My wife and I have had a relationship with Dr Rische of Rancho Dental for 15 years or more and he…read moreis a skilled, empathetic dentist whom I & my wife both trust and my parents before me. Like many patients, price factors in greatly when managing our dental costs. Fortunately, Delta Dental listed Rancho Dental as a provider. We felt that by no means "cheap", the prices we paid for the care we received were always fair. We have had a lot of work done at his "one dentist office" over the years. Disappointingly, after a return call from his office today, we now find ourselves priced out of his care and no longer valued as patients. After a quote by two other offices the front desk referred my wife to a year or so ago for surgical removal of an abscessed tooth and a subsequent implant and crown, tipping the scales at $7500 (the marble flooring WAS nice though), we found, through friends, a dentist across the border in Tijuana. The facilities and equipment were every bit as sanitary as we'd get here, the work was comparable, and the prices were easily half and in some cases a third the cost. The drawback is the time factor and MX driving, but for the savings, it's incidental (no pun intended). Today, after making an appointment for my wife with Dr Rische for a tooth ache, I was informed in a call back from the front office, "Angela", that our business was only welcome on the condition that if the tooth in question needed a root canal and subsequent crown, (we could choose any endodontist for the RC), we would be expected to have the crown (or filling) done by Dr Rische. This before any exam was performed. We've had our share of crowns done by Dr Rische over the years, the 5-year warranty was generous, and always accepted the $500 or $600 copay our insurance provided for and still does. Those days unfortunately are gone. The cost I was quoted at Rancho Dental was around $1500 for a zirconium crown on a molar which is all the Dr. now offers. I'm sure it's a top-quality job and wish I could afford it, I would. As my wife and I both were in the office the past couple of weeks for check-ups for pain, my wife for a tooth which the Dr referred her to an endodontist for, and I for pain which apparently (unbeknownst to me) was related to a surgical extraction of an implant and subsequent bone graft at the site (performed by our dentist in TJ), the front office implied that we were taking advantage of their services, stating we'd get an exam then go somewhere 'cheaper' to have the work done. IOW, rather than getting an exam which might or might not be related to work another dentist had performed, the idea of us going to another dentist for major work meant we were taking advantage of their office. Nothing could be further from the truth. I explained that we had no idea what was causing us pain and went for the exams in good faith. It never occurred to me that all along we were viewed as just a credit card not as valued patients needing care, after spending what must be thousands of $ over the years. This was a 'preemptive' call we received from the front office who, because they didn't make enough money from our past two visits, now didn't want to take a chance on not making any more from my wife's discomfort at her appointment tomorrow. No conversation about financial assistance or any desire for a conversation at all, only [sic] "if you're going to go elsewhere to have major work done rather than pay our prices, you're better off going elsewhere for everything." Wow. Leaves me with a gnawing in my gut at the tactless hard sell response to longtime customers who always acted in good faith with loyalty, courtesy and respect. Unfortunately, those values mean little at Rancho Dental.
