Dentists Who Do Great Crowns

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Dentists who do great crowns/TMJ/Delta Dental PPO
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May 5, 2022
(3 replies)

Hi,

I'm looking for a recommendation for a dentist in the Berkeley/Oakland/Albany/El Cerrito/Alameda area who has a good track record with crowns/crown replacements, who takes Delta Dental PPO. I went through the last thread on this topic and after calling nearly all the great recommendations, I found none of them are with my insurance, Delta Dental PPO, unfortunately.

Once this crown replacement issue is resolved, I'm also looking for a dentist who may have expertise in treating/managing TMJ issues.

Any suggestions would be so welcome.

Thank you!

May 5, 2022

I highly recommend my dentist Dr. Dawn Dukes in El Cerrito. The office is small and the office staff are friendly. I have been with Dr. Dukes for many years and I wouldn't use anyone else to do any type of dental work.

Here are the yelp reviews. https://www.yelp.com/biz/dawn-m-dukes-dds-and-david-a-concepcion-dds-el…

May 11, 2022

Recommended:

David Conception, DDS & Dawn Dukes, DDS
Dentist for Dental Implant Crown
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Aug 19, 2019
(5 replies)

I'm looking for a dentist in the Berkeley, El Cerrito, Oakland area that can put a crown on my implant. I really have had a falling out with my current dentist. I feel I was completely ripped off. I'm in over $6,000 for one tooth - $5,000 for the extraction, the implant, multiple fancy 3-D Xrays, the abutment and the "retainer/mold" to get me to this point, and I don't even have the crown yet. I can't believe how much this has cost. Something is wrong.

MetLife is the insurance.

Thanks for any recommendations that you can give.

Aug 19, 2019

I am going through a root canal and crown process right now after having a similar situation with a ridiculous dentist in SF.

I am not sure about MetLife, as I have Guardian, but I have had a very good experience with Endospecialists (they have locations in Oakland, Berkeley and El Cerrito) with Dr. Fujimara - he is incredible. And dentist I have been seeing is Dr. Nam at Daniel Nam, DDS & Associates in Pill Hill (by Alta Bates Oakland). My experience with Dr Nam thus far is that he is straightforward and doesn't jump the gun on unnecessary procedures.

good luck!

Aug 21, 2019

I’m not sure if this will be helpful, but I’ve had an implant (years ago even) and the amount you have spent sounds about right, unfortunately. Another thing to think about: assuming your dentist is in network, I was told that at least in my case given they were in network, they were charging me what the insurance contract basically spells out that they can charge me, it wasn’t even their decision what to charge and “shopping around” wouldn’t have made a difference. (Perhaps your insurance or someone more well versed in how this all works can verify or explain better than I am).

Assuming you have already spent above your insurance max benefit for the year, can you wait until the next calendar year to do the crown when insurance resets? That’s what I did. I verified with my dentist though that diligent wearing of my retainer would keep the space intact, and I would recommend you make sure of this as well with your dentist before doing this route. Good luck! The cost of these is really staggering.

Aug 21, 2019

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Dec 2002

I'm looking for a dentist near Albany that is good at making caps and crowns. My dentist in SF is excellent and even casts his own gold crowns, but now it takes me up to two hours to get to him on public transportation. I have read the advice page, but I'd like to hear from someone who specifically had lots of crowns, both gold and porcelain, and was satisfied with the craftsmanship of their dentists.

Recommendations received:

Linh Cao

Maggie Chao

Daniel Cobb

Daniel Eckhard

Aaron Escalante

Mojdeh Hariri-Vijeh

Barry Hunau

Barry Kami (2)

Steven Kobayashi

Seymour Kurtz

Ken Mizono