Oak Park Dental Care

I’ve been a patient of Shafa’s for about 20 years now. I was relatively new in town at the time, and I had the most excruciating pain imaginable in one of my teeth. The knee operation had nothing on this, that’s for sure. I knew I needed a dentist fast, and here it is on Saturday night. Good luck with that. I was dialing away, calling whatever referral service I could find in the phone book (this was 1995, so no Google then). I hit dead end after dead end in my frantic search until I connected with Shafa. She told me to take 4 Advil and 4 again when I wake up in pain again a few hours later, and repeat until I got out to Oak Park to see her the next morning.
At the time, I’m living near Irving and the lake. That was one long CTA trip, let me tell you. I arrive at her office that morning, in what at the time was a very nondescript neighborhood with a lot of buildings that were barely hanging on. The office was bare bones at the time, and if you walk in now and know what it was like then, it’s really quite a before/​after contrast. Anyway, she got me set up for an appointment for the procedure at the Northwestern University dental clinic for that Monday afternoon, given that I was young and relatively broke at the time. She was one of the supervising dentists there at the time, if I remember correctly. So it all went well that day, and I became a regular patient of hers.
I never forget that in my hour of need, Shafa was the only one who responded. I have never lived anywhere close to Oak Park, but I have always made the trip. I have full confidence in her work, and she has an excellent referral network for that rare occasion when I’ve needed other stuff done. And we have fun. Good discussions, good humor (she loves the Stooges, who knew?), I admit I look forward to the visits. How often do people say that about a trip to the dentist?
I have to take a bit of time here to address some of the other reviews on here. For one thing, not many people take the time to review health care professionals on this site. It’s primarily a restaurant review site, though other retail establishments get lots of reviews, also. And if you’ve been in business for over 20 years, you’re going to get some bad experiences and have some bad days along the way. Some people only take time to review their bad experiences and not their good ones. You’ll notice that some reviewers have very few reviews, and most of them are about bad experiences with businesses. I’d hate to think their overall life experiences are 1 – 2 stars as well. If they knew Shafa as I know Shafa, they wouldn’t have taken out their frustrations on their keyboards as they did.

Came 10 min prior to my appointment… No one to check me in… Waited half an hour… Left… Very disappointed…

This was by far the most frustrated I’ve ever been with a business. I joined Unilocal just so I could warn others away from their terrible services.
Radically unapologetic and unprofessional. They cancelled and rescheduled several appointments of mine, pushing me further and further back. September eventually became JANUARY. With my appointment days away, they called to tell me they were dropping my insurance as of January 1^st. I was absolutely livid with their handling of me and my situation, I can’t believe they can stand to operate like this.
They should be avoided for their lack of empathy and complete unwillingness to help in any way. I’m sure the dentist herself is fine, but I can’t review her because her terrible office staff made it so I’d never have the opportunity.

I have been going to see Dr. Soltani since I was a kid, and even though I don’t live in Oak Park anymore I still go back to see her. The staff is so friendly, and they always remember me. And Dr. Soltani is great!

This woman is dentist, artist, and living saint all in one!!!
I have been a patient of Dr. Soltanis since 2003. I can assure you that there are few people who have had to have the amount of dental work I have out there and I would not go to anyone else.
As the result of a childhood accident, I had root canals on my 2 front teeth at 12, then several follow up procedures between that time and when I was 30 years old. In 2007, while I was going through a divorce, I began grinding my teeth and one day, one came loose. Yes, I was going to be ruthless toothless and get divorced. I was a wreck.
The day the tooth came loose, I ran in there crying with no appointment and she fixed me up to the point where felt confident going to a wine tasting that same evening. She also suspected that day that I may need dental implants and got me in contact with an oral surgeon who confirmed that I did indeed need them in both teeth!!!
During the countless months that followed, Dr. Soltani worked with the surgeon and me to ensure that all my needs were met — short and long term. Mental and physical.
She satyed late countless times and came in on a few weekends where she was not scheduled to work.
The advanced cosmetic techniques she used allowed my teeth to look completely normal and not have any sort of removables.
At the same time, she was very honest with me about the need to do a thorough job and not take short cuts… I have had my implants for several years with no issues, whereas I know other people who have had to redo them after a year or 2 because their dentist took shortcuts.
If you are looking for someone who is competent and compassionate, look no further.

Dr. Suggested veneers to my 17 year old who just had 6,000 dollars worth of braces and then though two appointments were allotted for her visit so work could be done the dentist refused to do the work! Terrible.

In March of 2012 I arrived at Dr. Shafa’s office for a routine cleaning. This was my second visit, the first being a check-​up. I sat in the chair and I was informed by her assistant that before my cleaning I needed to have an x-​ray. I explained to her assistant that I didn’t think I needed X-​rays because I just needed a cleaning and had no problems or complaints with my teeth.
The assistant then said Dr. Shafa would explain it to me when she came in. When Dr Shafa came in I told her that I just had x-​rays about 8 months prior with my previous dentist and that everything appeared fine. Dr Shafa’s response was «X-​rays before a cleaning are my policy.» I responded to her that I was merely trying to minimize my radiation exposure and I asked if we could just skip the x-​rays if they weren’t medically necessary at that moment. She responded to me in a very rude tone by saying «if you don’t get the x-​rays then you won’t get a cleaning.»
I felt very embarrassed by her demeaning and unprofessional tone and response. She never attempted to give me a medical reason as to the need of x-​rays with the cleaning. I didn’t feel this was appropriate so I got out of the dental chair and left.
As a patient I feel I am entitled to an explanation regarding any and all medical procedures which will be done to me. I also expect my doctor to be professional and informative with their explanation. Dr Shafa, however, was neither. Dr Shafa did not address my concern regarding the need for X-​rays, she did not explain why they were necessary, she did not provide me with any reason as to why they were part of her policy. She did not provide me with any medical reason whatsoever to justify an x-​ray except to say that it is «policy». This is not how a doctor should conduct herself.
I truly hope that Dr. Shafa was having a bad day or something because if this is how she treats all patients then maybe dentistry is not the right career for her.