Nguyen Camtu T, DDS

If only Unilocal allowed zero or negative stars…
If you don’t want to read another long review, here are the main points: UNPROFESSIONALISM, RUDE & MONEY-​HUNGRY STAFF, LACK OF ATTENTION/​EXPERIENCE, LONG WAIT TIME.
Going to this dental office has always been one of my worst nightmares growing up. Painful visits. Long waits. Unfriendly employees. I can still remember the horrid times I used to go here. «You or your brother first today?!» I felt like we were being drafted for something. The wait was ALWAYS long. Whatever time you’re scheduled, you’d be seated at least 30 minutes after, then once you’re seated, you’d wait around for at least another 15 minutes until anyone starts anything on you. They take forever to finish the x-​rays. They’d choke me and scratch my gum trying to put those film thingy in. Man, I never realized how much radiation went through me after all those retakes! In addition, the dental hygienists were so ungentle and seems like they do not care about the patients. The fillings they did on me, my mom, and my brother have fallen out a few times within a year. Sometimes when they numb you, they don’t wait long enough and rush into doing stuff so you can still feel the pain. Also they’d rarely ask about how you’re doing and talk to their colleagues’ while performing services on you.
The moment I graduated college and landed on a real job and was no longer under Medi-​Cal insurance coverage. I was finally able to escape. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was because my family and I respect Dr. CamTu (a distant relative), but she’s rarely at the office now. Don’t get me wrong, Dr. CamTu herself is a nice and experienced dentist, but her staffs are HORRIBLE. I don’t even know where she hires these people and how thorough she interviewed them. It seems like there are always new dentists at this place every year. As many people have mentioned, the finance lady/​receptionist (whatever her role is called here) is awfully unprofessional and rude. She tries to drain out your insurance money and get in as much money from you as possible. She schedules as many visits as possible and always rushes you to pay. She rushes you to sign papers before you ever had the chance to read them! She talks down on you because your family is low income and can’t easily afford these high dental charges. My goodness, is she a receptionist or a salesperson? Did she take any Communications or Customer Service classes?
My mom is mentally ill so normally I’d speak on her behalf. (She still goes here because she’s one of those people who don’t like changes and just stick to what they are used to.) Recently we found out that she needed root canal and crown (not covered by Medi-​Cal) for her teeth so unfortunately I had to pay that big chunk out of pocket. The receptionist constantly called me about my mom’s dental procedures when I was working and driving. After the whole root canal/​crown situation last month, she said my mom just needed her usual cleaning and a few fillings then she’s done. All of a sudden today, she randomly decides to have a deep cleaning (not covered by Medi-​Cal) done and calls me while I was at work to demand for more money. Why wasn’t this mentioned or even noticed the past five visits if it was that necessary? Why didn’t she discuss and ask me first if they can perform the procedure on my mom when they obviously know my mom is incapable of these decisions? I honestly don’t trust this lady and she didn’t even give us a chance to get a second opinion yet.
Consider yourself warned if you’ve read the negative reviews here. I definitely agree with all of them and that’s another person to confirm this office’s lack of worthiness. I have been to 2 different dental offices after this place and my experiences have been SO MUCH BETTER. I honestly never knew going to the dentist didn’t have to be a dread until I moved on. This place even skimps on little goodie bags too! Back then they used to give out cheap/​generic brands. Now I guess they’ve upgraded to decent brands but rarely will they give patients anything. My other dentists gives me stuff every visit lol.
There are kagillion of dental offices to choose from in San Jose with people who actually care about your dental health, so save you and your family/​friends the troubles and avoid this place!
I apologize and thank you for your time if you even finished reading this. These are just some thoughts that I have kept in for so long and feel like now is finally the time I need to let them out.

If you care about your health, please read this and don’t come. I started coming here around 2010 since I used to live close by but I will never ever coming again. After all these years, I think I’m done. Here are my reasons:
OVEREXPOSED TO RADIATION AND UNDER TRAINING:
— I came for teeth cleaning but my back teeth did ache a little so the two assistants told me to get x-​ray done just incase. The older one walked away and the younger one stayed. Without an exaggeration, she took about 10 photos of my teeth! She kept doing it wrong over and over again. I raised my concerns and said «I don’t want to be exposed to radiation this much. It’s really bad for your health. I told you I’m mainly here to clean not to fix anything. I don’t want you to take photos anymore. I’m also taking a lot of chemotherapy medication. my other doctors warned me about not being exposed to radiation». All she said was «oh really? let’s do one more then. Last one».
— The older lady came back and told her «why did you use this method? it’s so much harder and take longer. We just need this and this. Next time use this ok?» and the younger girl said «oh ok, well I know it’s harder but I thought…» -.- OK OBVIOUSLY SHE NEEDS TRAINING. I should have known when I saw how YOUNG she was. The older lady should have stayed and showed her! My TEETH ARE NOT FAKE for you to keep taking pictures of constantly. I was so mad at that point because I know they ALWAYS overbook clients so that’s why the older person was super busy running around. I felt like I was being USED for them to train the younger one. Her training should have been done in SCHOOL.
FAKING THE JOB TO GET PATIENT OUT EARLY:
–The older lady also «polished» my teeth — 1) she did it SUPER fast 2) she wasn’t even really looking at my teeth, she was just touching my teeth so I won’t complain about my wait 3) she polished my teeth before the dentist came to clean… after I got my teeth done, the dentist said «ok! The last step is to polish your teeth! I’m done». LOL Basically my teeth barely got polished.
UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF
–The finance lady is very unprofessional. She will call you, and call you, and call you over and over again. Leaving several voicemails to make you make an appointment and not miss your appointment. They constantly called while I was driving or working so now they’re texting me too! I was 2 min away from arriving and they called again. I picked it up because I know if I don’t, they would call AGAIN. I was so mad and got distracted. I missed my turn.
INSURANCE MONEY:
–Overall, they don’t care about you. They only care about taking insurance money. The finance lady was RUDE and mean to my mom one time because my mom didn’t have enough insurance money. She was mad because she thought my mom went somewhere else to get her teeth done and came back. but my mom said she didn’t check thoroughly. It was HER that took a whole chunk out.
The only reason why I am giving this place two stars because I do like Dr. Cam Tu. I just can’t deal with her unprofessional staff members. There are other great dentists out there with staff members that do care and won’t keep asking about my personal life (yes, I don’t like when they keep pushing me to answer what my JOB is and other personal matters.)

My whole family went to her and she was rude and bitchy. She’s very shady, just want money from her patients, regardless of who it is.
We came back a few times for my parents’ dental work but she kept on urging us to hurry up and pay out of pocket because we’re an inconvenience for her time.
After the dental works, she tried to sell the mouth rinse for $ 15 there that could have been purchase for less than $ 10 at any pharmacy. Taking about being hella shady.
She was also rude to my parents, giving no respect for the elders. Just because my parents can’t speak English well doesn’t mean we can’t go to another dentists. There are hundreds of dentists in the Bay Area so don’t settle for less and go to her.

The receptionist and scheduling are the worst parts of this dental office. She treats her job like it’s a cold-​calling sales position. Aggressively tracks and calls you for a check-​up and will try to schedule you the very next day (even if you protest and say you’re busy). The woman should be fired and replaced with a more professional receptionist.

Dont come here at all the office is a joke. unprofessional and waste of time. The front desk is horrible calls you like crazy. And the dr is unprofessional if you have any knowledge of what they are doing they try to get u in and out. Truly disappointed on the whole office ill never come back even if they payed me.

Dr. CamTu had been my dentist for over 15 years. She is friendly and thoughfull and does a great job on cleanning and root canal, crown and bridges. The office is clean and comfortable.

Dr. Nguyen Camtu is a sweetheart. She is very friendly and nice to me when I have seen her in person. The receptionists and assistants are all very nice too. They do a good job and it’s hardly painful. Good job everyone! :-)

Great service. Awesome dentist. Dr. Nguyen really cares about her patients. I frequently come here and the front desk people are really nice. They always make small talk and ask about your family and school. I recommend this establishment. :)

The staff here is very friendly and attentive. I come to see Dr. Carrie who is here on Tuesdays and Saturdays and she is wonderful, gentle, and amazing! So happy she is my dentist and provides the utmost care and professionalism. Also, Dr. Camtu is always bubbly and nice to talk to. I highly recommend this practice. Also, everyone here speaks Vietnamese fluently which is a plus.
Thank you First Choice Family Dental!

I’ve subtracted a few stars after returning to Dr. Nguyen’s office as a cash patient paying for dental cleaning:
–1 star: the wait time. Although I made it a point to arrive 10 minutes earlier, I had to wait 30 minutes before Dr. Nguyen came to see me.
–1 star: poor service. Dr. Nguyen didn’t even ask how I was or when my last exam was or anything which convey that she actually cares about her patient.
–1 star: Dr. Nguyen went to two other patients while cleaning my teeth. I hope she changed her gloves.
Overall, I’m very disappointed in the lack of professionalism. I felt like I was in a Chinese restaurant rather than a medical office.
Next time, I’m looking for an older dentist who doesn’t over schedule and like to take their time to care for their patients instead of someone who is just in it for the money.
When the dds clean my teeth, I expect her to actually do a thorough job and tell me if I’m doing things correctly in terms of how I’m caring for my oral health.

Overall a good dentist to visit in Little Saigon San Jose, I usually go here every 6 months to a year for a cleaning, she’s pretty careful and thorough in her cleaning.

Best dentist I’ve ever had. She truly cares for her patients and is very professional in all aspects of her work. Gentle and kind are the two best words to describe her techniques, I feared the dentist until I met her.

I’ve been a regular patient for the past few years, just never thought about writing a review on Unilocal.
Dr. Cam Tu is very professional, thorough, and caring to her patients. She’s a really funny Americanized Viet lady. She really knows what she’s doing and does a really good of cleaning your teeth. One thing though, I really don’t like the lady at the front desk. Her name is «Ly», she’s a horrible receptionist that will call you like 5 times a day, call your parents, aunts, sisters, cousins, whatever just to remind you that you have an appointment the next day. Seriously annoying.
But it sorta makes sense because Dr. Tu is very popular with the vietnamese population, especially the older people probably because of the location. I still go back here every 6 months for my regular cleaning and try to ignore the mean receptionist lady.
If you’re looking for a good dentist (and if you’re scared of pain), go to Dr. Tu, only if you’re willing to deal with that mean lady (and pick up her calls right away or she’ll dial everyone you’re related to if she has their number)

Dr. CamTu does a great job of cleaning teeth; she’s very thorough. I’ve been to like about 3 other dentists and no one does a good job of cleaning like her. It only costs $ 40 to clean your teeth if you don’t have insurance. Now I have insurance but I still come back to her b/​c no one cleans as well as her.

The dentists are nice and professional. But the nurses aren’t that attentive because I’ve choked a few times on the wire things they’ve put in my mouth.
But what you should really avoid is the vietnamese lady at the front desk. (She’s short and wears really high heels) She yelled at me once cause I came to my appointment 10 mins early. She needs to learn some manners.
Overall, I would recommend a different dentist, this place is not worth the trouble, unless you want to be yelled at and looked down upon by the bitch at the front desk.