I had a pleasant experience dealing with everyone at Southwest Smiles.
Last night I broke a tooth and my husband and I couldn't see the extent of the break or how much damage there was, but I knew it had to be taken care of right away or it could lead to a root canal with a crown, which is very expensive.
With no dental insurance, I decided to come to Yelp once again to see which dentists near me had 4-5 ratings and see the cost to get an evaluation for my broken tooth. Thankfully it was not a front tooth and in the back somewhat.
Calling pretty much all the dentists with the 4-5 ratings and some of them are charging quite a bit for an initial visit to evaluate my tooth, to the tune of one place I think about $150. Sorry, that was too much for me. Southwest said it would be $25 and they had a 1 pm appointment, which worked for me.
I asked them which kind of dental discount plans they take, since I have no dental insurance, nor did I have any dental discount plans. I did go to a dental discount broker in AZ, but they also tack on their fees and I found that Southwest Smiles also takes Avia Dental Discounts. I made sure of this, and asked what other discount plans they accept. They said Carington(sp?) and Aetna. I called them and got quotes. Aetna was about $75 for an individual and Carington was about $95. Avia was $96, but the family was $143 or something like that with Carington being nearly $200/yr for the family. Aetna was by far the least expensive.
However, Avia was the only one that once you paid, you can use the service immediately. There is also the option to pay monthly, but I think if you paid in full for the year, you get 3 months extra free, they waive the $20 application fee, so it was a straight $96 for 15 months. That worked best for me as I wanted the work done today. I had to call member services to get my member #, but that's all I needed to take to the dentist.
Went to my 1 pm appointment, shared my concerns with Dr. Ormeni about my broken tooth. He took a look and said he said he had good news for me. No crown was needed. He could fill it sort of like a cavity, but it's easier. He had to file it down or something like that and then fill it. The filling should last for many years to come.
He did not need to numb me or give me a shot. It was really easy and fast, less than 15 min, I think. I think the front office, Erica, that it took longer to get the price quotes from Avia than it took to correct my broken tooth.
With the Avia Dental Discount Plan, it was $115. I guess the evaluation fee was included in this. Normally without insurance or the dental discount plan, it would have been $200 for this. So I was very happy this did not need a crown and that it was somewhat affordable for me.
I also had questions for Dr. Ormeni regarding a missing crown I had and he ascertained all my questions, but was careful not to badmouth any other dentist, so though he had the opportunity to possibly say something negative about another dentist's poor work, he did not. Dr. Ormeni was very professional, addressed my concerns well and treated me as a valuable patient.
His staff - Erica, Cindy (I think that was what her name was) and the other lady assisting Dr. Ormeni were all very nice. No issues.
I'm still undecided as to what I need to do with my missing crown, but if I don't go back to the original dentist that put that in, I will most likely have Dr. Ormeni do it.
The location of this place is also between our children's school and our home, so that is good and convenient.
Thank you for such great service and addressing my concerns well and made this affordable for me.