I went in on August 4, 2016, for a first-time visit. I had set it up for a routine teeth-cleaning. I walked in, waited a few minutes, then they whisked me in to do X-rays. Fairly typical for a first visit. Then, they moved me into another room, and that's when things started to go off the rails. They said, "Well, we'll look at your gums and have you see the dentist, and then we'll see if we can schedule you an appointment for a cleaning." I thought, "Wait, if we're not doing a cleaning, why am I here?" They put me in a chair and began probing my gums with the gum probe/periodontal pocket measurer, which again is fairly typical. Measurements of three or below are fine, four or five is not great. I had some fours and fives, which may not be typical for everyone, but which is fairly typical for me. I usually get told at the end of my cleanings, "Try to floss more." Well, this time, they told me that they were going to have to do some kind of scraping and give me an antibiotic. Once again, I've had below-gum scrapings before; it's usually part of the cleaning for every other dentist I've ever been to. These guys wanted to schedule a special appointment for that, plus a round of antibiotics, and ONLY THEN would they schedule a cleaning. The dentist looked at my mouth, told me it seemed like I had the beginning of a little cavity in one tooth, and then left the room. Then I was whisked away to see the office manager about costs. Well, I'll be darned if they weren't going to charge me $1300--AFTER INSURANCE--for all this treatment that I supposedly needed--scraping, antibiotic, and cleaning; I'm not even sure if it covered the cavity. When I said I didn't have that amount of money to pay on dental work, they tried to get me to take out a loan with CareCredit, and when I said I'd have to talk it over at home, they tried to get me to call "my wife" WHILE I SAT THERE to get her to agree to this loan for this treatment that I'm hearing about for the first time. (By the way, I'm gay, and my *husband* and I have been together for 11 years. There is no wife. But that's a whole other deal, and not the main focus of this review.) And what's more, they billed my insurance for my semiannual exam--meaning that if I go somewhere else to ACTUALLY GET MY TEETH CLEANED, it's going to cost me out of pocket unless I wait six months, because I've already supposedly used my benefit.
Then, as I got ready to leave, they told me to be sure to give them a review and to give them "all five stars." Five stars for what??? To be shot full of cancer rays, probed, looked at for two shakes of a lamb's tail by a dentist, billed for a non-cleaning exam, and then pressured to take out a loan for $1300??? No thanks.
When I first moved to Chicago 10 years ago, I had a dentist try to tell me basically the same thing: your gums are loose, you have gingivitis, you have the beginnings of periodontal disease, you need an expensive procedure (which in that case included lasers and cadaver gums--I kid you not). I decided to get a second opinion. I went to another dentist, and he cleaned my teeth and told me everything looked great. I said, "No problems with my gums?" He said, "Nope, just keep flossing." I had no problems for the next 10 years.
I feel like that's exactly what's going on here. A rigmarole, a scam, a shakedown. These guys are corporate owned, with offices around the country, and they have just standardized the procedure by which they fleece people out of money for care they don't need and can't afford. It's just their business model to take advantage of people who don't know any better than to go ahead and pay for whatever the dentist says is necessary--just like a dishonest mechanic.
I JUST had my teeth cleaned a year ago in Chicago before moving south, and before that, I'd had them done every six months for 10 years. My gums aren't bleeding, they aren't in any pain, I brush regularly, and I floss when I think of it. There is nothing wrong with my gums--and CERTAINLY nothing wrong enough to prevent them from cleaning my teeth like I asked and scheduled the appointment to do. I feel like an idiot for having wasted an hour of my time plus my insurance benefit going to these people and getting no actual service. Save your money, time, and dignity: don't go. read more