Armitage Oral Surgery

Just had a wisdom tooth removed that must have been as long as a baseball bat at armitage oral surgery. I have to say, it wasn’t that bad. The dr was a smoooth operator, a smoooth oporaaatoorr! Seriously, they did a great job, took my crappy insurance. I was in and out of there in a half hour. The actual procedure took about five minutes tops. If you have to have your mouth excavated, take it on into armitage oral surgery and waltz out only slightly wounded.

Today, I had a wisdom tooth extracted and I boy oh boy am I happy I called Armitage Oral Surgery. My General Dentist referred me to an oral surgeon who could not take me until December 1^st and asked me to call back every day just in case there was a cancellation. NOT THANKS! I visited Dr. Katabi’s office for a consultation and they scheduled me immediately. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better experience at a Doctor’s office. Especially, one for oral surgery.
The experience was so smooth and easy, I started to ask him to keep pulling teeth until the novacaine wore off. :-D Just Kidding, but it was a really great experience.
I currently have three wisdom teeth. During the consultation, it was suggested and recommended that I get all three pulled. Though, because I didn’t want to go under or receive gas, I decided to get the one pulled that was most urgent. So, I let them know I would decide later and call back. I never called and decided just a few hours before the procedure. They were understanding and I was not met with any resentment or push back.
This is how it went…
I arrived at the office
Anais called me back within 10 minutes of my arrival (I didn’t mind waiting as I was in no hurry to get a tooth pulled.) :-)
When back in the room, Anais was VERY THOROUGH about the before, during and after the process
The doctor entered and made sure I was okay. Briefly talked about running, triathlons and the like
Dr. Katabi applied the topical numbing stuff, waited a bit, then gave me the novacaine
The doctor left the room, the Anais stayed a while to set up and we chatted
I went to the restroom so that I wouldn’t have to go during the procedure
Back to the room, I waited a little longer for the novacaine to kick in
Then, the doctor entered. made sure I was numb and felt no pain. I moved my arms near my face at one point and he warned me not to move my hands because of the sharp tools that are used during the procedure.
Then, began.
Dr. Katabi talked me through the entire procedure letting me know what I could expect every time he used a different tool
Sutures…Done
It was the absolute best experience I’ve ever had.
I would not label anyone or any behavior in this office negatively. They are very straight forward. It’s not a lot of idle talk. Their bedside manner and reception in general was professional and casual at the appropriate times. I read several times of the Dr’s bedside manner being less than delightful. However, I did not sense or experience such.
I would highly recommend Dr. Katabi for all your Oral Surgery needs.

My experience with Dr. Firas F. Katabi was horrible. Dr. Firas F. Katabi has a terrible bedside manner, is impatient and condescending.
During my pre-​procedure consultation for the extraction of two wisdom teeth, Dr. Firas F. Katabi repeatedly suggested that instead of using local anesthesia, I should consider general anesthesia and that it was not too late for me to reschedule. I questioned the pushing of the general anesthesia and he said that there would be pain and pressure and that I seemed nervous. I was not nervous AT ALL, but I could not figure out if his saying this was to intimidate me or he was just awful at reading people. I had an increasing bad vibe about Dr. Firas F. Katabi as he made observations and comments.
He observed that I grind my teeth. He said that often teeth grinding stems from being stressed. I just listened to him-​no feedback from me, but he just kept on about the «stress» in my life. Note that the man does not know the first thing about me, nor did he ask. Dr. Firas F. Katabi said that my taking warm baths and not drinking alcohol at night should reduce the teeth grinding. 1) I do not drink at night and really? 2) I found it to be highly inappropriate and a bit creepy that an oral surgeon is advising me on how to de-​stress and suggesting warm baths when all I needed was wisdom teeth extracted.
When he realized that I would proceed with using local anesthesia only, he became more impatient with questions I had and rude his general demeanor. The first step was the first round of local Novocain. Not only did Dr. Firas F. Katabi NOT use a topical analgesic to take off the edge of the needles puncturing the roof of my mouth, but he was a complete brute in administrating the Novocain. I remained still and my shoulders cringed upward to deal with the pain. Dr. Firas F. Katabi stopped to angrily ask me «why are your shoulders going up?, I need to work.» My lifted shoulders had zero impact in what he was doing. Dr. Firas F. Katabi was clearly trying to intimidate me with his comments and rude manner.
Before the second round of Novocain was to be administered, I was told to settle up with the front desk. I decided at that moment that I had to follow my instincts about Dr. Firas F. Katabi. He was bad news and there are way too many talented, professional worthwhile oral surgeons in Chicago to not have to settle for someone inferior. I told Dr. Firas F. Katabi that I was not continuing with the procedure and walked out. I am the customer, so I spoke up with my feet and wallet.
Incidentally, I was fortunate enough to get an appointment with another oral surgeon in downtown Chicago. My experience was night and day. The downtown oral surgeon was a confident, highly educated professional. He DID use the topical analgesic before administering the Novocain and he extracted my wisdom teeth so smoothly and fast, I was in disbelief when he was done. It was quick and pain-​free. Now that is the type of oral surgeon everyone should experience.

Dr. Fias Katabi is a wonderful doctor with much skill, professionalism an excellent bedside manner and he is also a very honest doctor. He didn’t want to charge me extra for something that I thought I needed. He was just a really nice guy and I’m glad that I was able to find him to help me in the care that I needed. I highly recommend him!

The staff here are Great! As soon as I walked in I was cheerfully greeted. Dr. Katabi explained in detail what to expect, he even showed me a video of the procedure. After my visit with Dr. Katabi, Nancy was able to answer all my questions about billing and insurance. Never thought I would say this but I’m looking forward to my next visit.

My 9 y.o. son had an extra tooth removed from his palate a few days ago. Dr. K was perfectly friendly at both the consult and the surgery – and really quite sweet with my kid. Though frankly, his bedside manner was just about the least important thing to me. In addition to cutting into people’s mouths, Dr. Katabi takes on the tremendous responsibility of administering anesthesia. I’m surprised he’s not crankier, given the stress and demands of the work. Not to be overly dramatic, but some people never wake up from general anesthesia, even when they’re just getting oral surgery. I was looking for a highly experienced, serious professional to care for my child, and Dr. Katabi definitely fits that bill.
Office staff are friendly and professional, and pre-​qualified my insurance so that I knew out-​of-​pocket costs beforehand. Definitely not cheap, and they want their money up front, but I can’t blame them for that. Highly recommend AOS and Dr. Katabi.

Do not go here, do not use Dr Katabi. In a word, the guy’s a solid prick. He divines your questions and knows all, and will preempt any questions you have with factual statements. And that’s that.

I came with my mother to visit Dr. Katabi, because she was referred here due to a sore in her mouth. The office staff was very helpful and even helped translate. I wish I could say the same for the Doctor, he treated us disrespectfully and with an extreme lack of patience. We were rushed and silenced when we asked questions. As new clients we were scared away, and I would never refer anyone here after how we were treated by the doctor.

Dr. Katabi and his staff are the best. I came in for a drainage on my tooth and he walked me through an explanation on what he thought would be best for me. I was nervous of getting my wisdom teeth removed, but they make me feel at ease and super comfortable. The extraction was super fast and afterwards, they gave me after care instructions.
The whole recovery was very painless, to my surprise. I was prescribed pain pill but took none. My healing was fast and I came in for follow-​ups couple days after and 2 wks after that and each time I was given instructions on how to properly take care of my mouth.
I will definitely recommend this place and will definitely be coming back to get my other two wisdom teeth removed.

Almost 72 hours ago I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled by Dr. Katabi. He is absolutely amazing. First off, let me say that for all of the reviews where others said that his bedside manner was horrible, do not listen to these reviewers. I’m not sure what they were expecting. Did they want him to sit down with them and hold their hands and spend hours answering questions during the first consultation. Ive been putting off getting my wisdom teeth taken out since I was 17– now 8 years later, one of them was giving me a problem and I went to Dr. Katabi for help. I called on a thursday evening, and they were able to get me in that Saturday, I was a new patient, they took all my information over the phone and got me in first thing in the morning. After I made the appointment, I started reading some of the other Unilocal reviews. I got nervous from the very sensitive people who were saying his bedside manner was horrible, that he was cold and insensitive, and that he was overall a rude man who would brush off my questions. This is NOT AT ALL how Dr. K treated me. (someone said they asked him if a BONE GRAFT surgery would hurt. ummm no kidding? ill answer that one for you) Once I arrived, the very nice receptionists and assistants took all of the medical information and X-​Rays that they needed and brought me to the consult room. It didn’t take long before Dr. Katabi walked in. He was kind right from the beginning, sat down with me, explained what he saw on the X-​rays and what he thought was causing my pain, he told me what he recommended as treatment and how to go about doing it, and then asked me if I had any questions and answered them kindly and without making me feel rushed at all. I trusted him so i set up my extraction appointment. They were able to get me in the following Thursday in the morning, which was important to me because I was in a lot of pain. They also told me at the consultation how much the cost would be, how much my insurance would cover, and how much I would owe before the extraction could begin… so for the other Unilocalers saying that their billing department damaged their credit… not sure about that. Between Saturday and Thursday, I emailed his office twice with questions regarding the surgery and the receptionist Karina called me back each time with the doctors answers to my questions, so not only did he take time to answer all my questions in person, but also the questions I emailed to his office. Anyway, I arrived on Thursday morning, nervous and tearful because I had a bad surgical experience a few years ago. The assistant who took care of me was SO nice, I wish i remembered her name. she made me feel so much better before the surgery started. Then she left the room and said it would be a couple minutes until the doctor came in to start the surgery. Of course I thought to myself, «great now I’m going to sit in this surgical room for another 30 minutes waiting for the doctor to start the surgery and I’m going to get even more anxious and upset …» and then Dr. Katabi walked in after being in the room alone for about 2 minutes. I was tearful when he came in after causing myself to worry, and he was very kind, told me not to be scared that everything would be ok, asked me AGAIN if I had any more questions before starting (for those of you who said he leaves no time for questions) and then he put a painless IV in my arm, and within seconds I was asleep. When I woke up, the kind assistant walked me to the recovery room where my boyfriend picked me up while I was laughing hysterically from the anesthesia, and we were on our way. 72 hours later it has literally been a PAINLESS recovery, with very little swelling. I didn’t even need to use the pain medication that dr. prescribed me. ¾ of my teeth were partially impacted, one was fully impacted, so i actually expected pain and swelling, which dr. k also told me to expect, but the pain really has been minimal. He even told me he would give me anti-​nausea medication if I needed it since general anesthetic has made me ill in the past, luckily this time I was ok. All in all, please do not assume that dr. katabi is a rude man that won’t leave room for your questions. This is not at all how he treated me. He is an amazing and talented surgeon and I believe that because of his technique, skills, and knowledge, my recovery has been quick and painless. I will return to him if I ever need any further dental work.

It is very rare (Read hardly ever) that I come onto a Unilocal to bash a business. But I remember DISTINCTIVELY 5 years ago, going into Armitage Oral Surgery for a «Free consultation» for my wisdom teeth being removed. 4 years later Armitage oral Surgery’s 98 dollar visit (WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A FREE CONSULTATION) still sits on my credit history as delinquent debt. Beware of these people. Scam artists of Scam artists.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. The office staff was ok and pleasant. But let me tell you Dr. Katabi was horrible. I was coming in for an extraction and possibly a bone grafting so that I could get a tooth implant in the near future. Naturally I had questions because I was nervous it was my first time. But when I asked the doctor questions he seemed to get very upset that I was asking simple questions. i. e «is this surgery going to hurt? Or how long will it take for this wound to heal? He yelled at me and said «if you don’t want to do this, please get out of here». It seemed like he was in such a hurry. At that point I wanted to leave, but I had an infected tooth that needed to be removed. I stayed for the extraction and decided I would not follow up with the implant there. I would never give this place my hard earned money again. There is a certain level of respect these Heath care providers should maintain with there patients and Dr. Katabi failed at that. When the surgery was over he didn’t even bother to check on me. He just left the room and the assistant came in and basically said you have to leave. Please save yourself the headache and choose another Doctor. I cannot say the same about the other doctors at this facility.

Dr Katabi is amazing. I have been putting off getting my wisdom teeth extracted for several years. Due to insurance purposes, I decided this was the year. I went to Dr Katabi based off of my dentists recommendation.
I opted to receive general anesthesia given that all four wisdom teeth were being extracted. The procedure was quick and I was out of the office within 40 min. They gave me clear instructions and a goodie bag containing pudding, gauze, and instructions. I even got a follow up call the next day to check on how I was doing.
Thank you to Dr Katabi and his friendly staff for making this an easy and stress-​free experience.

Don’t go here. They are horrible at billing and could seriously damage your credit score because they refuse to work with insurance companys.
There was an error in the claim for my wisdom teeth getting removed and the insurance company was late in their final payment.
Armitage Oral Surgery refused to correct the misunderstanding and instead sent me several bills and threats to report to a credit agency I called them several times and they informed me that it was my responsibility to contact the insurance agency which I did. But the threats kept coming until the check arrived.
They then owned me money! but didn’t send it until I called and asked about it.
The doctor refused to pull my other two teeth while I was under anesthesia because he wanted me to come back and give him more money for a second session. He was dismissive of my financial concerns.
They just don’t care– they’re not in the business of helping people. They’re in the business of taking your money.

i had been putting off getting my wisdom teeth removed for about 5 years. They were all out (not impacted) and weren’t really bothering me. After seeing others go through the wisdom teeth removal experience, I decided to just wait until I had no other choice.
After my regular dentist kept bugging me about getting them removed, and giving me the referral to Dr Katabi for the 5^th or 6^th time, I decided to get them removed, if only to appease my dentist.
There are 3 parts to the process that I went through: pre-​screen, surgery and post op. Pre-​screen scheduling was very easy and he has later hours, so good for seeing him after work. I agree that the ladies at the front desk are super nice and helpful, and made the check in parts a breeze. During the pre-​screening, Dr. Katabi went through the procedure, answered all my questions I was on my way.
The scheduling for the actual surgery was also easy, and it’s helpful that they are open on Saturdays. They didn’t have an appointment until 4 weeks from my pre-​screening, which was fine for me. A day later, the office called and asked if I would want an appointment for the upcoming Saturday (i.e. 4 weeks early). I contemplated it since I was trying to mentally prepare myself for the after surgery issues (what about my last full meals of chips, peanuts and general real food I couldn’t have for a while!!!) but in the end decided to go with the earlier appointment.
Came in on Saturday morning freaked out, anxious and generally worried about the impeding doom that was about to happen. The front desk ladies were very nice in trying to calm me down. One of the nurses came in, took me into a room that I thought was a holding area, and in comes Dr. Katabi, ready for action. I had the full anesthesia, so within about 10 seconds, I was out. I woke up about 35 minutes later, numb and a little raw, but it was done!
The next 5 days were a little rough — typical bleeding, numbness, looking like a chipmunk. However, I think in my case, my healing was faster since all my wisdom teeth were already out, so it was really more pulling out teeth then cutting into my gums and yanking stuff out. In about 1 week I was eating mac and cheese and spaghetti, and 2 weeks after i was back to normal eating patterns (other than chips and nuts). It will take a long time for the area where your teeth were to heal and fill in, so that is just up to your body!
Post-​op was about 2 weeks later and was a quick 3 minute sit down, check in and i was all done.
I have insurance, so thankfully wasn’t a huge financial hit to me.
So overall, nice experience for a bummer procedure.

My son needed all 4 of his impacted wisdom teeth removed. We received a referral from his dentist and we went in to Dr. Katabi for the initial assessment. It was a pretty clear cut case. He is very direct and doesn’t have much bedside manner (so to speak), but is extremely confident in his ability to do a great job. Everything went off without a hitch. While we did have a few questions post surgery, the team at the office was available and informative.
I would definitely recommend this practice for anything oral surgery related.

DO NOT GO HERE!
I rarely write reviews on here, but I have had the absolute worst experience here. I wish I would have read some more of the reviews on here before going to Dr. Katabi because I would have to agree with a lot of the reviewers out there who found Dr. Katani to be an arrogant jerk. I will say that the rest of the staff is very friendly though!
I went in for a routine wisdom teeth extraction and heard the normal stuff. A week later ¼ of my face is still completely numb so I go in to see Dr. Katabi. He basically makes a joke out of it and tell me that at least I am young so it will be better within 9 months or I’ll probably get use to it. I obviously get upset bc I don’t think that the fact that I can’t feel part of my face is a funny thing. He then gets very uncomfortable and can’t understand why I would be upset about something as little as not being able to feel your face?! I leave vowing to never return.
1 week later I’m having awful pain so I unfortunate have to go in to see him again. And it’s more of the same thing. He laughs about my dry socket. I’m sorry but I don’t understand what is so funny!!!
Honestly, just go somewhere else. This man is arrogant and does not care what happens to you. I really wish I had spent all the money on an oral surgeon who did not try to make me feel like a child with a scraped knee.

I have had a lot of dental work, so I’ve seen about fifteen different doctors who work with teeth (dentists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, etc.), and this experience was possibly the worst.
The surgeon seemed brusque, and uninterested in my preferences or concerns. He rushed through the options and made it seem as if one was the only possible choice. I later found out that his preferred choice was about $ 700 more than the other. I am in a very lucky position where money isn’t the deciding factor for me, but the fact that he didn’t even mention it while explaining the options made me really suspicious. I am an overly deferential person, particularly when it comes to medical professionals, but I chose the other route because it made more sense for me, and he seemed personally insulted, and very rude about it.
All in all I would give it three stars for that — yeah, the guy seemed like a jerk, but maybe he was having a bad day and whatever, the procedure went well. It went down to two because they FORGOT to use laughing gas on me. Now for the record, that’s not torture — I did have the Novocain, so there wasn’t much pain — and since I mentioned it I didn’t end up having to pay for the laughing gas, but that’s pretty unacceptable in my book.
Oh, and during the procedure the surgeon had told me to raise my hand if there was any pain. I raised my hand, only to be told «that’s not pain, that’s pressure.» At this point I was really pissed off with him, and said something sarcastic, and he gave me more Novocain, but in my mind there’s a huge difference between «are you sure it’s pain and not pressure?» and being told what you feel.
I will say the receptionists were awesome. There were a lot of electronic problems throughout the whole process. The computers kept going down for both the receptionists and the dental assistants (I had to wait a good twenty minutes after the surgery to make sure they didn’t miss anything) which I didn’t hold against them because computers go down all the time in my work too. But the front desk people were really kind and patient, they answered the questions I didn’t have a chance to ask the surgeon, and were just awesome people all around.

No frills. Great surgery.
I put off the removal of my 4 wisdom teeth until the 11^th hour when my dentist told me I was in for a ride of extreme pain at any moment if I didn’t have them removed. He referred me to Dr Katabi and I took his recommendation based on blind trust.
Dr Katabi took me in for x-​rays and agreed that all 4 wisdom teeth needed to go then made the recommendation that I under go general anesthesia and be completely knocked out for the procedure.
Honestly, I was completely terrified of the anesthesia and what was about to happen to my mouth that I had trouble sleeping in the days before my scheduled surgery.
I finally went in for my procedure yesterday — they took me in on schedule and I paid up front. My insurances covered most except the anesthesia, but let me tell you — the general anesthesia was WORTH EVERY CENT. Dr Katabi injected me with the IV which I barely felt and he said «think happy thoughts.» I must have been out in 30 seconds flat. I remember nothing. It felt like 1 minute had past and then the next thing I know I’m being awoken from a great dream and there’s gauze in my mouth.
The nurse took me to the post-​op room, changed my gauze, explained what to do in the following days and handed me a bag full of care instructions and goodies. I felt no pain and had no nausea at all.
My wounds bled for maybe 2 hours then it was done. I was eating within 4 hours after surgery.
I’m on day 2 post-​op right now and I woke up this morning with the Vicodin out of my system and honestly I don’t even feel like I need pain medication stronger than a couple of ibuprofen (but I took the Vicodin anyhow… Cause it just feels so good lol). I have no swelling at all. I’m able to eat yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, etc with no problem.
Dr Katabi is an excellent surgeon! I will definitely come back to him if I ever need any sort of Oral Surgery again! I read all of these reviews before my appointment and a lot of people are upset with his bed side manner… These people must be extra sensitive or something. I mean, he is doing his job and confident that you’re going to be just fine. Believe the man! I am happy to have a great surgeon who is all business and gets the job done.
I have heard so many horror stories about bad wisdom tooth removals and I’m happy I’m not one of them! There isn’t a single review on this Unilocal page that denies how excellent the actual procedure is. Thank you, Dr Katabi & staff!

I can’t recommend Armitage Oral Surgery enough! My first visit was 2 years ago for my first wisdom tooth extraction. Last week I visited again for my upper two wisdom teeth (believe what they say online — recovery is MUCH faster and easier for the top). I did not feel pain at all, beyond the pinching for the novocaine. Dr. Katabi and his assistants made me feel at ease and very comfortable. The assistant that helped me, can’t remember her name but she said she’s typically at the Chicago Heights office and filling in for the day, was amazing! So kind and made me feel really comfortable!
It takes a while to get the numbness to kick in and wait, but the actual process of extraction is about two minutes long! Front desk staff is also very friendly and helpful, even called the next day to check up. Highly recommended!