Roderick F Lagunda, DDS General Dentistry in Irvine, CA

Chris posted a comment

I've been a client of Dr. Lagunda for approximately 13 years. My mother & two sisters have also seen him for the same amount of time for appointments consisting of cleanings, fillings & other dental work. My family & I have been loyal patrons for over a decade & have informed others of his good work. Roughly 4 years ago I was involved in an unfortunate motorcycle accident resulting in almost complete paralysis below the neck. I have been working through an incredibly arduous recovery to regain ability to physically move again. On my first 3 visits I had after my horrific accident, Dr. Lagunda would either intentionally or unintentionally make a comment about, "how looking at me reminds & encourages him to make sure to not ride a motorcycle" & he would laugh loudly each & every time he would vocalize some heartless & inconsiderate remark about my uncontrollable physical state. During my visits I have to persevere through physical discomfort due to my injury in order to receive a proper cleaning. SO today I went to my cleaning appointment which I specifically requested Dr. Lagunda to work on me otherwise they will try & give you a bad back up "dentist" who do not know what they are doing. I know this because once I regretfully agreed to have another apparent "dentist" examine my mouth / teeth & the "dentist" claimed that I had 2 cavities that needed immediate action (basically fill both). Right after I was told this by this backup "dentist", I quickly demanded the actual eyes of Dr. Lagunda to come examine himself which he did & he said that THERE WERE NO CAVITIES PRESENT! That means I would of had them drilling on me for fun. This appointment occurred after at least 8 years of having Dr. Lagunda as my only / primary dentist. Back to today 3/9/17--for my appointment I was sat down to commence my cleaning by an assistant I had never encountered before which surprisingly did not alarm me because I felt like hopefully this place employs only the qualified & experienced even though I had that bad experience with the backup witch doctor "dentist". The cleaning went about 5 minutes in at most & this assistant does not know how to handle the dental tools & water begins dripping on my shirt. Initially I did not know, then I was all wet! So I partially rose up & stated that I was getting wet. The assistant says he'll throw some paper towels on my wet shirt. I proceed to lay back down to continue this "cleaning". 30 seconds into the restart of the cleaning, more water starts dripping on me again! Then the assistant himself says, "Looks like I'm giving you a shower!" I shockingly press on with the "cleaning". 2 minutes go by, water still intermittently dripping on my upper body, beginning to drench my shirt & now the assistant asks me to turn my head to the side so he can clean better. He then tells me to turn my head even more, at that point I tell him I physically cannot. The assistant takes his two hands and forcibly grabs my mouth / face & is trying to physically move my head in a direction it cannot turn due to a 3.5 inch titanium plate which is drilled across 3 vertebrae in my neck. When this happened I yelled for him to stop & to get his hands off of me. I was overcome with a tremendous amount of fear for my safety. With all the partial strength I have thankfully regained since my motorcycle accident, I tried with all my might to rise to my feet to escape from the chair & the assistant pulling my skull. I was able get him to release his hands & tried to maintain my balance as I headed to the door with the dental apron around my neck. As I went for the door, I told whatever employees were present that you do not treat or touch people like that. My car was right out front thankfully & I made sure to lock the doors & drove away. As I left I felt appalled about all this nonsense I've dealt with here. After my loyalty for 13 or so years & after my devastating injury, I would think they would make sure they would do whatever possible to make my appointments go as smoothly & pain free as possible. Later today I found out that the assistant doing my cleaning was actually a student. He was not even an employee / certified for anything. Just some student with maybe 3-6 months of reading from a dental book. And that is who Dr. Lagunda & the employees at this dentistry thought I deserved. They thought about my appointment & thought, "Hey this Christian guy is a push over, let's have the student work on him." Instead of treating me like the loyal client I have been for over a decade, they thought they could continue to push more unacceptable treatment on me. Don't go here if you have feelings or want to be treated fairly as a human being.