Tal S David, MD

Review is for the PA, as I couldn’t get in to see the doctor. Was seen a few minutes late, however once I got in I was very impressed with the level of service and care. Everything was explained clearly (I was there for a knee sports injury), X-​rays were ordered and completed on-​site and very fast, and the diagnosis and solution were also quick and well diagnosed. Very satisfied with the service, their PA, and how efficient each step was. Thank you!!!

I went in to see Dr. David back in May of 2015 because I was having quiet a bit of very sporadic pain under my knee cap. It was to the point that I was having issues walking up the steps to my condo and working out; which is a huge part of my life as at the time I was squatting 405# and deadlifting 545#… takes some real work to get there.
After some xray and talking, he decided the first course of action would be to get the swelling down and see if it could get controlled. After weeks of that and no success (mostly do to me I imagine), we talked about the next set of options. End result was to go under the knife and do a knee debridement and clean the puppy out… while the most invasive, it fit my long term goals.
Two holes in my knee later and some rehab… I was back in business! Well, after the agony oh my hammys and quads freezing up after having my leg wrapped and kept straight for a few days… seriously painful. If you have alot of muscle mass, getting some muscle relaxers definitely helped HUGE TIME.
One other admirable trait of Dr David is he’s a pretty straight forward, no BS guy and doesnt hesitate to go into the specifics on any question you ask… which i really appreciate and I imagine most other athletes would as well. Also, I forget the name of his PA that was assisting him… but another extremely knowledgeable and professional guy without a doubt.
Even though I’ve recently been transferred up to LA, I’ll still head south when its time to put humpty dumpty back together again.

Dr. David and his staff are amazing. He performed surgery on both of my shoulders this past year, and until I went to him, I received a series of misdiagnoses. He was very conservative with his approach, and surgery was only presented as a last resort. Dr. David was incredibly patient with my husband’s and my questions, and he presented a confident approach to correcting my problems. Post surgery, his assistants we available by phone/​text, and his office staff were always very helpful when I had insurance questions or needed to make changes to my appointments.
I know each case is different, but I can tell you this: after my surgeries for a labral repair, I was relatively pain free a couple of days later, and slept like a baby since the first night. 3 months after surgery, I was back in the water surfing.

A good doctor that needs an updated office.
Doctor David was helpful at discussing my condition and reviewed my X-​rays on the same visit.
Now for his office.
I called 5 times after my visit to plan and schedule my surgery and I didn’t get my call answered. I didn’t even get a call back after leaving 3 messages.
I did call and talk to someone in billing that took a message for Wilma. Nope, still no call back.
Finally, I get a call after leaving a new message months after my visit with a new person. Wilma tells me that she never received a message and interrupts me several times while I’m trying to explain.
Then I go in to pickup my X-​rays that she said I could have and pay my bill. Nope! I am told that they own Your X-​rays and you can only borrow them. Are you kidding me! Xrays cost me hundreds of dollars! I want them.
The only, and I mean only saving grace is that the nice person who took my payment didn’t charge me for the late fees and teased me about it. She was nice.
…and then a guy walked in a served them a subpoena!
It was probably for a legal matter… probably demanding X-​rays! :-/​
I suspect Dr. David is as great Surgeon as his reputation, also great bedside manner.
My issue is that with this staff, I will probably be crying in pain after surgery trying to call for a prescription and appointment, and Wilma will argue she didn’t get my message. :-(
P. S. The parking sucks, get validated or pay the nice guard mad loot on the way out!

I dont understand any one complaining about a staff… HELLO …it’s the doctor You have to concern yourself with… generally if your good to people, they respond the same… You get what You ask for… I had my surgery and Im happy with the doctor and the staff…

Office staff is the worst!

I am a Patient of Dr. Tal David now & I have had nothing put the Best Treament from him. yeah I could go somewhere else if i wanted to, but why would you leave best. Dr. David has always giving me the best advise & Listens to you & even explained what my long term treatment plan involves.& for the staff, it’s the same I have had nothing put the best from the Staff in the office to his Assistance always able to answer any Insurance question & if there busy they get back to you right away.
So I totaly disagree what Kimberly C & Michael S has to say.
So if youre looking for the Best Orthopedic Surgeon in San Diego. Dr. Tal David is the one. Dont let a few Bad Apples ruin the bunch.

I don’t want this review to be too misleading because Dr. David and his assistant were pretty good.
I, however, had a horrible experience with his office staff. I have never had such unprofessional medical office staff in my life. I went to his office of Kearny Villa Rd.
I have been dealing with a knee injury for a year now and my doctor recommended Dr. David for a consult to try to get more eyes on the problem to figure out what exactly is wrong. I arrived about 15 minutes early because I figured there would be some forms to fill out, which ended up taking close to 30 minutes because of all the forms. They had my entire file and history from my doctor, who works for THE SAME medical group apparently, so I’m still unsure as to why I had to rewrite the information that they already had. I was finally taken back to a room by an office worker who looked more like she was ready to go party than was working in a professional medical environment.
I saw his assistant first, who was wonderful. I sadly do not remember his name. He left and finally the doctor came in, over an hour after I arrived at the office. We chatted and he wanted to do a cortisone shot. I agreed. The office door was left open while I waited, which was very odd behavior because every other patient room I have ever been in, they close the door to ensure privacy. Same office worker who put me in the patient room attempted to put other patients in the same room as me, like she forgot it was occupied.
The doctor specifically said that he wanted to follow up with me in a few weeks, after I saw my primary doctor, so that he could make an assessment after the shot. I relayed this to another officer work at the checkout desk when my file was dropped off. She was incredibly rude about the whole thing. She had an attitude about being able to schedule me to come back because it was for a consult. I simply stated that is what the doctor requested, and she curtly told me that she wouldn’t schedule another appointment for me, that if I wanted to come back I had to followup with my doctor and they would have to get in touch with them and then they would see what they could do.
I let it go and left. I started to walk down the hallway and realized I didn’t get my parking validated. So I returned and the lady was on the phone. She could see my ticket, so she put a sticker, a stamp, and signed. I figured I was good, until I got to the kiosk to leave and the worker told me I owed $ 2.00. First office, I’m from the East coast and I find it absurd that medical offices make you pay to park. However, the last few that I have had to go to for my knee injury, they always validate for the full time. Also, who carries cash or check anymore? Apparently that is all that is accepted — yet there is no where to get cash. So, I re-​park and go upstairs to find out what is going on. The party office worker looked at me when I came up to the window so I started talking to her. Apparently she was on the phone, because after I was done explaining the issue she says «I didn’t hear anything you said, I’m on the phone.» Wow, really. So the lady who validated it said in a very snotty manner that they only validate for the first 30 minutes. Again, wow! I looked at her and explained that I spent my first 30 minutes filling out paper work and didn’t even see the doctor until over an hour into the appointment. In what universe do you go to a doctor’s office and you are in and out in 30 minutes? None that I have EVER been in. I was frustrated at this point and I asked if she was kidding me. They have no signage and no indication that they have this policy. One older lady was walking past and said, just give her another ticket. So she scoffs and puts one on the card. I left. I go back down to the kiosk worker and now I owe $ 4.00 because the whole back & forth bumped me to the next bracket or something. I was beyond livid at this point. The kiosk worker was polite and he let me go.
Long story short, I will not be returning, at any point, to this office. I can not believe the rude, unhelpful, unprofessional nature of the staff. Sadly, his staff ruined the whole experience and I find it a telling sign to hire such incompetent people.

In 2010 he did my right shoulder, in 2013 he did my left shoulder. I consider him the best shoulder surgeon in Southern California. He will also do surgeries for other doctors and leave follow up treatment to them.
You can have full confidence you picked the right doctor and do not have to worry about anything other than your rehab. Great choice. My right shoulder is so much better and as good as new although the rehab took almost a year. He is meticulous.
Dr. Tal David is really good. Other doctors will confirm his talents. I had Blue Cross insurance and he is a preferred provider.
He is now working with Dr. Maywood by Coast Medical Center

Dr. David is in a small group but offers exceptional outcomes after surgery. If you are an athlete, go see Dr. David.

Being an athletic person, I take finding the right physicians seriously. Some years ago, Dr. David performed knee surgery (meniscus).
Dr. David’s approach is conservative and surgery is not his first choice. He has great judgement and is a good listener. i would highly recommend him. After having surgery by Dr. David, I found out that he has done knee surgery for about 6 of my other friends, who all rave about him.

I had ACL reconstruction about 20 years ago and I had not experienced anything more than occasional swelling and some arthritic pain until recently. A few months back the knee swelled up and felt like it was going to give out a couple of times per day, so I figured it was time to get it checked out.
Friends recommended Dr. Chao and while reading reviews on him, I came across numerous positive reviews of his colleague, Dr. Tal David, so I decided to give Dr. David a try.
My X-​rays were inconclusive and Dr. David suggested he drain the knee and give me a shot of cortisone. He said if the swelling and pain returned, it could be indicative of a loose body floating in the knee or a tear. I told him that I thought I had a loose body and would prefer to skip the draining and shot and pursue arthroscopy.

He could have laughed at my opinion, but he listened and his staff was able to get me into an MRI facility that evening. The MRI confirmed I had a meniscus tear and 2 loose bodies and Dr. David was able to perform arthroscopy to clean up my knee less than 2 weeks after my initial visit.

Dr. David called me in the evening after my procedure (a Friday night) and told me to call him on his cell if I ran into any problems over the weekend. Very impressive. I highly recommend Dr. Tal David.

I was referred to Dr. David for a minor knee injury a few years ago and was very pleased with his demeanor and approach to me as a patient. I am a very active person and he approached my care thinking of me as an athlete, and someone who will play through pain, rather than some textbook version of what a 30something female should be. Given this pleasant experience when I blew out my knee playing soccer I knew exactly where I was going — right back to Dr. David.
Turns out I had a fully torn ACL, torn meniscus, cartilage damage, and a sprained MCL. Dr. David was very honest with me about my condition, presented me with my options for surgery and for going forward without surgery. Once I decided to have the surgery he was very open about my choices of what type of graft to use and gave my husband and me all of the pros and cons of each type. I was able to schedule my surgery quickly (2 weeks after my injury and only because I was traveling the week after). The surgery went extremely well, he replaced my ACL, repaired my meniscus and drilled micro fractures to replace the cartilage damage.
My recovery has been amazing and Dr. David has been very transparent about why he is clearing me for certain activities at different points in my recovery and more importantly why he is NOT clearing me for other activities. At 6 months out I am now running close to the same speed I was at before my injury, my cycling has improved dramatically, and I’m starting to ease into more dynamic movements required for soccer and hockey (my sports of choice). And best of all — all of this activity is done pretty much pain free.
Appointments are very easy to schedule and I have almost always been called back at my appointment time and seen very quickly.

I found Dr David online as well as a highly recommended Dr from my past physical therapist. I am a very active athlete and avid surfer and suffer from dislocating shoulders. I have had 3 surgeries (2 on left and 1 on right) over the past 7 years. I recently got into a surfing accident and decided to meet with Dr David and get his opinion. Turns out a had a large labrum tear and a lot of bone loss due to the dislocation so I opted for surgery (my decision rather than his pushing). It has been about a month now since surgery and I am getting back into the swing of things. I hope to be back in the water within a few months (shoulders take a long time). Dr David has been great along the way and his staff has been tremendous. I have never waited more than 10 minutes before getting into my appointment, which is great. Dr David and his staff are very knowledgable and have wonderful bedside manner. I would highly recommend Dr David! I will give an update on my progress once I catch my first waves since the surgery.

I chose this doctor after reading the reviews on Unilocal.My appointment was at noon, I showed up at 11:58 and they called me at noon. I was in the room maybe one minute and they walked in the door. I feel better already! Each and every one of his staff members were complete dolls! Oh yeah, just because he does surgery, doesn’t mean he’s surgery happy. He’s very thorough and I didn’t feel like I was on the clock. Two thumbs way up!

I moved to San Diego in January and within 2 weeks I went snowboarding and blew my shoulder out. I had a SLAP tear that required 3 anchors with 3 sutures. Basically, I went with the recommendation that Dr. David was good with shoulders. He wasn’t good with shoulders, he was freaking awesome!
His office visits are short but he’s good at what he does and if you do some studying ahead of time, which you should do anyways, there should be no problems. I just saw him for my final visit and he started to get up after a quick talk but I started asking questions and he very quickly sat back down and got comfortable. Thus, if you have questions he’s good and will take the time. I am young, athletic, very knowledgeable about everything so he was quick with me.
I must say that I am 5 weeks out of surgery that he initially told me I would be 8 weeks out of the water. I’ve got my full ROM back and I’m progressing very quickly with my PT. He told me I could get back in the water but be careful. I’ve also got pictures that I’ve shown others in the medical field and they were impressed at how good a job he did suturing me up.
I highly recommend Dr. Tal David for anything orthopedic.