UCLA School of Dentistry — Local services in Los Angeles

May 3, 2025 Initial review

Harasees Chahal has been my student dentist for about a year.
She is incompetent, defensive and rough/sloppy. She communicates poorly (incompletly and vaguely).
The work pace is extremely slow.
Teachers defend students by Reminding you - the patient- how grateful you should be for getting a professional work for lower cost than a private dentist. (Partially true)
Patients are at the mercy of their student schedule and capability.
Each time I went in, there was a different supervisor- hence little to no continuity and accountability.
Harasses poorly planned her work (crowns) with the upcoming periodontal work, so she had me pay for her services on 2 occassions without being able to accomplish her job.
It took her 3 attempts to get the crown impression for my tooth 31 right! Which meant a waste of my time (about 5 hr between the drive and 3 hrs appointment) and money ($16 parking each time).
Harasees only did it with the help of an assistant, on the 2nd time.
Harasses forgot to raise my chair, so when she shoved the paste for my upper jaw impression - the paste nearly went down my throat. She then abruptly raised the chair making me jolt, treating me like an object.
She was supposed to take impressions on teeth 20 and 31 on April 11th! And should have had both permanent crowns by now.
Almost a month later, she only took the #31 impression.
Had had the nerve to dismiss me with "I could have done crown impressions without practicing on you" (paraphrasing)

The Billing Dept. has you come in their office with your student dentist to give your cost. They have no email, won't answer phone calls nor return voice messages.
UCLA School if Dentistry has been unprofessional, absurd and betrayed my trust.
FYI: Harasees Chahal graduated June 11, 2025. That's the kind of student UCLA produced. Shame! 

On June 11, 2025, I had mistakingly pressed the "3 hour" parking option instead the "All Day Parking". To be on the safe side, I purchased a second parking ticket for all day right afterwards. I took a photo of the mistaken parking ticket and emailed it for a refund. I was denied because the charge in question was "not associated to an administrative or system error" . I let them know, that parking "system" is created by humans. Who also make errors. They refused the refund again. Then, my last appointment with student dentist Harasees Chahal took place. She was dismissive to me while I was in the waiting area. Once I entered her work area, she greeted me with a high-pitched fake friendly tone, knowing she is listened to by her supervising faculty, Dr. Altman and others. The worst kind of false virtue signaling. Once I tried to take a sip of water from my thermos, she stated "drinking water is prohibited in the work area". Which isn't true as I had been drinking plenty of my water at the Periodontal Department. Harasees was silent when I told her about this. Soon after she started working on my tooth, she started coughing. Consistently for about 2 hours. And mostly in my face. Which would make me wince, despite her mask. She even had the nerve to ask if I am ok. When I told her that she is the one would isn't (ok), she fell silent again. And kept coughing! Among several faculty... as if coughing is a normal thing to do when when working with patients. I commented on this irony and got a perfect silence once again. On top of being hypocritical, pricey, slow and hardly incompetent, the UCLA School of Dentistry appears to be a physically unsafe and unhealthy...

My son was a patient of this clinic, we came for a crown but instead of a crown they made a filling on a completely different tooth without warning me and postponed the crown for a month, writing false medical certificates that my child had behavioral problems during the treatment, but this is an absolute lie! They justify their unprofessionalism by the fact that the child did not let them do the work. I was there and held the child's hand myself, he could not walk or talk after liquid anesthesia, what kind of bad behavior were we talking about? There were no obstacles to the work of the interns. The intern did the filling for so long that the supervisor already looked in several times and rushed her. In the end, the effect of the anesthesia wore off and we were told that the crown would be next time, but they said that gas might be needed. I said that we would use gas only as a last resort if the child really cannot sit still. Usually this is not necessary, my son copes well with liquid anesthesia. Since a month is too long a period of time according to the court decision my child was transferred to a dentist in Glendale for which I have a court order, UCLA decided to make a crown a month later although they did not have my permission for treatment and anesthesia. The child's father, who brought him for treatment and insisted on this clinic because it was supposedly cheap, had a court order for emergency treatment and the doctor who talked to me before the treatment and was aware of this repeated several times that she would do the crown no matter what, while she did not hide the pleasure with which she told me about it emphasizing that she would again write false information that it was emergency treatment. My lawyer also called and she told me that this is a violation of the court order. They do not have the right to do a crown, only emergency treatment, my son has no pain, no blood, no injury, this is a planned treatment that was planned. They practice on children, violate court orders, write false medical records to get away with it to their bosses and justify their incompetence, I wouldn't even give them a dog. Apparently they have a very bad relationship with clients, since they are even willing to violate a court order to get money for a crown, what a disgrace! I will definitely make a complaint!

Update: It seems that in the end there is common sense here, they called me now and said that instead of a crown they did an examination, but how much stress I experienced sitting for 2 hours and thinking that my child is now lying under anesthesia, which I did not give consent to, and they are doing treatment for which I did not give consent. And this does not cancel out the false medical records about the violent behavior of my child, which allegedly prevented them from performing treatment on a completely different tooth, and not the one for...

My experience over here was profoundly disappointing and felt like deliberate discrimination. Last year, I had an exceptional consultation with a student doctor who spoke Chinese and discussed my dental concerns with genuine care and thoroughness. Though she was slightly unsure about assessing my case, her supervising instructor promptly confirmed that a comprehensive CBCT scan was appropriate. The student asked, “ We have this CBCT?” and the instructor replied, “yes we have!” We were both excited about moving forward. And she told me that is a kind of package scanning. Unfortunately, the scan couldn’t be done that day due to late hours, and their appointment line was nearly impossible to reach. As a busy professional, it took months to follow up, only to be told my case had “expired” and I needed to restart the process.This year, my experience was shockingly different. Dr. Ariana Kermani refused to discuss my case and didn’t even suggest a basic CBCT scan, unlike the thorough approach last year.However, she misled me by saying I had to complete a caries check and teeth cleaning at UCLA to be eligible for treatment. A periodontal doctor confirmed my dental condition was excellent, stating there was no reason I couldn’t proceed with braces. During the caries check, another dentist informed me this was untrue: I could have my teeth checked or cleaned anywhere, and it wasn’t necessary to become a patient in every department for orthodontics to accept me. He also confirmed he accept me as a patient no any problem and gave me an all-clear, stating there were no issues preventing treatment.Despite this, when I returned to the orthodontics department, I was taken to a small, cluttered room filled with miscellaneous items and told I was not allowed to seek treatment. They not only denied me care but also instructed other doctors not to treat me, with no clear explanation beyond a senior doctor’s decision. When I asked why I couldn’t proceed—especially since I had aligned my teeth and addressed my lower overjet—I was dismissed with, “The senior doctor said no, so it’s no.” Most troubling, tje senior doctor laugh at my English proficiency during my visit, which felt like blatant racial discrimination and was deeply humiliating. Being misled, denied care without reason, and barred from treatment across the clinic feels like deliberate discrimination.The contrast between last year’s compassionate, professional team and this year’s dismissive, manipulative, and disrespectful treatment is unacceptable. UCLA Dental Clinic must ensure fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory care for all patients. I strongly urge others to reconsider visiting this clinic until these serious issues...