Jean E Barthman, DDS

Dr. Barthman rocks!
My jaw was out of alignment due to TMJ. I was uncomfortable and not able to eat or drink much for days. When I called her office, they got me right in. Dr. Barthman did not go the drug route, but instead gave me 2 rounds of TENs treatment (gentle electric stimulation of the muscles).
It worked!
Everyone in the office is great to deal with. I highly recommend.

I have been a regular dental patient and an invisalign patient for the past 12 months. I give Dr. Barthmann and her great staff a 10 out of 10. It is a beautiful office, the two dental assistants are always spot on, courteous and real pros, and Dr. Barthmann is a n outstanding dentist. She is a real hidden gem in the community. If you are looking for a small, intimate practice where everyone knows your name, and the quality of care is excellent, this would be a good choice.

I’m selecting the lowest star rating because I definitely «think not!»
Dr. Barthman may be competent, however she is surley and, I believe with ulterior motives. She barks at her very kind and competent staff, and tried to get me turned onto veneers? One of her intake questions is «Do you want to keep all of your original teeth?» No, please rip them all out and put fake ones in! Eek! Methinks not. «Don’t you want a Hollywood smile? Your bi-​cuspids are a little short, and with veneers, you’d really get that Hollywood smile.» Did I ask you for a Hollywood smile here in Burlingame? Eek! Methinks not.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Dr. Barthman said that my teethwhitening was eligible for pre-​tax spending (FSP). Now, it’s MY bad that I didn’t double check, but she assured me it would be covered.
I just don’t like or trust this dentist. The chapstick is just that – chapstick with gross flavors. There is nothing «spa-​esque» unless you consider water with cucumber slices in it «spa-​esque.»
Good luck elsewhere!

I’ve known her since I was in school with her daughter in preschool and she’s pretty much the best dentist around. She is really through and great and talks you through everything. She really has an interest in making your smile look the best it can look and really keeping your teeth in great condition. It’s one of the few dentists that you can say hey I don’t mind going.

I have been seeing Dr. Barthman for almost 18 years. She runs a tight ship — appointments are on-​time, staff is friendly and helpful, Dr. Barthman personally scales my teeth, her equipment is up to date, and I *love* the addition of the «spa» atmosphere. (I am one of her patients who was there before it was a «spa»).
Over the first 10 years we crowned old mercury fillings at a rate of 1 – 2 per year. Now, I have fabulous white teeth all around even when I laugh loudly and you can see the inside of my teeth. Her skill in color matching is terrific and I enjoy an amazing smile, which is good since it is the *biggest* and most noticeable feature of my face.
Dr. Barthman also treats my two kids and husband. I will never forget that she asked me to bring my daughter in when she was about 3 years for her «first appointment» just to get her comfortable with the office. She had my daughter sit in the chair, counted her teeth and gave her a prize. Two weeks later, my daughter fell and smacked a front tooth — it loosened and began to discolor. Dr. Barthman saw her immediately and there was comfort in having had her there before the accident. It all turned out well. She is now a teenager in braces with frequent dental visits.
Twice a year, I actually look forward to my dental appointment, a little aromatherapy, clean polished teeth (I love that slick feel of my tongue running across them after they have been freshly cleaned), and the warm towel at the end.
I highly recommend Dr. Barthman and her team.

Let me preface this review that the last time I got my teeth cleaned (two years ago, oops), I went to this dingy, dirty dental office and left kind of tramatized. I’ll let it up to you to find this review I wrote.
A friend of a friend happens to work here and word started spreading between my friends on what a nice place this is, and being that it’s been so long, I made an appointment.
First, they were able to get me an early morning appointment less than a week from when I called. Awesome.
Second, I ran in five minutes late, stressing out, and the receptionist was sweet and understanding. She offered me chlorophyll water (it was tasty, but made me go «huh?») and dried cranberries (it’s a trap! I didn’t want any cranberries in my teeth to be picked out later. :P), then sat down with me in the waiting room to go over the folder of forms and information. Niiice.
Third, I like spa experiences, and the aromatherapy and headphones while cleaning were seriously appreciated. Anything to reduce the dread and sound of hearing my teeth being scraped (eughhhh).
Fourth, wow, what a thorough cleaning. The measured the depth of my gums for peridontal disease, checked for cavities in every nook and cranny, went through intensive cleaning and polishing, xrays (that pop up on the TV screen right in front of you), and then going over proper flossing and brushing techniques. The last place I went to was very wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am and I hated it — I want to know that my teeth are clean and free of problems!
Oh, and a hot towel at the end. Aweeesome.
They did charge my credit card the full amount and now I have to wait for a check from my insurance to repay me, which is annoying since I have insurance so I don’t have to pay large chunks of money. Sure, the credit card is kind of harmless, but interest charges are annoying, and I really don’t expect my insurance to be speedy on sending me a check. I know why the doctor office does it, and I understand, but it still sucks.
Otherwise, I’m now recommending this place as my first choice for dentists on the peninsula. Gooooo. You won’t regret it.

First, a disclaimer: I’ve only been here twice, but Dr. Barthman’s office is far and away the best dentist’s experience I’ve had. I will admit to being a tad skeptical as to the «Dental Spa» experience, but then I reassured myself that it didn’t threaten my manliness and went anyway. The end result is nothing short of amazing.
I hadn’t been to the dentist in a few years and went in for the full exam/​cleaning, but the staff and Dr. Barthman were both courteous and charming. I spent time talking to all of them in the short waiting periods between checking in and getting my thorough dental history. I even swapped a few recipes with the doctor and a few movie recommendations with one of the assistants, and they carried on the conversation the next time I came in.
As to the actual process, Aromatherapy was offered and taken, and it was quite relaxing. The office also offers headphones so you can listen to music while they work on your teeth, though I turned down the offer so I could hear what was going on. X-​rays were taken, as were photos and the Dr. was very conscientious throughout the whole cleaning, taking care to make sure I was comfortable and knew what was going on.
At the end of the day, the whole trip was relatively quick, cheap, about as amusing as a dentist trip can get, and actually fairly relaxing. I’d recommend Dr. Barthman wholeheartedly.
Oh, and you get a free tube of chap-​stick. I think it’s peppermint flavored. So if after everything else you’re still on the fence and you love peppermint, let that make the decision for you.

Honestly, Ive been going to Dr. Barthman most of my life. But objectionably I have been forced to go elsewhere throughout the years and have yet to experience a cleaning more enjoyable.
I cannot say much for any major dental procedures, having pretty solid teeth but maybe that says more about Dr. Barthman’s ability to keep your teeth, x-​rays, and medical record up to date. A few years back they started a «Dental Spa» experience involving aromatherapy, breathing and soothing music of choice. Ive tried it a couple times, but not really my thang. I’ll let you decide for yourself.
All and all, you cannot go wrong with giving Dr. Barthman a try. I will continue to look forward to my cleaning at this dentist as long as I can.

I refer Dr. Barthman to everyone who asks. Even after being a lazy bum and not making an appointment for almost a year, they remembered me with kindness!
I love the chapstick offered, the music and the aromatherapy. I swear this kind of place might only exist in California, but I’m thankful for it! I’ve never before had such a comprehensive dental exam, and explained to me at the end by the dentist how we should proceed.
Lay your fears aside and know that you are in very kind and capable hands here.

If you asked me 4 months ago what I thought of dentists I would have told you I would rather love a lawyer.
I had a pain in my tooth like no other in December and what I do not have a dentist.
Was referred to Dr. B and I must say I went in with the cold sweats of a Dead Man Walking. OK, so guess what… it was the nicest easiest and most care free dentist visit I could have dreamed of.
So now flash forward and I refer Dr. B to my friends and colleagues and see her well maybe to frequently, but need the old crunchers ready to review more restaurants.
Thank you Dr. B for making me like dentists again.

I had not been to the dentist in 10 years. My first few jobs didn’t provide insurance, so my health care took a hit. When I finally got good insurance, I was anxious but knew work needed to be done. I went here because she’s rated highly on Unilocal,the location is convenient and she has a friendly staff.
Upon arriving for my consult, the first thing I noticed is that her office building is decent but the actual office is a bit blah. Some of her toys are new-​ISH but nothing is super swanky. Not a huge red flag, but for the prices charged it’s worth noting. The second thing that caught my attention is her registration & payment policies. Before you even have a consult, they ask you to fill out a billion forms — complete with checking account routing numbers and permission to deduct any fees that go over what’s paid up front. They also have you pay for all estimated payments on the date of treatment in full. There was no partial payment plan, it was just X amount is due now. She also seems to regularly overbook and is always running late. On my 4 visits, lateness ranged from 15 – 45 min just to get into a chair.
The consult, x-​rays, return visit to review said x-​rays (her policy), visit #3 for first batch of fillings and visit #4 for second batch of fillings cost me the entire $ 2000 yearly allotment through my insurance and an additional $ 800+ out of pocket. On visit #2 she told me that none of my teeth were candidates for a root canal but that I did have a lot of cavities — nine to be exact. She also pitched whitening, Invisalign, replacing old fillings and veneers. I signed up for fixing the cavities and put everything else on the backburner as a maybe.
On visit #4, she had me in the chair for 4.5 hours without a break. She first cleaned my teeth, which was pretty rough even with numbing gel and happy gas. She has you wear headphones and listen to the radio while she works on you. I suspect this is so that she feels free to say whatever she wants during your procedure. During my cleaning, she clearly remarked to the assistant in a snotty tone that she «REALLY needed to go over basic hygiene with me afterwards.» She also talks down to her assistant a lot more once you’ve got the headphones on than when you first sit down. She then drilled away at 4 cavities for what seemed like eons. Towards the end, the pain got a lot worse and I told her so. She gave me another shot in a totally unhelpful area of my mouth and continued on. After she was done, she told me that she was pretty sure I would need ~3 root canals immediately and I was going to feel a lot of pain very soon. She gave me a prescription for vicodin, told me to fill it and to call an endotontist if the pain didn’t go away. It was a total shock to me, since A) she had previously told me I did not have enough decay on any one tooth for a root canal, let alone 3, B) she had just drilled away for so long without saying any of this, and C) she just FILLED all these teeth. I asked how much a root canal would cost and no one there would even ballpark it. They made light of it like it was no big deal and I could easily get this taken care of right away. I left, got my drugs, felt immediate and agonizing pain and ended up having to go home and sleep until it subsided. It was too painful to speak much that day so I had to have my mother call her office to ask WTF was going on and why she had just filled teeth that she thought needed root canals, after the surgeon she referred me to asked that very same question. She backslid on her original statement and that was that.
I ended up going to a surgeon closer to home, and was told I needed 1 (not 3, thankfully) root canal ASAP and judging by the x-​rays it looked like the filling went down to the nerve cavity so she had likely nicked the nerve during her drilling (i.e.: caused the need for the root canal). Since she used up all my insurance allotment for the year (this was in December), I had to wait it out until January by taking tons of antibiotics and painkillers for over 3 weeks. I then had to pay $ 850 out of pocket to get a root canal and crown (not to mention this ate up most of THIS year’s insurance). Normally, a dentist who makes this kind of mistake would reimburse the cost of the crown over the tooth they had given a useless filling — but her office made no such offer.
This whole ordeal has re-​instilled my fear of dentists and eaten up far too much time, money and energy for me to recommend her to anyone. I’ve been treated unfairly and they’re just hoping I’m dumb enough to go back for more. Even if this started with a simple mistake, she could have responded in a much more professional manner.
UPDATE:
3yrs later, 1 of her fillings fell out and had to be replaced with a crown. 1yr after that, another fell out and took ¼ of my tooth with it, resulting in an infection to the nerve and need for another root canal — which I couldn’t afford, so the whole tooth had to be pulled. BEWARE.

I have been to some pretty horrible dentists and was so relieved when I found Dr. Barthman. Her staff is friendly, the equipment is up-​to-​date and I loved the chap stick like the other reviewers mentioned. For some reason it really helps. You can tell that she cares about her business and profession. I am impressed and so happy I found a dentist I can trust. It’s nice not to feel like another number at the doctor’s office.

After ripping off my own braces and having a few run-​ins with some mean and surly dentists, I was so traumatized that I didn’t see a dentist for many years. Then one day, one of my molars cracked and a chip came off of it. Do you think I went to the dentist then? Nooooo… of course not!
Flash forward about four more years, and I start having these intense pains in that chipped tooth. No matter how many over-​the-​counter pain killers I took with how much vodka, that pain just wouldn’t go away. By this time I had developed a deep and somewhat illogical fear of the dentist. Not only was I afraid they’d tell me I need all my nasty-​ass teeth pulled out and full dentures put in, but I was afraid they’d be mean and yell at me about how irresponsible I’d been. I just can’t stand people yelling and being mean to me :(
Finally, I couldn’t stand it any more and I found Dr Barthman’s dental spa. They sounded really NICE, like people that don’t yell, and I was desperate for the pain to stop… I considered knocking all my teeth out with a hammer but decided to make an appointment with Dr Barthman instead.
Fortunately, I was able to get in right away, AND Dr Barthman and her assistant Kat were REALLY nice. They do aromatherapy before your treatment (I guess that’s why they call it a «spa») and give you flavored lip-​balm (which is actually one of my favorite things in the whole world, it’s the one luxury item I would bring with me if I were on Survivor) not like I really noticed much besides the prescription for Vicoden that particular day. You know, you can drink a LOT more vodka if you take some Vicoden first! I mean… not that I would. Oh hell, who am I kidding? When in that much pain, I think I’d take anything to make it stop.
Dr. Barthman has completely cured me of my fear of the dentist. My worst fears were never realized… I had a root canal (although she doesn’t actually do those there) some cavities filled, a nasty two part «scraping and planing» cleaning, tooth whitening and even got Invisalign to finally finish off correcting my teeth from oh-​so-​many years ago. Oh, and she even removed that little calcification lighter colored bit from the front of my teeth that had bothered me for so long. I’ve been here so many times now, it’s like my home away from home and I’ve managed to collect almost all the flavors of lip balm! It’s more expensive than Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers, but man I’ve got me a nice set of beautiful pearly white choppers!

This is a completely different dental experience. I went here based on the Unilocal review. You walk in and they give you a portfolio with your forms. They give you a different scent of chapstick with every visit. You watch videos about being a new patient and brushing your teeth properly. They ask you how you feel about your teeth and a bunch of other questions.
Headphones, protective glasses, you betcha. Three stations of alternative rock. X rays are all digital and had a comfy purple cover to make it slightly less unbearable. Getting your teeth cleaned is nice, they have orange cream flavored polish. Much better than the other stuff. They also give you a hot towel at the end and an aromatherapy treatment at the beginning.
So if you are nervous about being at the dentist, this place is great. And they follow up with a sit-​down consult about your dental health.
The downside is that all this takes time. My first appointment was 2 hours long. The second appointment for x rays took about an hour because they had an emergency, which is not their fault. The third appt today took about an hour and that was a consultation plus records and bite molds for invisalign. But its your health and they are conscientious and I think the time investment is worth it.
Overall, the doc is nice, the techs are great, they have all the latest equipment, they are well-​informed and they do everything they can to make your dental experience the best. Give it a try.

Why yes Dr. Barthman I would love some chap stick to make my lips more pliable during the exam…
You want me to take my glasses off, and put on safety goggles so nothing sprays into my eyes… sounds great…
Of course I would like some headphones, I think today I will listen to Jazz Classics thank you much…
Aroma therapy to soothe me before you start… excellent…
Hey what’s that drill doing there? Is that a blade at the end of that tool? I’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. I didn’t land on this dentist office. This dentist office landed on me!!!
Aside from the unnecessary evils of a dentist office it is a pleasure to visit Dr. Barthman and her crew. A little icing on the cake… the last time I was there to get a crown, she called me after office hours were over that day to see how I was doing with my teefers. Top notch service.