Fenster Marc DMD

What happened to dentists’ bedside manners? The Science is here, but not the art of treating patients with compassion, and not treating them like physical objects. Recently I needed to have a lot of work done in Dr. Marc Fenster’s office (in practice with Dr. Howard Burger and Dr. Hershkowitz) Smithtown, N.Y. I realized that I have health issues (dry mouth, smoking and poor genes for good teeth) but was amazed I had 11 one, two, and three surface cavities. I do not have dental insurance but Dr. Fenster was initially kind enough to give me a write-​off. With a dental implant, crown and placement and all the work the total came to $ 3,600.
After my last visit, I had three difficult cavities left. I was given an injection of Lidocaine but not enough and I felt pain. I decided to «just get through this.» Dr. Fenster was very aggressive in treatment, leaning on my jaw, holding my head, while pulling down my lip and probing my gums until they bled profusely. He made comments like: This is brutal. This is not dentistry 101; this is too hard. I like easy work. You (me as the patient) are making this extremely difficult.” All of this commentary was without any compassion for the pain I was enduring and did not demonstrate any patient etiquette or empathy. All comments centered on his viewpoint. After being in the chair for 2 hours, when he only asked me once if I was OK, I wanted to stop. He said he only had one cavity left and proceeded. During this whole time he spoke non-​stop with dental assistant, about college, vacations both were taking, restaurants, etc. When it finally was over, he spoke to Dental Assistant referring to me in third person, …She is going to really floss and brush well now! «Saying I should rinse with warm salt water because my gums were so sore. (At the previous visits he never said anything and expressed amazement my whole mouth ached for one week after.)
I was extremely upset by his lack of compassion to me, and not treating me with any dignity. I said to him: „you could have asked how I was feeling, or said you are doing well, a good patient. You could have showed me some empathy.“ He did neither. I told him I was never coming back. He left the room with no comment. Then the Dental Assistant said…» what did you EXPECT? This was difficult work.
This Dentist may be a good dentist technically however had no rappore in human patient to doctor relationship. He had an excellent conversation with the Dental Assistant! Interestingly, on a previous visit he praised his legible handwriting, saying pompously that legible handwriting should be mandatory in medical school. Where is some concern for the patient? Where is good bedside manners 101? I wondered if giving me a «discount» and since I was not vocally proactive, that gave him the right to be unprofessional in comments and not show any concern for my pain?

Thank god he’s my dentist!
I saw Dr. Fenster for my routine check up and later thay day after his office had closed, my tooth had cracked and I needed my tooth to be fixed to look good for an interview the next day. I called his service and he met me that night around 8pm and he fixed my tooth and made it look as good as new. I felt more confident walking into the interview the next day because Dr Fenster fixed it and it looked like nothing ever happened. He has very convenient office hours so it is easy to fit my annual dental visits into my busy work schedule