Dr. Maritza Marie Santiago, MD

Kids have been patients for the past 16 years and we are very happy!

When my son was about 6 months old, Dr Santiago prescribed a fluoride vitamin for him so that his teeth would be healthy. She never asked me if the water in my town had fluoride in it though and just wrote me the prescription! Which, my insurance didn't cover and would have cost me $200 had I filled it. When I checked, my town DOES have fluoride in it so she was putting my child at risk for dental fluorosis. She may have known from past experience that the town I live in may not have had fluoride in the past, but things change! I just couldn't believe a doctor of her caliber and experience would make a potentially dangerous mistake.

Dr. Santiago was recommended to me by two other mothers, so after reading the positive reviews about her online, I decided to take my baby to her. She saw my baby on her newborn visit but never again until she was 9 months old! Her practice does have 2 other (male) doctors there, but I went to this practice to see Dr. Santiago and not the other two. I understand that the practice wants each doctor to meet each patient, which I was open to, but I did not like that it was assumed that since I was ok with a couple of visits with the other doctors that it became the norm for me to have my visits scheduled with them. I did like Dr. Santiago (the 2 times I got scheduled with her) but I did not appreciate the way her reputation attracted me to this practice, but she was too busy to really have my child as a patient. I feel that if a doctor is going to have such a full schedule that she can't meet with a new patient, then they really have no business accepting a new patient. One other point that I found very strange was that, despite having met with each of the doctors more that one time, they never seemed to show any sign of recognition of my husband and me! There was never any rapport or attempt in building one either. I've been very disappointed with the fact that my baby is now 9 months old and there is not ONE doctor that actually knows her medical history as we were tossed around 3 of them. My advice for people is, if you are looking for a good doctor WITH the time to give your child care, then this really is not the practice for you.

Everytime I have had her for my son vs. the other Dr's in the practice I always felt she was relating to me as a Mom and caring about my concerns rather then to make me feel paranoid. She offers tips about different situations I had questions on and always is precautious with an illness. She doesn't hestiate when making her diagnosis! LOVE HER!

she is the best ped in jersey.