinder so my back tooth had cracked… apparently in his world Gold is the way to go… needless to say I never went back…

One of the worst experiences I have ever had. I have dental insurance that covers most standard appointments but this dentist still wanted me to pay $ 200 out of pocket. When I challenged him he told me that it was for irrigation and fluoride. Excuse me?
Stay away.