| rev:text
| - This is a hard review for me to write because this dental group has been good to me in the past. My previous visit has been for some emergency work and a cleaning. The group worked well with me on being able to pay the cost of the emergency visit. I am a graduate student and my insurance sucks. There is no dental. Everything I paid for came out of my pocket. The second visit was for a cleaning and it was fine.
I had made the appointment for 1pm, but when I arrived I was told that the appointment was for 1:30pm. I am sure it was 1pm, but no harm no foul. I accept that I could have been wrong. I was told that since it had been more than a year since my previous visit I had to see the doctor. I asked if this was an extra charge because my finances are tight. I was told no. I was offered a fluoride treatment for an additional $20 which I declined.
I was taken back for x-rays which prompted me again to ask if there was a charge for x-rays. I was told there was no extra charge. I see the dentist and he explains that I need some extra work, which I already knew. I explain to him my financial situation and tell him that it is not possible to pay for the work he is advising getting done. He says he understands and leaves.
I have now had to explain that I am not in a financial position to be able to afford my own health care three times. This is an embarrassment to me as it is to many Americans. I am literally killing myself to earn my degree, and my financial constraints are real. It is an obvious embarrassment, but again, it is one that many of us face on a daily bases.
Shortly after the doctor leaves another employee comes in to explain payment options on the medical treatments I had just denied and explained I could not afford. I say nothing and figure I will just, once again, have to say no and explain why. This is the price of being poor in the richest country in the world. Before the employee goes into the detail of the cost break down she goes over the billing for the cleaning. I am told I will be getting a fluoride treatment which prompts me to ask "There is an additional charge for that isn't there?" She says yes, so I inform her that I told the receptionist yesterday when I made the appointment that I did not want the treatment. I inform the employee that I have a coupon for $50 off and I show it to her. She says it is not valid for the cleaning. In the fine print at the bottom it says so. My bad.
She then begins to go over the cost of the other options and I cut her off and say I can not afford them and I decline them all at this time. At this point I am getting stern and terse in my responses. I hand her the coupon and ask her if she could throw it away. She questions my decision and I say it is useless to me. She says I could use it on one of the more expensive treatments to which I once again I tell her that even with the coupon I can not afford them. She, snarkily, says something to the effect, "all right, if you want to pay full price go ahead." She then ask me to sign the agreement for my cleaning. I pause for a long time contemplating about just walking out. I am obviously mad at this point. I am mad at the way I feel I have been treated, my own embarrassment at being at the lower end of the economic scale, and over the fact that I have continually said no to being up-sold, yet am being continually up-sold to. I sign the agreement.
Here is where my review goes into complete conjecture with no proof of what I am about to state. All I can say is this is my interpretation of the events. But first I have to explain something. I was a medic in the Army and occasionally we would get a patient who was just an A-hole. When this happened all the medics and docs in the clinic had our own special way of allowing for some suffering by the patient. We never gave bad care, but that care was often delivered with less than gentle methods.
I think today I got some a-hole karmic retribution. My cleaning was painful to the extent I had to complain, politely and professionally, twice until the dentist turned down the amplitude on sonic cleaning device. For the rest of the visit I tried to be as polite and professional as I could be, and I was treated with professionalism, but not necessarily kindness. When I left I asked for a copy of my records and stated I would not be making a second appointment.
I am sure they did not intentionally allow me to suffer, but this is the feeling I got throughout the treatment and nothing happened after to abate my suspicion. It was too easy to remove the pain upon my second request for it to be a simple oversight, in my opinion. I will not be returning to this dentist. I have to give them two stars though because they did give me excellent care on my first two visits. If you chose to go, I suggest you be nice and just tolerate the continual pressure to have more treatment no matter how many times you say no.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)