Don't believe the ads for inexpensive dental cleaning! Boy was I naive, and they saw me coming. I was in need of dental services and thought it would be nice to have a dentist close to my home so when I saw the ad for dental cleaning I thought I would give them a call.
The receptionist was polite on the phone and I made an appointment. When I went to my appointment they took x-rays and then had the dentist give me an exam. They display your x-rays on a computer screen while you are lying in the chair and proceed to explain all the dental problems you have. Of course they can't give you a cleaning because of the problems you have.
I explained to the dentist that I have no insurance and I am a cash patient and that I cannot afford expensive dental work but I do want one tooth that is damaged repaired and what would that cost. He explains I have periodontal desease and that I need to have a deep cleaning and scaling as well as several teeth that need work on and then he sends in the closer.
The closer has a list of all the problems I have with my teeth and an expensive bill that I cant afford and codes that no one but the business office can understand. I need to have my teeth cleaned first before the work on any of my teeth can be done and we can set an appointment as soon as possible. Like a trustworthy lamb being taken to the slaughter I agree to have the deep cleaning done and she goes over the cost. As I understand it I will pay $340.00 to have the deep cleaning done and then to have a partial crown on the #14 tooth it will cost $795.00!
Mind you, the cost is the most expensive but they gloss over the options. They push the state of the art CAD/CAM system (posters all over the walls) and it will be done in the office and you will have a beautiful new porcelain tooth in one day. But first we need to do the deep cleaning.
On the day of the first cleaning everthing goes fine and I tell them I will pay for the two cleanings today. I ask them how much and they tell me $340.00 so I pay it. When I come back for the 2nd cleaning the receptionist tells me I owe $340.00 and I tell her I already paid at the first cleaning. She says I need to sign some papers which I do and then I have the cleaning done.
I get a call a couple of days later from the office manager who tells me that I owe them $340.00 for the second cleaning and I tell her that I paid it already and she says there was a mixup and that the $340.00 was for the upper cleaning and the second $340.00 was for the lower cleaning. The cost of the cleaning is $160.00 per quad! What the heck is a quad? I ask.
It is one forth of your teeth and we charge by the quadant. First I heard of that I tell her and that something needs to be done. She offers me a reduction because of the mixup and I tell her that I was going to get some additional work done and but now I'm having second thoughts. I was going to have a tooth patially crowned and that it was going to cost me $795.00 but now I don't know. She says she is looking at the bill and it is only $350.00 not $795.00.
Like a fool rather than just tell her that's it, I say ok and I'll be at my appointment to have my tooth crowned. Appointment time comes and I'm sitting in the dental chair and the dentist comes in and we start talking about the #14 tooth that I'm going to have work done on today and he says excuse me a moment.
The next thing I know the closer is in the room telling me there was a mixup again and that the tooth the dentist was going to work on today is a different tooth with an overlay and not the #14 tooth with the partial crown. She then trys to get me to have the inlay done and tells me they will pay for the cost of a dental plan but if we work on the # 14 tooth it will still cost $795.00. I asked if there were any other options and she shows me other options that were much less expensive.
Well that was it for me. I told her I was not going to have any work done today and that I was leaving. Bottom line these kind of dentists are only out for the money. I was hoping to develope a professional relationship with a dentist that truly cared about me and my dental health but these guys are not them.
After my experience my advice is do not do business with any dentist that advertises a $39.95 cleaning, it is only a come on. Talk to your friends and get a referral for a local dentist that has been around and cares about your health not your pocketbook.
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