Michael Eklund, DDS MS - Southwest Oral and Implant Surgery

I recently had to get my wisdom teeth removed and I am so glad I went to Southwest Oral & Implant Surgery. It was little on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for. Dr. Ecklund did an amazing job! I didn't swell up or feel any pain. I recommend getting the most expensive anesthesia, it was totally worth it. If you need to get your wisdom teeth taken out, come here!

So it feels strange to give 5 stars to a person who knocked me out, cut holes in my mouth, drilled my teeth to pieces, removed them, sewed me back up, and left me with swollen cheeks and a soft foods diet. Getting your wisdom teeth removed is not a pleasant thing, but I got everything I could have possibly wished for given the situation. This is what happened:

I went in for an initial consultation. They promptly took xrays and showed me an introduction video about the risks of getting your wisdom teeth removed. Dry sockets, loss of sensitivity in the lower lip, DEATH. Blah blah blah.

Dr. Eklund came in and I think one characteristic that stands out about him is confidence. Maybe not the most important human trait, but perhaps the most important oral surgeon trait. "This guy knows what he's doing", was my first impressions and I never doubted him since.

I don't know what it is, but when you talk to your friends or family or anybody else who has ever gotten their wisdom teeth removed, they're so negative about it. But the fact is, you have to get it done, and it is possible to have a good experience. There's nothing that I can say that would make you not nervous/afraid before your surgery, but hopefully I can add in a little confidence that everything will be fine and most likely easier than you think.

After looking at my xrays, Dr. Eklund told me the exact plan of action since my wisdom teeth were impacted, knock me out and remove all 4. We set up a surgery date, they gave me my prescriptions to be filled beforehand and all the necessary preparation information. Perhaps anesthesia is the scariest part of surgery for you, and if you're really concerned, then you might want to see an anesthesiologist before hand. But I can say that it worked perfectly well for me.

I arrived on the morning of surgery. I was immediately taken to a room, sat down, made comfortable, and hooked up to a heart rate monitor. Then they hooked me up to some oxygen which made me even more relaxed. It all happened so fast. I waited MAYBE 10 minutes, and Dr. Eklund came in. He greeted me warmly, reinforcing his confidence yet again. They even sprayed some nitrogen on my arm before hooking me up to the IV. It was a light pinch and the most pain I would experience that day, save from wanting to eat a milkshake but not being able to find my mouth, but let's save that for later.

I took a nap and woke up dazed. I'm not totally sure what I said for that hour after the surgery when I didn't know what was going on. If you're afraid of spilling your life secrets, don't worry, that probably won't happen. I couldn't feel my face for basically the whole night. The gauze was a little annoying, but other than that, very little pain that day. The next two days were characterized by very severe swelling in the cheeks and jaw. You can't eat anything tasty and it's a little difficult to talk, but as long as you keep taking your drugs, constantly use ice packs, and take it easy, there is nothing more than slight discomfort.

On the fourth day, I ate regular food, albeit slowly and carefully. It has been a slow and steady process since then. I went for my follow-up appointment yesterday and there are no signs of dry sockets or any infection. Which means I'm in the clear! Yay! Now, how can you ask for a better experience than that? You can't. The only thing better would be to be told that you don't need your wisdom teeth removed at all and for 80% of us (this is a made up statistic), that's just not going to happen, sorry.

I wanted to be one of those lucky people that don't need to have any of their wisdom tooth removed but wasn't so lucky. I had all four wisdom tooth grow around the same time a couple of years ago and at first they didn't bother me one bit. It wasn't very long ago that my bottom left one was so painful that I couldn't even sleep! My previous dentist had suggested I get them all removed, primarily the bottom ones since they were impacted, but I didn't listen and decided to drag it as long as I could. I was terrified at the idea of getting them SURGICALLY removed!
Finally I came to the decision that I had to get them out ASAP. I mean the pain was so bad at times that surgery didn't seem too scary. I did my research and ended up finding these guys which made me so happy and relieved after reading all the awesome reviews. Went to the Houston office and at first I thought I would be seeing Dr Eklund since he is the one I see mentioned all over the reviews but no. I never met Dr Eklund and I was a bit disappointed that I was going to be taken care of someone I didn't even know (at least from reviews) so instead I met Dr Jason Hullett who (I was told by the staff) bought the place from Dr Eklund since he was retiring. He did a good job by explaining the procedure and my X-rays. We made an appointment for surgery, I went to the Sugarland office to get it done and of course I was nervous about the whole thing since I had never been put under IV sedation. The staff was great at both offices. My recovery was very quick and my face didn't get swollen or bruised. I hardly took pain meds (maybe two pills) and never felt discomfort. It was a bit expensive since I fully paid for it, but very worth it in my opinion since they do such a great job. Overall I think if you are looking for the best care, come to this place!

On September 24, 2013 I had a schedulded appointment with Dr. Michael Eklund.
I personally had a positive memorable experience . I had 5 extractions, and I had NO swelling and I did not require any prescribed pain
pills. I am "completely satisfied" with the professionalism and expertise demonstrated by Dr. Eklund and his staff...
(10-3-13) Today, I had a "follow-up" visit and had all positive results. I am quite certain it was ALL due to Mr. Eklund's credentials and his wonderful staff...

I have heard a lot of negative stores of visits to the dentist and services provided by them. The only problem with these consumers is that they did not chose to have their dental work performed by Dr. Eklund. I can assure you, the results would be 100% different...

Hector Vela
281-414-8670

My first visit with Dr Eklund was great. Everyone was nice and efficient. They were running a little behind and apologize for it. I don't mind waiting at all. I know I'm not the only patient in his office. I didn't feel rushed out of there either. I like how they show you a video about the oral surgery you going have. I also liked how Dr. Eklund went over the video and my xray. He explained everything to me. I was put in one of the O.R rooms because all the other rooms had other patients, it was good for me to see the OR since I will being having surgery everything was clean and organized.

Had my wisdom teeth extracted. Pleasant experience all around (except for the being negative four teeth part). Dr. Eklund and his staff were all very professional and friendly. Highly recommend!

I started having pain on my wisdom teeth last year and went to my regular dentist to get it checked. After getting my panoramic x-rays done, my dentist told me both my lower ones were impacted but my top ones hadn't erupted yet. I postponed getting my extraction done there because: 1) They wanted me to get my fillings done first; and 2) They only offered a local anesthetic by way of "Take a pill before you get here and you stay awake while you watch us break and yank those suckers out". Hearing what my friends went through made me not want to go that route, so I began searching for an oral surgeon that would put me under so I wouldn't have to deal with any of that. Also, it's good to note that this would be the first surgery I would have in my entire 22 years of living. So yes, I was a little scared!

Thanks to the two previous reviewers giving Dr. Eklund such praise and various reviews around the web, I finally scheduled my initial consultation last month. His entire staff was so nice and pleasant to work with and the price for the initial consultation ($90) was given to me upfront when I called them. Luckily, he's an in-network provider for my insurance so I got a small discount! I'll also note that they require you to have a panoramic x-ray done either at your initial consultation or sent by your dentist, so I was able to have my regular dentist's office send it via e-mail within a few days. Like the other two said, they don't validate parking so you do have to pay about $6-8 (the garage takes cash & CC) both times I went.

During my consult with Dr. Eklund, I waited maybe 10 mins. before being escorted to a room (with a nice view!) and had to watch a 20 minute video explaining the surgery for wisdom tooth extraction and waited maybe another 10 mins. for Dr. Eklund to come in. He was super friendly, asked me a few questions, looked over my x-rays, and explained the whole procedure from what I needed to do pre-op, the various types of anesthesia and risks, and some post-op instructions. He also gave me the option for liquid prescriptions instead of pills since I'm the type of girl who hates popping large pills. Dr. Eklund made me feel comfortable about the whole procedure, and we both agreed to have all 4 wisdom teeth extracted using IV Sedation ("twilight sleep") with local anesthetic.

I scheduled my surgery on my way out for the following month. My advice when scheduling is to ask the staff to send a pre-determination ("PD") to your insurance well before your surgery date to double-check your out-of-pocket costs. The total cost would have been over $2,000 including my prescriptions had I not had insurance. At the consult, I was told my out-of-pocket would be around $500 but after asking them to send in a PD just to be sure, my out-of-pocket came out to just $200!

Fast forward to about 8am this morning, I called in saying I would be 15 mins. late thanks to the pleasant morning traffic on 610 but they had no problem working around that. Now, they do require someone to be there during your surgery the ENTIRE time just in case something were to happen and of course to drive you home and make sure you're okay for the first hour. I delegated this special job to my loving boyfriend of course. So I first paid my out-of-pocket at the front desk and received a post-op goodie bag with tons of gauze, an ice pack cover, and a print-out of post-op instructions, and my bf and I were both led back into the same patient room that I had at my initial consult. His assistants checked my blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, etc. and hooked me up to the oxygen tank which surprisingly wasn't scary at all & just felt like a little cold air. They also gave us more post-op instructions (well, mainly to my bf) and after about 5 mins. Dr. Eklund came in and asked my bf leave to go watch an aftercare video. He hooked me up to my IV and not even a minute later I had what felt like a slightly strange but pleasant dream that lasted more like 5 minutes to me and Dr. Eklund was telling me that we were done and there weren't any problems. My bf said in reality it only took about an hour and he didn't even get to take a nap while waiting for me like he had planned. Dr. Eklund personally spoke with me before leaving and said he'd give me a call tonight to check up on me (which he did around 6pm!) and one of his assistants wheeled me out in a wheelchair all the way to the parking garage where we parked our car (even though my bf SHOULD have carried me himself).

I took 2 days off of work so including the weekend it would be 5, but honestly I could've gotten away with just 1 or 2 days now that it's over. I would say my pain scale the entire day has been very low, I didn't have a lot of swelling in my cheeks at all, and the holes have clotted up nicely. So far, everything has gone great and I'll try to update after my post-op next week where hopefully I will be thanking Dr. Eklund and his team for the fantastic job they did!

Amazing oral surgeon! I wanted to write a review because it seems like so few people review anything other than restaurants. I was really nervous to pick a dentist, and I was even more nervous to pick an oral surgeon. Especially after moving to a new city. But I did a LOT of research and found that Dr. Eklund has been working for some time and has gotten many good reviews. He also has several awards on his website which reassured me some what. I booked my initial appointment to get priced last year and I felt pretty good about the appointment. My insurance even covered the price of my initial inquiry appointment ($80). The price of removing four wisdom teeth was quite high ($2400), but all of my teeth were impacted and I had to be put under for the entire surgery. Also, it costs money to park :( I always feel like they should have some sort of coin or ticket or something that you can give them so you don't have to pay for parking, but I guess $6 or $8 (I forget), three times isn't really anything compared to the price of the surgery. The big thing is, have good insurance! Otherwise it will be very expensive.

My actual surgery, I had my mother and sister go with me because he makes someone stay at the office the entire time. They can't just come at the end, which was fine with me. I was able to get in and out in about 2 hours. I don't remember anything from when he gave me the IV to when I was wheeled out! Awesome in my opinion. Even the IV wasn't bad. The first two days were actually not awful (minus the having to change gauze all the time). I didn't even take the prescription pain killer he prescribed. I even went shopping with my mom on day two. I just took some aleve and it was fine. The third and fourth day were worse but Dr. Eklund warned me that day three would be the worst. I still didn't need anything more than aleve. I went to work on the third day. I will say I felt throbbing for two weeks, but apparently that is normal. I thought I had dry sockets but as it turns out I didn't and was just a wussy.

The holes in the back of my mouth stayed there for a LONG time. I still have some grooves back there and it has been five months. Dr. Eklund did amazing!

One of the best experiences you can have in regards to any kind of dental surgery! I had an implant placed by Dr. Eklund without pain, stress or anxiety. His staff is incredibly professional and the lead Billing Administrators customer service and communication is unparalleled. I would highly recommend this practice!

I am so glad I chose Dr. Eklund for my wisdom tooth removal. I was nervous that it was going to be a long and painful process, but it turned out to be quick and easy. Dr Eklund put me under during surgery and I don't remember a thing and the post surgery pain was minimal. By day 3, I was back to normal. He even called me a day after surgery to check on me. I'm pleased with my decision to choose Dr. Eklund and I'd recommend him to anyone getting oral surgery.