Antell Craig S DO

This review is for a herniated disc & sciatica. If you have other issues, then by all means try him out because there are some positive reviews on here. I’m sure he’s good with other issues and each herniated disc case is different so I don’t want to totally discount him for you but here goes:
I’ve had all over body pain (nerve pain, muscle cramps, sciatica, and tingling) for 3 years now. When I mean all over, it’s all over– arms, legs, feet, hands, neck, shoulders and face. I’m only 27 years old meaning this problem started when I was 24.
I went to Dr. Antell based on my physician’s recommendation, which I should’ve questioned because my physician is a prescription happy kind of doctor with short term solutions. He must’ve looked at my MRI for 5 minutes before telling me I had a herniated disc on my L4 L5 right side. When I said that was the disc I had issues with when I was 2005, then he said «Oh right.» and pointed out another disc on the left side that might be the issue. He said his physical therapists would have me up and running (specifically skiing, which I love) in one month.
At this point, I only had sciatica down my left leg. Once I started physical therapy, I got sciatica down my right leg, and the nerve pain spread to my neck protruding out to both hands. I think this was a combination of only doing Mckenzie exercises and being told not to stretch and do any other exercise. The repetitive motions (again, my theory) plus absolutely no stretching or building up other muscles in the body caused more pain everywhere.
After 4 months of therapy, a ton of money in copays, and more pain throughout my body, he suggested me getting an epidural injection. Neither him or the doctor giving the injection told me that I should get off birth control pill– a fact I found out later after I got intense menstrual cramps and very sick from the steroids in the shot. First of all, the shot hurt terribly although I have a high tolerance for pain and did absolutely nothing.
A week after the shot, I woke up in the middle of the night sweating, skin completely white, flushed out, and with intense menstrual cramps. I called Dr. Antell & the doctor who administered my shot, and they said they didn’t know how those two events were related. I know my body well so I went online to research, and SO many websites said that spine shots can onset menstrual symptoms, sweating and more. Also, a doctor I’m seeing now also said the same and was surprised they didn’t know this. I was very surprised too.
So after this whole mess back in 2012, I stopped going to this practice. I tried acupuncturists, pain management doctors, and chiropractors over three years without much help. I moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and with the help of a neurologist and physical therapy here, I see a brighter future for my chronic pain.
My physical therapist here thinks that once I got the herniated disc, the rest of my body started to overcompensate for this shift and pain my body, which is why my whole body hurts. Basically, I look back 3 years ago and think if Dr. Antell and his team focused on both the disc and my overall body instead of the one point in my disc and causing pain in the rest of the body, I wouldn’t be suffering from three whole years of chronic pain at such a young age. But I really can’t say that I could’ve solved this years ago because it didn’t happen.
Anyways, this review has been 2.5 years in the making. Dr. Antell is nice and all but I would never recommend him to friend or family.

Yes, he is friendly. Yes, he is good with small talk. Yes, he has good bedside manners. The issue is timeliness which is far more important.
Dr. Antell is so unresponsive that I gave up trying to contact him and just scheduled with another doctor who I’m waiting to see. I saw him in January 2015 and he said I should get some xrays/​MRIs. I’ve been trying to get him to send me the orders via email for 5 MONTHS. FIVE WHOLE MONTHS. It’s now May of 2015. I honestly don’t understand. I sent him 3 emails over the course of a MONTH inquiring as to the status of my scans, and after a whole month he responds with less than 10 words asking how my neck is.
Months later in May, I tried scheduling another appointment, but his office number was giving me the run around. I finally had someone schedule me. A few days later, I thought «wait a minute, why am I going to pay again to see this guy? I just want my scan orders.» So I called to cancel my appointment, and lo and behold, the desk person said that I never had an appointment to begin with. I emailed him again to get my damn xray/​MRI orders, and his response was asking me which «ctr» I went to.
He very well may be very knowledgeable, but I’m never going to get my issues resolved if it’s taking months just to get this guy to send me some papers. Waste of money and waste of 5 months that I could have spent with another doctor.

I was referred to Dr. Antell by a doctor I love and trust, but my experience with Dr. Antell seemed promising at first and ended up being very disappointing. I started having horrible neck pain when I first saw and he was convinced I had a herniated disc.
After several months of trying PT, chiropractic work, seeing a pain specialist almost daily (all within his clinic) and several failed drugs, everything I tried hadn’t worked. Not only was everything not working, but my pain was increasing and covering more of my body quickly.
Granted, his bedside manner was better than most doctors (although his emails weren’t helpful – just vague like «We’ll talk about this next time I see you», etc.) and he did managed to fit me in quickly to see him all the time.
But Dr. Antell was arrogant and overconfident. After all these failed attempts, he discharged me, sent me to an internist to see if I had some «underlying psychiatric trauma» that caused my pain and told me a herniated disc was a «bread and butter» case and I shouldn’t be having pain anymore. I was pissed. I felt like he pretty much told me that I was clinically insane or faking it.
Moved home to PA and saw a top specialist at Hopkins a few months later to find out I had myofascial pain syndrome (similar to fibromyalgia). I could not believe a doctor as «great» as Antell would have no idea or even mention this could be a possibility. It’s irresponsible. I keep thinking if I was diagnosed correctly by a caring doctor how much quicker I could’ve recovered and managed my pain.
Spare yourself and go elsewhere.

I’m surprised at these negative reviews. Dr. Antell has a fantastic bedside manner and has helped me overcome pain past and present. I have never had a bad experience with him.

Wow– I haven’t written a review in awhile, but felt compelled to write after seeing Dr. Antell’s reviews here. I actually have had good experiences with Dr. Antell. I don’t remember the wait times, but I do remember that he really knows his stuff. He finally helped me figure out the source of my mystery knee pain and subsequent SI joint dysfunction during pregnancy. Both times, he asked questions about my movements that hadn’t even occurred to me might be related to the injury, but were spot on.
His office was very clear with me that they didn’t accept insurance for their physical therapy and gave me a list of physical therapy clinics they recommended that did accept my insurance.
I never had to follow up with him via email, so I can’t speak to that. I don’t recall the admin staff being particularly friendly at either location, but I long ago gave up on finding kind or even competent medical staff in NYC.

DO NOT GO HERE. Read the reviews below, but here is mine.
LIES ABOUT INSURANCE — These folks blatantly lie about insurance policies. It is not true that their prescription only works there. They just want to keep your business, even if it is very hard for you.
APPOINTMENTS ARE NEVER ON TIME — I’ve seen Antell several times and he is never timely. You will wait 1 to 1.5 hours to see him.
ADMIN STAFF IS TERRIBLE — Good luck getting your own medical information out of this place so that you can go elsewhere.
Pros: Physical therapists are nice people and work hard.
Bad management and staff with no integrity. This is a red flag!

I already wrote a review about NYPRW, but Dr. Antell’s reviews here have made me feel that I really need to relate my experience with him:
Dr. Craig Antell is a great physiatrist. I have unfortunately had my share of sports injuries, recently due to skiing. In January 2013, I tore my MCL in Park City and in January 2014, I had several microtears and bursitis in my right shoulder. Dr. Antell really knows what he is doing, theorized on what the issue was, followed up with an MRI scheduling, and then gave me instructions for recovery. These are the basics of what a doctor should do. But he went above and beyond, earning the 5 stars.
1. The insurance company probably would have insisted that an X-​Ray would be good enough, but Dr. Antell did not think some of the microtears would show up on X-​Ray. So he argued with the insurance company in order to make them pay for the MRI of my shoulder so that none of it would come out of my pocket.
2. In 2012, I was trying to schedule an MRI of my knee and the radiology place I was directed to did not have any open slots. Dr. Antell called two different places and insisted that this was an emergency as I would need confirmation on my torn MCL ASAP in order to prescribe the correct course of treatment. I got an appointment that same day.
3. He is very responsive via email and has been great about sending over prescriptions for physical therapy and for scans when I can’t find the originals. He also will talk on the phone with you or email you so that you don’t have to come into the office and incur yet another co-​pay.
4. He is extremely friendly and remembers everything about you, even if you haven’t seen him in over a year.
I have never had any issues with scheduling (the receptionist is there until 7−8PM usually) or getting an appointment. Granted, I usually take early morning appointments so perhaps appointments run late as the day goes on, but I have found that happens from time to time at most doctors’ offices if they are fairly busy and have many patients (which isn’t a bad sign usually).
I have also never had an issue with lack of response. Dr. Antell has always returned my calls or emails within 24 hours, and often sooner. He also followed up with me to make sure that I scheduled my MRI and that I did not have any issues with the radiology clinic.

I went to his Columbus Circle location and
gave Dr. Antell more chances than he deserved.
**Do not be fooled by his small talk and smiles.**
He pretends to care about you by encouraging you to contact him with
any questions or requests. None of your emails or phone calls will be returned.
But he is happy to see you in person, of course.
He only sees the dollar sign in his patients.

I had a good experience with Dr. Antell. I went to see him about some exercise related knee pain. He was organized in his assessment, and proactive in getting to the bottom of my issues. Good with small talk too.