Albert O Landucci, DDS – Orthodontics of San Mateo

I’ve only written a few reviews, but when I feel very strongly about a business, I feel compelled to let people know. My sister-​in-​law who works in the dental field locally recommended Dr. Landucci as «the place.» My daughter had a severe jaw problem and it affected her teeth. I’m old school & don’t believe in «frivolous» orthodontics. However, Dr. Landucci (Now continuing with Orthodontics of San Mateo — Dr. Hirasuna) took me aside & explained in detail with 3D scans — the why & what was needed. I trusted him & I’m glad I did. My daughter followed directions STRICTLY (unlike many kids today) & we were done in record time with the treatment. I don’t have ortho insurance and Joyce was able to accommodate me financially with some creative solutions. (Strictly following the treatment plan will reduce the cost, but that will take a self-​disciplined child — you must understand that from the start.) Last week I was sitting next to my daughter and admiring — the most beautiful smile — and I told her so — Dad’s sometimes take stuff for granted. What she told me was how important fixing her teeth was to her — not just with the teeth & bite issue — but with her self-​esteem. She felt better about herself & it reflected in her school work. The invisalign treatment was not that exorbitant and was a great way to go. Mostly, however, I want you to know that the heart of this business was kind & helpful to me and my daughters and made it possible for me (a working guy provider) to get affordable treatment for my little girl — now what a treat her HS graduation pictures are going to be!

Great service the people that work there are great. Misty dr. Landucci is the best go and get your mouth great and meet new people.

We love coming here… we drive from Sacramento to have our kids teeth check out and straighten. Dr. Landucchi is very good and, the people at the office — Joy is super sweet.
Everyone at the practice is very friendly and accommodating

I have had braces before and the visit started with not much needing to be done then apparently there was more and more issues as the exam continued. I was also told that my toungue was fat and I would require a permanent retainer so my teeth didn’t move. The permanent retainer is barbaric and I have heard very painful. When I said I did not want a permanent retainer they were not really that interested in listening. I also was not totally set on invisilign but no other options were given besides invisalign. I was also told that the invisalign would be created by the individual measurements given by the Dr. This made me uneasy and I could see the opening for more costs down the line.
I was starting to feel Gouged and did not commit but said I would consider their options and get back to them and I did say that their price was too high for me. I did not respond to their repeated follow up emails, calls, and texts…
A month later, I was surprised to find that a credit check was run even though I was only there for a consultation and I asked for the report as well as anything I signed consenting to this report and I recieved a general patient sheet with a one liner about credit, not even a complete sentence.
The fact that all the rooms as well as the outside have cameras for «security» made me uneasy. I kind of feel like all my information was collected for some other purpose as well as I feel this practice is throughally scamming on their patients. I feel my personal information was abused and that my price was dependant on the maximum I would pay out of pocket for services I probably didnt need.
I went to Family Dental in Foster City and I think they are much easier to deal with and offered me braces at half the cost of Dr Landuccis office. The contacted this office for the Xrays so I wouldnt have to get X-​rays again and expose myself to radiation twice in one week. Family Dental told me they were not only reluctant to release those records but were rude about not giving them those records. This really made my decision not to commit to their treatment for the next 2 years.
I wish I had read the reviews on this practice on Unilocal prior to visitng this office, I probably would have stayed away.

I can’t say enough about Dr. Landucci and his entire staff. They have a beautiful office and very knowledgeable and friendly staff. My daughter began her treatment when she was only 7 years old. She began with expanders and then moved to Invisalign. Throughout the entire experience we were fully explained and made to understand everything that was going on. We always felt comfortable and the results speak for themselves! My daughter is always being complimented on her beautiful smile and that is all thanks to Dr. Landucci! I would highly recommend Dr. Landucci to anyone looking amazing results!!! We have sent many, many, many friends and family members to Dr. Landucci!!!

I went to Dr Landucci for my orthodontic care. I had braces as well as retainers afterwards as did my two younger brothers. The staff there were always very friendly and helpful. Dr Landucci always provided great care and made me feel comfortable when I was nervous about getting braces on. The office is beautiful and in a very convenient location. I even recommended him for my fiancé who is considering Invisalign!

wow! Great office very high tech and the staff are very professional and friendly. Dr Landucci and Dr Garabedian are the best out there. All of my family and friends have had the best care here and now my children are patients. If you want the best quality and personal care this is where you want to be.

Have been going to Dr. L for 20 years with three of my children and wife. He’s the best. Great location and will work with you. Very friendly staff.

Our family of four has all been treated by Dr. Landucci (and Dr. Garabedian). My husband and I had Invisalign braces (which are a series of progressive acrylic upper and lower inserts, worn for two weeks each, before changing to the next ones). I cannot say enough about the improvement in my bite, the movement of teeth and overall long term improvement in my smile! making it so much easier to floss. Dr. Landucci and his team are nothing short of a wonderful, caring, family practice — a well-​oiled machine which has a ton of experience with all ages of kids and adults. My husband was equally pleased with the results of his Invisalign experience.
Our two children also were treated at Dr. Landucci’s office with regular metal braces and retainers. Both experiences were excellent — the scheduling, the workings of the office, minimal waiting time, even down to the little details like a written excuse to submit to their school for the absence, all done cheerfully and efficiently.
I had occasion to visit the office recently, and was pleased to find that it had been remodeled and expanded. From conversations I have had, I know that the staff keeps up to date on all the latest procedures, and I have always observed a very friendly and professional attitude in dealings with patients.
I recommend this office highly.

The poor reviews here are baffling to me.
Having had four members of my family get treatment thru Dr. Landucci over a multi-​year period, I can say without reservation that Dr. Al and his team are very polite and quite capable.
Yes, orthodontic treatment is expensive. No doubt about it. Everyone should compare the offerings of a few capable orthodontists before jumping in, and then get all of it in writing. But be assured that the treatment received here is top-​notch.
Always hate to see what I know to be a good operation slammed on Unilocal

Dr. Landucci and his team are great! No short cuts taken here, always a smile and always willing to help out. Of course, don’t expect it to be the cheapest around. Go in with confidence and high quality of his work with the years of experience that Dr. Landucci has. I got the best smile no other orthodontist could offer. Having my teeth straightened by him is the best decision I’ve ever made. He is also a man of good reputation and known for good things he does for the community. I highly recommend him to anyone who wants high quality orthodontic care.

Be careful. We have 2 tweens in braces. We just broke our contract with Landucci and moved the kids with their braces to a new orthodontist. We paid in full at the beginning. At the end of the contract, the kids’ teeth were still not straight, so we had to pay monthly bills, even though the kids did not see the orthodontist. We paid more than $ 2,000 over what was quoted. At the new orthodontist, we were quoted 12 more months of braces. Dr. Landucci cannot estimate well and charges way too much. His contract is slimy. Do not go to Dr. Landucci’s office.

Wow, I am surprised by the bad reviews, but can only say that Unilocal can be a place where difficult people like to vent and I think those are the exceptions rather than the norm. I have known many people that have come to Dr. L and have been very happy with their results. My family has been seeing Dr. Landucci for Orthodontic treatment since my daughter was 7 (started with a jaw expander, completed Invisalign and is in the retention phase) Her teeth were a mess, very overcrowded and I was so happy she didn’t have to have extractions, as I had when I was a kid. Now her smile looks great and contrary to what the other reviewer said, the contract for both phases was very clear cut and retention fees were spelled out completely. Her teeth look amazing, and we were pleased that Dr. Landucci was willing to do Invisalign on her, even though she is a pre-​teen. As her treatment was nearing completion and my son was not ready to begin his treatment (Dr. Landucci has been assessing him, free of charge for years and has told us we should wait until all his teeth are fully in), I decided to do the Invisalign myself. Again, the fees were clearly stated in the contract, and since a portion is covered by our insurance, his staff billed accordingly and I never had to pay that portion out of pocket.
The important thing for anyone undergoing orthodontic treatment to know is that sometimes, the result you want, and what can realistically be achieved, are two different things. Dr. Landucci’s expertise means that he is aware of the importance of bite and jaw alignment when determining the final result. Teeth can’t just be moved without taking that into consideration or they can be weakened and you will wind up with bigger problems in the end. I don’t know what happened to the reviewer who said she didn’t get the results she desired, but with both my daughter and I, Dr. Landucci provided a clinicheck email that allowed us to see the final position of the teeth before he even ordered the aligners. It’s all done by computer, so if she didn’t like his treatment plan, she could have said so at that point, and the result could easily have been modified. At the end of my first round of aligners, I wanted my teeth a bit farther back and Dr. Landucci did a «refinement» at no charge (again, all stated up front). He certainly listens and wants his patients to be happy, but he also wants them to keep their teeth.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Landucci, after recently examining the position of my son’s teeth, has suggested that he is a better candidate for braces, rather than Invisalign as the result will be faster and less expensive. This only reaffirms for me that Dr. Landucci is more interested in his patients than profit.
His office staff is very nice, his practice state of the art. Yes, he has been doing this a long time (Orthodontists never retire), so he has seen it all, yet he always challenges himself with new technology. He is responsive to questions and is a perfectionist when it comes to results. Oh, and did I mention? My teeth look great.

I got invisalign from Dr. Landucci just over 1 year ago. He is super nice and a perfectionist. All of the staff is really nice and helpful. My only complaint is that I ended up paying about $ 2000 more than I was originally quoted and I had some issues with my insurance paying for some of the procedures done afterwards. All in all, I’d recommend going here but do your homework and find out up front what all the costs are so you aren’t surprised. My total cost for my treatment was about $ 7000-​$ 8000 which was much more than I originally thought it would be. Luckily, they’re allowing me to go on a monthly payment plan,.

Vicious lying thief!!! Says what you want to hear then doesn’t follow through, charges up the wazoo. I had to wear 2 sets of invisiligners and he still didn’t give me the results I wanted… I paid close to 8,000 at this point. When deciding if I wanted to go for a third try, he told me I’ll have to start over on the payments and that ethnic women have protruding overbites so what the hell!!! This racist bastard never told me from the get go miss I’m not going to be able to fix your overbite because you are Mexican! He sure can cash my checks though! So I’m looking for another orthodontist and I’ll be sure and read the Unilocal reviews first. Landucci, I hope your toupee lights on fire and you burn like you burn your clients!

Don’t be sucked in by his name, he doesn’t live up to the reputation. Dr. Landucci has recieved a good reputation for his $ 100 scholarships at elementary schools, NOT FOR HIS ORTHO PRACTICE. He is a complete rip off! He takes advantage of his patients’ trust. I paid thousands of dollars for his services under the assumption that he was the best. As it turns out, he removed my braces before all the gaps were closed and he had me sign a new contract that included more fees. I cried for months over the amount of money I paid for his services.
It has been three years since my braces were removed and my teeth have shifted. I decided to have braces put on again and my current ortho is amazing! He answers all of my questions and his fees are upfront! He doesn’t sneakily add extra services or overpromise and under deliver, like Landucci. I’ve now paid over $ 11,000 in ortho treatment and have had braces twice in a 5 year period.
Do your research prior to going to Landucci — his is a RIP OFF! HIDDEN COSTS GALORE! You can find a great ortho that will provide you with great service at a reasonable price, you just can’t find that person at Landucci’s office.

So years ago I received treatment here. My teeth have shifted over the years and I’ve been exploring Ortho treatment. Since I had my braces here years ago, I thought I could come in for a consult to explore my options. I can, but unfortunately that would cost $ 95! …that’s just to walk in the door! If I wanted a treatment plan proposed to me, $ 200+ !! Crazy! I’ve received free consults thru a variety of places I’ve found on Unilocal.
I was shocked to discover I had to pay this office $ 95+ or more to receive a recommendation! Especially since my parents dropped upwards of $ 3000+ on my Ortho treatment as a kid.
Not very cool. Not very cool at all.

Dr. Landucci is good at what he does; however, each of his assistants is not so impressive. One of his assistants slightly chipped my front tooth. He was able to fix it quickly but I have to say I was afraid for a few minutes that after spending more than $ 10K to correct overbite, I was going to end up with a chipped front tooth.

DECEPTIVE AND MANIPULTIVE. BE WARNED.
My daughter was treated by Dr. Landucci for braces and retainers. His quotes on the contract seems low but he does not mention that the quote does not include retention which is almost a thousand dollars additional.
And that it does not include all the additional costs (x-​rays, pictures, additional retainers, etc) along the way that is not included in the contract.
My original contract was for about $ 5600. in the end, I paid over $ 8000 for my daughters treatment.
He will nickel and dime you as much as possible.
If you get a quote from them, ask them if there are other costs involved beside the quote. Or what the TOTAL COST is.

Dr. Landucci is a very nice man. He’s the reason why my teeth look the way they do today, minus all of my ice-​chewing, candy-​eating, non-​teeth brushing, and non-​flossing habits (high-​five to all the sloths out there!).
However…
He’s also the reason my father spent five years yelling at me. 5 years worth of bills=$$$$$ (he claims it was several thousands altogether)
Also, because he was so ridiculously expensive, my father still yells at me now (ten years later) to keep my teeth clean and healthy. Lame!
On top of that, I don’t appreciate all the weird procedures I had to go through and all the strange equipment they made me wear to sleep… Not cool!
I never got any prizes or stickers, but they used to send me automated voice messages singing to me on my birthdays.

We LOVE Landucci Orthodontics! I have three kids and ALL are patients in the more than capable hands of both Dr. Landucci (Dr. Al) and Dr. Garabedian (Dr. G). I was a patient in the same office when I was a kid, and could not think of a better place to bring my own kids. I am very excited for both the office and all their patients since their remodel was completed in July 2008! What a difference! The practice was enlarged into the whole building, remodeled and updated, updated, updated! No time warp here! Wow!
Patients are the top priority in this office, and Dr. Al and Dr. G have made this very clear by adding a digital Xray unit to their practice, and the capability of digital photographs. They understand how busy families can be, and that by adding this service, needed records can now be done at a patient’s regularly scheduled appointment rather than having to make another appointment with either a general dentist or the dental lab. It sure saves me time, gas and the headache of taking my kids out of school.
There are times when my kids have to have appointments during school time, but these types of appointments are explained nicely by any of the team members (that’s what the whole staff is called — nice, huh?). And, if needed, the team will even give me a note for the school so my child’s ‘absence’ is excused.
The best part of treatment, in this office, is it is truly designed for the individual’s needs. My children have all had some orthodontic care, and each of their treatment has been different. My oldest had traditional metal braces, my next had Invisalign — the nearly invisible removable trays — what a way to have treatment! My two oldest are now finished, and WOW! What fantastic smiles! My youngest is almost ready to start more care. She had expanders put in her mouth (to widen her mouth and make more room for her adult teeth) when she was about 7, saving us much additional work, expense and possible need of jaw surgery. My financial portion was reflective of each of the kids’ individual care! I never paid for something they did not need, making me feel I was never paying for more than I got.
Dr. Al and Dr. G are fantastic! I am so glad we’ve chosen such a high quality office for our kids. The great experience begins the minute you place that first phone call. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. We (my whole family) recommend Landucci Orthodontics for anyone interested in receiving the BEST orthodontic care around!

I’d give them zero stars too if I could! Bad experience. I agree that you feel like you’ve entered a time warp when you step into their offices but that is not what left a bad taste in my mouth. When I called, they told me I can come in for a complimentary consultation. When I arrived, they promised to take some free pictures of my teeth that will be mine to keep. They took digital photos, xrays and more xrays… then they wanted to make molds of my teeth but said there would be a charge associated with that; however they said that it looks like I would benefit from treatment and these molds would confirm. So of course I went for it.
The fact that whomever was sticking the cemented pads into my mouth to make these molds took THREE TRIES to get it right is once again beside the point. What made me very angry was the fact that several days after my «free consultation» I got a bill in the mail for $ 700!!! They were charging me for all the xrays!!! No one even mentioned this charge to me during my visit and they did mention the charge of the molds so clearly that should have been mentioned as well. I was livid. They said they would see if my insurance would cover things and thank goodness it did.
However, as I’m now starting things with another ortho, I learned that the charges from Landucci’s office went against my life time maximum orthodontic coverage so now I have hardly anything left for my actual treatment. Can you believe it? I still can’t. The current ortho has to redo all my xrays and she’s doing it for FREE — they actually know what that word means and know how to treat their prospective patients right.

Both my sons and my best friend’s family have gone to Dr. Landucci. He is the perfect combination of an artist and a scientist. He put together a good plan to treat my twin sons that seemed to cut down the time they would need braces.
My boys each had palatal expanders at about age 6 for about a year. This allowed room for their adult teeth (we all have small mouths) to come in. We returned for braces when their adult teeth came in (one son was ready sooner than the other) and each boy needed them for only 16 months. Their teeth are perfect now. Dr. Landucci creates the treatment plan and Dr. Garamendi and Dr. Landucci both make the periodic adjustments.
Dr.Landucci is the same doctor that Tom Brady uses… you know, our local New England Patriot with that great smile!
If you are looking for artistry and professionalism (I am an artist, by the way), I highly recommend Dr. Landucci. His newly-​remodeled office in San Mateo is bigger and much nicer than the old cramped space before (the old crowded waiting room was the biggest drawback). But, if you are looking for glitz or chatty talk, better look elsewhere… this practice is all about giving you a great smile!
And kudos to Dr. Landucci for creating scholarships for science and math students in the local community!

What a weird, weird experience. The place was bizarre, with a décor from the 1970’s. The receptionist was like a really bad, older Stepford Wife. She would kind of sing-​song when she’d talk, but she wasn’t sweet or nice – just kind of doing what a woman is supposed to do, if that makes sense.
Then, the doctor spoke to me as if I was 5. I hate being condescended to.
I left there with the heeby jeebies. I mentioned it to someone else and it turns out the receptionist is his mom. I guess that explains why she’d holler, «Dr. Landucci», in a really authoritative way. It was bizarre because it sounded like she was his boss even though she addressed him with the honorific of Dr. When I found out she was his mom I said, «a-​ha».
I had to bring my daughter with me to the appointment, and while I had a helper with me watching her, it seemed to me that the receptionist was bothered that she was with me. She was well behaved and played quietly, but the receptionist kept peeking over the desk and scowling, as if she couldn’t wait to say something rude.
When I decided I wanted to go with a different office, they were really reluctant to release any of my records and didn’t want to work with me at all.
What a waste of a couple hundred bucks.

Well, my teeth look good now so I can’t complain. The other reviewer is right though, this place is cramped and just not that nice for how much money they make.
However, I heard they just remodeled their san mateo office and landucci is a nice enough guy. He does give prizes to elementary school students… haha

I would give zero stars if I could. Do not go here for treatment!
This office treats patients on an assembly line. All the chairs are about two feet apart in one room. For all the money they charge, they should own a building large enough to see patients on separate floors. Instead you wait to be seen (because they overbook) with a child peering over at your chart and into your mouth.
Dr. Garabedian is the most condescending prick I’ve ever met. He should not be allowed to see patients — it’s a miracle children don’t run out of the office crying after he sees them.
They made me wait an hour (when I had an appointment) because of some «emergency.» It turns out the emergency was a woman who was moving to a different city and needed an adjustment. I don’t know if she’s in the witness protection program, but last time I moved it was planned out pretty far in advance and didn’t require displacing another person’s appointment. I left but called to complain and request my files so that I could go elsewhere. They said that I’d have to pay for my models, and 40 cents per copy of every page in my file, etc.
This is the worst possible place to go to for treatment. Definitely do not go here or take your children here.