Peridontal “Scam” – ? - and How You Handled It. (sales, insurance)

[ghtix]

Has anyone used a dental office in the area that determined you need periodontal maintenance and subsequently refused to do a regular teeth cleaning after that? If so I would like to hear about your experience and outcome. You can either post a response or message me with details. Thanks.

[2sleepy]

I don't live in Florida so I hope you don't mind me posting here, but this is a nationwide problem and I had to try 3 dentists before I would find one who didn't try to pull this scam on me. As it turns out the dental practices that do this are almost always corporate owned, they have names like "bright smiles" "aspen dental" "modern dental" etc. I live in Northern California and I went to two dentists who claimed I had periodontal disease and told me I needed a deep cleaning for $1,000 and then I would need periodontal maintenance four times a year for the rest of my life, one of them tried to sell me a bottle of prescription mouthwash for $78, I called Walmart and it was $4.

The best advice I can give is look for a dentist's office with the dentists name, like "Mark Jones Dental". Then go to Yelp and check reviews, sort them by lowest rating first and you will find out by reading the first 4 or 5 reviews whether or not they are a real dental office or one of these corporate rip offs. Many of the Yelp reviews are fake and written by their employees so the only way you can really tell if the dentist is a rip off is by looking at the worst reviews first and see if they are scamming people.

Good luck! I wish we could put an end to this, it's horrible!

[gypsychic]

I agree with the above. I DO live in Florida, and had this issue with "Coast Dental" which is one of those corporate chains. Not only do they scam you, their work is sub-par, believe me.

You can't always go by the name of the office, these days, for internet search purposes and other reasons dentists often have names other than their "own" name (sometimes they take a partner, etc) but definitely avoid the obvious "chains" with multiple offices.

Good luck!

[Old Gal]

It's a problem nationwide. I had it happen in Dallas and here in Florida. I wish I could find a trustworthy dentist here in Florida.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Old Gal

It's a problem nationwide. I had it happen in Dallas and here in Florida. I wish I could find a trustworthy dentist here in Florida.

Third time was a charm for me, I finally went on "nextdoor" and asked people for recommendations, I got several recommendations for one particular dentist & found out he accepts my insurance - I went to see him and the difference between him and those two corporate crooks I'd seen previously was like night and day. He said I don't have periodontal disease and he is going to fix a small amount of decay I have at the base of a crown for $120, the other two told me I needed a new crown $1100

[upgrader]

Originally Posted by ghtix

Has anyone used a dental office in the area that determined you need periodontal maintenance and subsequently refused to do a regular teeth cleaning after that? If so I would like to hear about your experience and outcome. You can either post a response or message me with details. Thanks.

Great thread, thanks for starting it!

Short answer, yes and no.

Yes, my local "Dental Mill" said I had a couple of 4mm gum pockets (on opposite sides of my mouth, more costly) and that I'd need periodontal cleanings for the rest of my life. I had no bleeding, no pain. I slept on it, and cancelled the periodontal cleaning. Six months later I had a checkup there with an honorable dentist (he retired, sold his practice, got bored and went to work there) who told me my gums were fine. They did do subsequent cleanings. That honorable dentist left that office, and fortunately I've moved to a new location.

I think it's sad that some of these dental mills have become like shady use car sales lots, but this is 'merica dagnabit and there's money to be made.

If it isn't life or pain threatening, and you think you are being played, just say no.

[2sleepy]

Another way to know if you are in a corporate dental mill is if they tell you that you need a large number of fillings and you have never had a problem with dental decay - or if they tell you that they can't fill a tooth, they need to do an inlay or give you a crown, it's amazing the scams they pull..here's an interesting story about these scammers: Patients, Pressure and Profits at Aspen Dental | Dollars and Dentists | FRONTLINE | PBS

[BucFan]

I've been going to Great Expressions up here in the TB area - another one of those corporate dental businesses -no problems, but thanks for the heads up to the scam. So far I've been lucky. I've had family members (one who worked in the business) who've opted away from them feeling that several of the procedures they recommended were unnecessary. They've gone to the private dentist office route.

[Restrain]

I went to Aspen Dental with a cratered tooth, they wanted to pull all my teeth and give me upper and lower dentures -$8K. Uh, NO. Second dentist wanted $3500 for a root canal and crown. We were going back to Texas to visit the kids over Thanksgiving, went to my old dentist, who said the tooth was not salvageable, $100 and out.

[photoman_6]

try dr. kennedy on university