Savannah J. Kim, DDS MS

I went to Dr. Zee's practice up until I left for college. When Dr. Zee was the primary dentist, I didn't have any major complaints about how things were run. But when Dr. Kim took over a few years ago, everything got so much worse. The practice makes patients treat every little thing (loose teeth, incredibly minor cavities, etc.) and seems to really push patients to undergo at times unnecessary procedures. Whenever you get a filling, they inject way too much lidocaine and your mouth will be numb for 5-8 hours after you leave (in general its supposed to take less then 3 hours for the numbness to wear off). Additionally, my brother and I recently changed to another dentist, who found numerous cavities that had formed at the sites of fillings Dr. Kim had "fixed", and were told she used incredibly poor technique that would cause problems down the road. I would have thought that a pediatric dentist would have a much more gentle approach, but my recent experience at our new dentist has shown me just how poor the treatments are at this practice. Save yourself the time and money, and just go somewhere else.

I went to Dr. Zee from when I was a wee little girl to the time I left for college - but it took my mom a while to find him. She went through at least half a dozen dentists before she found him. The other dentists would try to force expensive procedures on us. For example - before I even lost my baby teeth - they were trying to convince my parents that I needed braces. Fortunately, my mom has a lot of common sense, so she just kept switching dentists until she found Dr. Zee. Dr. Zee is really great with children. He's very calm, very thoughtful, and makes you want to take good care of your teeth. He has a sort of avuncular charm about him. I also remember he has a whole toy basket and you got to take a toy home with you when you left.

Even though Dr. Zee specializes in pediatric dentistry, my mom insisted he keep us on when we got older. Since he was such a good guy - he agreed.

I never had any expensive procedures done with him. But my brother was very prone to cavities and he certainly went through his fair share of dental work. Dr. Zee always did a good the first time and my brother and parents never had any complaints.

I definitely recommend Dr. Zee for anyone looking for a good, honest dentist for their kids!

My twin sister and I have been going to Dr Zee for over 15 years. He is a great person and dentist/orthodontist. Dr Zee is very thorough and is always up to date with the latest procedures to help maintain your oral hygiene.
His assistants are also very nice and amiable.
For anyone looking for a dentist and/or orthodontist, I would highly recommend Dr Zee, for children and young adults !!

My kids went to see Dr. Zee and Dr. Kim for about two years before I moved them to my dentist (who sees kids but isn't a pediatric dentist per se). Everyone there was always friendly, but the diagnoses and recommended procedures seemed extreme (just their philosophy? or for billing purposes? who knows).

I don't profess to know anything about dentistry, but more than once these folks set off alarms in my mommy gut instincts, and when I back-channeled, it turns out I had good reasons for feeling this way.

Exhibit A: I took my 4 year old in because his tooth was loose and I thought it was from trauma (I thought 4 was too young to have a legitimate loose tooth). Total rookie mom move, granted, and we all had a good laugh. Then they wanted to give him laughing gas and yank it. WHAAAT??? This is my little kid's first loose tooth. They said it would save him weeks of discomfort and not being able to eat certain foods, like whole apples. Okay, this is true. But gassing him and yanking it? That seems a lot worse and a lot scarier for a little kid. They didn't seem to understand why I thought this was extreme, which was strange. Obviously, I didn't let them yank it, and it fell out totally naturally and un-traumatically a few weeks later.

Exhibit B: A few months later, I took my kids in for their regular cleaning. They took multiple x-rays of both kids' mouths, which turns out costs a lot (no warning here). Then they discovered a cavity in my older kid and wanted to fill it. Their usual practice, it seems, is to orally sedate him, as if he's going into real surgery. Oral sedation isn't covered by insurance, and it has a lot more risks to it! Again, they were very blase about all this. I panicked a bit and called my dentist for a gut-check. They looked at the tooth and said it had some enamel wear and it'd be good to keep an eye on it. They also noted that oral sedation seemed a bit extreme, but that some dentists ascribe to the "no fear/lots of medication" approach to pediatric dentistry. My kids have no fear of the dentist, and if one is judicious in one's use of invasive tactics (pulling teeth, filling cavities, etc.), then maybe that approach makes sense. But I felt the fear that every time I visited, they'd tell us we needed something else done!

When I did take my kids to my dentist, I came away with so much gratitude. Without even realizing it, every time I took my kids to Dr. Zee/Dr. Kim, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like their teeth and my approach to them was all wrong (even though we have pretty good oral hygiene). No one ever talk with my kids about brushing, or showed them how to brush or floss. I didn't feel respected or focused on here. I'm glad to see others had positive experiences, but for me, this place was not a good fit. Hopefully my experience can help others find what works for them.

When my son who was about 3.5 years old had cavities, I was in desperate need to find a pediatric dentist I would trust. I'm an anxious mom who wants to make sure that my kids are in excellent care. I went through a series of pediatric dentist and finally found Dr. Zee. Even though we live in Campbell, I drove all the way to Redwood city to see Dr. Zee who took excellent care of my kids teeth. He takes his time and listened to my concerns. He was the only dentist, I've meet who explained dental hygiene for the kids, how to floss the kids teeth, tricks to make flossing easier, etc.