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| - I had never even considered the idea before that medical professionals could run their offices like a business out to make a buck off of individuals by selling them services they don't need... until I went to Premier Dentistry & Implant Center and saw Dr.Kang.
Where do I even begin?
1) I've never had any major dental issues. A cavity filled here and there, sure, but otherwise pretty healthy teeth (thanks genetics!). So when I came in to his office and was told I needed "deep cleaning/scaling/root planing" in two quadrants, that my gum measurements indicated gingivitis, and that my fillings needed to be re-done, I was surprised, (...especially since when I saw a dentist six months prior, none of this had come up, and these type of issues take time to form) but I trusted that my dentist knew what was best for me, and so I agreed to all of it.
...Only to find out when everything was submitted to the insurance, the insurance refused to pay because they said based on the x-rays and other data collected, there simply wasn't substantial evidence that what he claimed was wrong was actually there, making the treatment unwarranted.
Now - I worked for an insurance provider for a number of years. I know how tricky getting coverage can be, I understand the obstacle course that is prior authorization, and all that jazz. It is not normal to have your coverage provider say the evidence simply isn't there to prove you needed the treatment. Normally they say "you should have tried x, y, and z first, and unless you can prove that you have, we aren't covering you jumping to the most expensive treatment". Instead, this was like a polite way of saying "your dentist is a fraud that prescribed unnecessary treatment".
So even if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt and just say my insurance was being tricky, and the $600 bill was necessary to my well being, let's go over the other numerous factors that led to this bad review:
2) I scheduled a double appointment for my fiance and I to get our teeth cleaned. Nobody informed us that there was only one dentist and our appointments would be back to back, not simultaneously occurring. My fiance waited for almost an hour in the lobby before they told him this. When they finally explained the scenario, they comped us with 2 free movie theater tickets (whoop-de-doo).
3) I came in for a standard cleaning, and never actually got one. You know the part where they put that nasty tasting toothpaste on what's essentially a medical grade electric toothbrush and polish your teeth? Or the part where they do fluoride? Yeah, none of that happened. They kept telling me they would do it "before this step", or "after that step", but never got to it. Then finally I think they realized they screwed up the order of things, and someone said "you'd be too sore if we did it now, so we'll have to do it when you come back next time". As in, never. Because I wasn't going to come back for a second appointment to get the service I was originally came in for.
4) My entire appointment took 3 hours, and mostly because the dentist kept leaving the dental hygienist during times when she needed him, to bounce between different patients. I know this is totally normal to a certain extent, but it reached ridiculous proportions in this scenario. I remember her sitting with me holding a cotton swap on my tooth, to keep it dry for almost 30 minutes (when his directions to her said it should take maybe 5 minutes), and her consistently kind of peeking around the corner looking for him to come back, growing visibly impatient because this step was meant to be done quickly as a prep for the procedure, but he just left her hanging trying to keep saliva off my tooth for 30 minutes.
5) He was also really sharp and short with the dental hygienist. It was uncomfortable to be in the middle of. Sometimes he would grab or shove her hands (while they're in my mouth, mind you), and sternly say "No, like this!". Maybe she was new, and he was trying to train her to better accommodate his way of doing this, but it had an oddly uncomfortable "how an abusive husband cuts his wife down verbally in public" feel to it.
6) I overheard them trying to basically do a "bait and switch" with an elderly couple, where the dentist spoke to the wife about what services she had decided to agree to, and then when they saw the husband who was going to handle payments, they tried to add back in the services she had declined. Thankfully he caught it and said "no, we had decided not to do that", and you could tell the office personnel feigned it being an accident. Really not cool.
7) To top it all off, this was now a year ago, and they just sent me another bill for $150 for God knows what. Every claim they submitted, I paid. I have no idea what this is even for, or why they waited this long to come back asking for money when there's no additional claims or appeals activity on my insurance account.
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