Western Dental & Orthodontics
Multiple California Locations
About Western Dental & Orthodontics
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Western Dental & Orthodontics Reviews
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Western Dental is an absolutely horrible dental provider. Prior to Medicare I was paying out of pocket and went to the dentist faithfully every six months. Five months ago I went to my personal provider and had a complete set of x-rays and a cleaning. At that time the dentist indicated that everything looked great and to continue doing what I was doing. Now five months later, and now with Medicare I selected a dental plan using Western Dental as my new provider. After sitting in the WD lobby for 2 hours, they then put me in a room and re x-rayed by teeth.
The dentist who never introduced herself came in and indicated that I need three crowns and two root canals, mind you I just had x-rays down 5 months ago and then an assist came in to determine what my insurance would cover. I told her that I had just went to the dentist and they indicated that everything looked “great”. This office in Van Nuys is lacking in everything associated with customer service and I have a major question regarding their credibility, ethicality, and professionalism. Do not use Western Dental!
DO NOT COME HERE! I came back to this office since it was so close to my home but I am leaving it again! The providers are fine but the support staff is just awful! The front office girl is incompetent!!! I was never told that they were not able to accommodate my appointment because they not able to verify my insurance. She just kept calling the wrong number instead of researching my file from a year ago which had my cell phone on it. Then she didn't put me down as honoring my appointment so 4 people called me from Western Dental the next day! After the 4th call it started to feel like harassment. I am definitely changing providers. And here I am on hold for 20 minutes now trying to cancel my appointment. This place is joke!! I wish I could give 0 stars.
They got me to sign up for their "discount program" and now I am paying $12.25 a month and they will not let me cancel it! I have called numerous times and they keep telling me I must email them and that's the only way. NOBODY EVER RESPONDS TO THE EMAIL REQUESTS!!!! Don't be fooled like I was! Not only could I not afford their outrageous prices I can't afford this discount program. Also, they wanted to charge me thousands for all this work, refused to just pull the tooth. They said was unable to be saved with a root canal. I went somewhere else who not only did the root canal and saved the tooth, but they also only charged me $375!!!! Beware of Western Dental!
I have 4 kids, ages 10-15 years old, all whom have braces. I made the mistake of buying in to this money hungry scam when I went to Western dental. I’m paying $150/child a month for braces, $612 total. It gets really hard to keep up with those payments, but let me just say if I’m one day late I have western dental calling my phone 16 times a day until the payment is made. Not to mention hundreds of dollars in late fees.
We also live an hour away from the office, and I requested for all appointments to be made after school only, I also have 2 kids very involved in sports so there have been a few occasions where I had to reschedule appointments due to football games and track meets, only to find out later on that I was being charged $25 for every rescheduled orthodontist appointment, for each one of my kids. That’s $100 and I feel like I’m in the biggest financial scam right now. It makes me sick! Another issue I’m having is that if I’m late on any one of my payments, they won’t see my kids until it’s paid up. I hate this place and wish I knew better before I got locked into this nightmare!
Avoid, Avoid, Avoid. Western Dental is not much more than a scam for upselling patients on unnecessary dental work. Read their online reviews or just google the company, they've been brought up on fraud charges multiple times.
This is the worst Western Dental I have ever been to. The professional is at a all time low especially Alejandra **. First off they did not allow me to go in the back with my minor child that's 9. They said no parents allowed. My child has so many traumas and is scared to be left alone with strangers. They still did not care and refused to let me wait with her. The worker whose card is attached even went as far as screaming and cursing telling me to get the ** out if I don't like the rules. No matter what the situation was the professionalism was at a all time low. I work in healthcare and I know that minors always require a parent, I also know we pride and strive for our customer's satisfaction unless this location! Please don't go here. They'll just be on their cell watching videos having side conversations and being rude to members! I'm officially canceling and switching my insurance.
My daughter was in Reno, NV and needed service for her tooth that was chipped while we were traveling. I found a location on S. Virginia St. The doctor was very pleasant and he worked with my daughter. They told me the price and I was fine with it. They even told me we can have a payment plan, even better. So I made the first payment in the office of $400 dollars then I left my credit card information and they told me that every month $120 would be deducted. GREAT I thought. I am a busy person. I have all bills on auto draft, however a bill came in the mail and it was from Western Dental stating I was delinquent. I was furious so I called the main office in Reno and they looked in the chart and saw where I left the information and said they didn't know how this had happen and she would fix it.
So, over the phone she took my information again and said, "I am deducting the July payment right now with no late fees and August will be deducted automatically as scheduled. No worries." So I thought things were ok, great. Well, today my daughter calls me from college frantic about how a man was being very rude to her on the phone from Western Dental saying she owed money etc... NOW I AM PISSED! When I tried to call them back he was extremely rude with me and did not want to listen. I had to hang up on him.
I normally don't write reviews, being a business owner you try to respect the business, but this is ridiculous when honest people are trying to understand how you can fumble the ball with their credit card information and the other people on the other end don't want to try and understand or LISTEN. Like I said, I appreciate the DENTIST THAT DAY, but the billing department NEEDS WORK and I plan on filing on them if they put this on my credit because I did all the right things as a customer.
I went to Western Dental on Fairway Drive in Roseville CA to get dentures. I have medical so this was my only choice for 50 miles. After my xrays I spoke with a coordinator, who told me dent-ical does not cover denture's so I would have to pay out of pocket. Luckily I looked this up before I went in. They absolutely did cover, and when I brought this up they scrambled to say they were adding upgrades, that's why it would not cover. They way over charge, lie and scheme, my dentures don't fit, I'm now without teeth, they keep rescheduling appointments, my mouth has been infected for 2 weeks now. This needs to stop! A company this corrupt and unprofessional needs to be shut down. I'm going to try to gather people who have been screwed over by western dental for a very large lawsuit. Contact me at ** if you have been put through it by this company.
My story is quite complicated. It has many layers: On May 21 I scheduled myself a deep clean. When I got there they told me I wasn't scheduled for any appointments. I'm 4 hours away so you can imagine how frustrated I was. Then found out my Dental Insurances was with a completely different company, not their fault though the rest of this story is! They lost ALL of my information and records so I had to submit my insurance again, then they found my info in my old files from 2017.
Kelly from Churn Creek Rd....extremely RUDE! The other staff, Megan was VERY nice! Weeks later my Dental Insurance is finally good to go! So I called to schedule an appt and Kelly tells me that they just sent off my authorization for my Deep Clean. I'm confused because I took x-rays back in February or March and yet they just sent them off on May 21???? Which makes no sense because this is the day I was lost in their system! I never ever had an appt on May 21!! Kelly....Remember this name! RUDE! She should lose her job!
They shook me down for $1,800 for bone graft. I've gone for months and they have pulled almost all my teeth but left the one in that hurt me the most. I have been humiliated talked down to and degraded. Their young employees back where the dental work is done are rude Punks with no empathy. These young people tried to humiliate me saying things like you don't have enough money to have your tooth cap so we're going to pull it. Some little punk girl. Another someone punk boy, told me I had a piece of jagged bone sticking out of my gum I knew better it was a broken tooth. These people are no good do not go to them. I gave them all the benefit of the doubt. I was warned by everybody I talked to not to go and I went anyway. God I'm stupid.
I have been trying to get a set of dentures for 6 months because Western Dental screwed up my impressions so I had to take impression 3 times so that means each appointment is 3 weeks long. They have screwed up my bite twice so that means I had to wait another 6 weeks. They screwed up making the dentures 3 times so that was another 9 weeks. After 6 months of trying to get a set of dentures I had enough. I am so angry
Policies and procedures are not conducive to serving customers. Xrays are mandatory every 6 months. This is non negotiable or they will deny teeth cleaning services; even if you had prior xrays with the same company within 6 months that showed no prior dental health issues. This indicates to me the policy is not about patient health and/or Dentist protection. This practice is unethical, about money, and billing insurance companies for unnecessary services. Cleaning is not considered part of a routine exam. You need to book 2 appointments - one for an exam, one for cleaning. You cannot book a cleaning prior to a full exam. This is not told to you up front on the phone or at the office; 2/5/21 the staff lied until my exam was over. This is not considerate of people's time.
My exam showed mostly 3's, some 4's for gum health; indicating mild gum issues. Cleaning was quoted to me for $200, to be completed at a separate appointment, then the only treatment they offered for gums would have costed an additional $850. Treatment was not explained by Dr. **, my questions about it were ignored, and no other options were available. This is highly unethical and unprofessional. I have had prior treatment for mild gum issues in the past with a mouthwash for $50. There is a poster on the wall in the dental exam room offering free whitening strips worth $40 for good reviews online. From start to finish, the company has unethical practices.
Here I am three hours later waiting outside their door. This would be my fourth appointment for my braces and I have yet to wait anything shorter than two hours for my scheduled appointment. Appointment was at 10 AM. It’s now 1:15 in the afternoon. My sitter has things to do and I’m screwed.
This experience has been terrible, we loved our doctor and the staff in the back. But customer service and bill department is ridiculous. I wouldn’t recommend any one here. They don’t answer. Put you on hold and never come back to the line. They need a better accounting and billing department. My account was closed and 6 months later they send me a bill! But no one can tell me why they stopped sending bills. My bill was always paid on time. Save yourself a headache. Don’t sign a contract here.
The events are below for two appointments. Not only are we disgusted with the insurance and booking processes, we are utterly ashamed and appalled at the treatment they gave my 82-year-old uncle! Never go to Western Dental... ever!! Three days ago my husband broke his tooth, so I reached out to Western Dental to schedule an emergency appointment. I also scheduled an appointment for my 82-year-old uncle to have an issue checked out with one of his teeth.
They called to confirm the appointment and about insurance for my uncle. They said they would call his insurance company and call me back this morning, on Monday, to confirm that my uncle's insurance was doable since he was from another state. They never called me back. This is not the big issue, but an important one to consider if we don’t want to waste our time on an appointment if they don’t see us because of insurance.
They also called my husband today to check on his insurance. They were convinced he did not have insurance despite the fact that we confirmed with our own insurance company that yes, we definitely have insurance. Then they wanted my social security number. This is unwarranted and in 25 years of going to the dentist and having a group plan with my family, nobody has ever had to have my social security number to use their own benefits.
Because of this issue, I took time on an extremely busy workday to contact our insurance company and they sent me confirmation that yes in fact, my husband is covered. I called the Western Dental office to confirm with them that we had documentation that he was covered, and they STILL insisted on having my social security number! They also said that they couldn't see him unless a fax came from our insurance company confirming that he was covered. I told them I HAD THE INFORMATION FROM THE INSURANCE COMPANY. I told them I would fax it. She finally gave me a fax number (while chewing on food, rustling papers in the background, taking the phone away from her mouth so I had no idea what she was saying to me…extremely rude).
I asked repeatedly where this fax would be going because it was confidential information and I wanted to know for sure who would be receiving it. She arrogant, rude, snippy, and in the end, I canceled my husband's appointment because he was standing right there listening to this conversation. We didn’t want this situation to prevent my uncle from being seen, so we moved forward with his appointment UNFORTUNATELY.
We canceled my husband's 3 pm appointment but kept my uncle’s 3:30 pm appointment so they should have been able to see him without any issues. My husband and uncle arrived at 2:50 pm. They did not see my uncle until 4:15 pm!!! So they made my 82-year-old uncle wait for all that time in the car outside before they would be willing to see him. Then they had him wait inside for another 20 minutes. Then they wanted to have him wait outside again for another undetermined amount of time. So he saw the dentist for maybe 10 minutes and wanted him to wait for hours to get any kind of documentation about what was needed.
My husband said he was not going to make him wait any longer and guess what the lady said! She said, “Well I have a paper here for him, do you want it or not?” My husband said, “What makes you think that we want to pay for an appointment and not get the paperwork?” He then tried to help her understand that she was being unprofessional and that he was uncomfortable with making our uncle wait so long. She turned her back on them and walked away! WTH???
The lady was so snippy and rude, my husband who is the kindest and the nicest man you could ever meet was even frustrated! Here is a man that donates and volunteers every moment of his life to helping others and you will NEVER meet a nicer guy in your life. And this is the guy who walked away so frustrated at the treatment they gave both he and my uncle that we will never, ever, EVER go back to ANY Western Dental for the rest of our lives. EVER!!! Everyone we spoke to was rude, impatient, and treated my uncle despicably. Here is an older gentleman, a retired vet, who deserves much better treatment than he received. UNBELIEVABLE! NEVER EVER GO TO WESTERN DENTAL!
I made an appointment to have a tooth extraction. Went to my appointment thinking they were going to extract the tooth but instead told me I would have to wait 2 weeks to have it done. I am in agonizing pain getting worse by the day. No doubt it will abscess by then and I will be in the ER. My appointment isn't until the 27th. It's the 14th. If I live to the 27th I will post another review about my experience.
I have had an appointment on the books for two weeks. I have this company as my dental insurance. I have received about 6 emails and a text from them to confirm my appointment. I replied to all inquiries stating I would be there. I did the online paperwork. I did the online covid questionnaire. Showed up 15 minutes early for my appointment. I was told that there were three people ahead of me that also had appointments and still hadn’t been seen. So they had to cancel my appointment.
I cannot express how infuriating it is to have an appointment and not be notified that it needs to be rescheduled before you arrive. Like most people I had to request time off of work for this appointment. And use leave time. And find child care. It is ridiculous that a company can email me and text me to make sure I’m coming but cannot manage their schedule to keep appointments or notify people before they leave home. I spent 35 minutes driving for no reason. I will not go back. I will warn everyone that asks not to go here. I am changing my dental insurance.
My horrible experience is with the Billing Department and not with the actual facility which they are amazing workers and very welcoming. I hate to transfer dentists as we have been with them for many years, but I am done with Western Dental, period. Long story short, my son had 1 filling done March 2020 and they charged us for 2. We were supposed to get our refund for that one filling that was not done.
Fast forward to August 2020 after calling several times, customer service representatives are extremely rude and I feel they do not speak English. Manny, Katherine, Josseline, etc. I wish I wrote all their names down were extremely rude. The last call I made and my final call they said it's a dispute with the bank and I have to take it up with them. WHAT!!!! I don’t mean to sound like such a complainer, but that refund money can pay my bills! Anyway, today my kids had an appointment, this was their last appointment as I am transferring out, I wanted to say good bye to the ladies that have been good to us all these years, but I am so annoyed writing this I'm going to cancel and start with the new dentist I found.
Have been to the Hemet, Ca. Western Dental office now about 5 times to fix two teeth and a cleaning. Went to have root canal redone per their referral, this was in early January. I went to have this tooth that had root canal redone in early February and another tooth fixed which was actually a bridge to replace. On that visit to work on both teeth and the temporary filing from root canal had fallen out at that point. The dentist started to work on my bridge by cutting off front tooth crown section and then started to prep for temp crown, this is where I said what are we doing as we are supposed to be replacing the bridge per what Yolanda in their office had informed me, needless to say all work stopped as they scrambled to figure out what to do. They installed a temp crown on front of bridge and told me I was going to have to speak to Yolanda, all while they ignored me that I needed at least a temp filing in that one tooth.
Finally after they reopened from covid I made a follow up appointment, after I had to find out their office was open. I went in, after calling for appointment and when called by Yolanda the day before no one would discuss with me what was to be completed!? I showed up early for my appointment, filled out a whole new patient packet as requested and was told to wait in my vehicle outside and would be sent a text. An hour later I went back inside and asked receptionist when I would be seen? She told me that the dentist was going to have to review my file still to see what was going to need to be done still, I asked when that was supposed to happen when this is why I asked to talk about this before my appointment, she said dentist was busy and she did not have an answer.
I told her that I was in pain standing waiting with my disabilities and that I also had scheduled this because I have a disabled mother I have to get back to. I then had to inform her to please contact at home as to when they can take the time to review my file, even call me and plan it so I can come in and actually get some work finished for once without total confusion. And a side note, would be a good practice not to have a group of the ladies in another room laughing and chatting up conversations while this one person is at front desk seemingly lost.
Do NOT recommend this place!!!! If you could find another orthodontist in the area, I would advice you go there. The entire Western Dental has poor service from corporate all the way down the the front desk workers. They told me 6 months for braces because essentially my teeth were not bad, I just had a small gap in the front that I wanted closed. I had no crooks and my teeth were straight. My teeth progressively got worse when I got the braces on and now they have been on for a year and 4 months! My teeth became uneven, more gaps were created and crooked because of the lack of knowledge of the orthodontist.
I take good care of my teeth and I see the orthodontist every month. I called the office about it and they said to talk to the doctor about my contract because they can’t discuss my contract over the phone. When I asked the orthodontist about when I could possibly get them off and if I would have to pay for the extra amount of time that they’ve been on even though it’s not my fault, he said he didn’t know. I called the corporate offices to ask who I am supposed to talk to about this and I could not get in touch with anyone and I emailed them with no response going on 3 weeks ago now. Worse place ever!!!! I do not recommend.
Veronica, You are so nasty and rude. Are you upset, because I asked you questions and you had to actually do your job today? Western Dental has been the worst decision I've ever done. I'm so happy I'm almost out of my contract. Don't miss any payments because these people will harass you. A majority of people are out of work and western dental has no problem adding late fees. They will hang up in your face and talk to you like you're inconveniencing them. Um excuse this is your job and if it wasn't for your customers you wouldn't have a paycheck.
I experienced over four months of deception and misinformation, on the part of every single person I spoke to at Western Dental. My daughter agreed to a medical procedure that she did not need, because a doctor preyed on her fear. Every time I spoke to someone, I was given different information. The local office manager in Salinas, California avoided my calls for over a month and even though I was actually owed money, due to overpayment, the billing department called relentlessly. Not one person in this organization can be trusted and they will try and upcharge you at every opportunity.
Both my daughter and I were harassed at all hours of the day, because this organization thought they could squeeze just a little more money out of us. The level of unprofessionalism displayed by every single employee is astonishing and this organization should be ashamed. Their behavior has violated every ethical principle that medicine is built on and I imagine if a large scale audit is performed, it would find that this is standard practice. I believe that Western Dental is in the business of stealing from their patients. Avoid Western Dental at all cost!
Horrible scam if you are a Denti-Cal patient. I was told I would need to pay $1600 cash up front for a "deep cleaning" before filling my cavities. The average cost for periodontal scaling and root planing (deep cleaning) is between $275 and about $980. The deep cleaning is covered by Denti-Cal, but this thief wants more. I told the dentist I wanted fillings for cavities in my front teeth. When getting the estimate for the work, these teeth were not included...but it was $8500 for the other teeth...and NOT covered by Denti-Cal. I asked for whatever Denti-Cal would cover and was to NO, I would need to first pay $1600 for the cleaning. STAY AWAY. I am reporting this company for the abuse.
Last week I came up with a very severe toothache and I called Western Dental to get an appointment which it was like pulling teeth. They gave me one appointment in 15 days that was the soonest, I tried calling again to see if they can help me. The results were the same. Very horrible service.
Brought my daughter to her first appointment and the Ortho got straight to the point. Dentist was very helpful with providing as much info so we could understand procedures. The staff is so friendly and welcoming. Aimee was the most helpful by explaining payment plans and options for my daughter's braces. Thank you for being so patient with me.
After having such a difficult time at my first office in Antioch on Lonetree I was transferred over to the Pittsburgh office on railroad. Carly the lady that works with Western Dental 800 number corporate helped me by calling Roya at the Pittsburgh Western dental where they listened to my problems and accepted me and helped me. Thank you so much Roya For all your help and understanding and your staff was nice to me as well. Sincerely Julio **
DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE!! I did my Invisalign in their Irvine office and result after couple years and getting 3 sets is awful. This location used to be smile wide when I initially bought my package and they keep changing my Dr and later they change the name to Western Dental and again keep changing my doctor. Their doctors are unprofessional and careless, the only thing they care is money with poor service! I paid approximately $6k for Invisalign. After 3 sets with this awful result they are saying, "Oh you shouldn’t do Invisalign and since you are not happy you can pay more and do orthodontic" (it's because their office is stop doing Invisalign and they don't want to get responsibility of my result) which is absolutely rude.
I called them several times and they have never called me back. I also called to their cooperation office and talked with Cidney three weeks ago. She was super rude and hangs up phone on me, so I called back and their supervisor told me she will follow up with Irvine office and asked their manager to call me which I've never get a called back!!! This is not the first time that I am being treated badly and keep giving letter to sign in case they don't get sue. After they got the total payment they started treating me a badly... If I could them 0 I would definitely give them 0.
I first got dentures made through them and they have never fit right. I went back to have this corrected and the dentist talked me into getting bottom dentures made as supposedly this would make a big difference. He said I needed 2 teeth extracted on the bottom for a partial denture to be made. I have TMJ and I always tell the dentist this. He was so rough and it took him so long to yank and I mean yank that one tooth out I was mad and in pain and said no more. The pain lasted a month. I told them I no longer wanted to do business with them and the contract was ended before it began and they said I owed them no money after that as the tooth was covered by my health insurance. This was last January.
So now in late July I start getting bills from them for 1,000 +. I call and tell them this is a mistake as I was told by the account dept that I owed nothing and I quit going to them. The woman from the account dept in my city said she would call me back and never did. She said it was for impressions and I told her when I left that day they said I owed nothing! Then I get another bill and I call that office and the guy says a 'audit' was done for 2016 and 17 and I owed money from that. This is not true as I paid for my rotten dentures in full. They are liars and thieves and I do not know what to do. I am retired and do not have this money and wouldn't pay them even if I did. I am so stressed out over this. Never go to Western Dental, they are a terrible company that does shoddy work and tries to shake you down for money.
Today I was not seen for the second time because the front desk staff do not have the knowledge or ability to explain the forms they want you to sign. They have a waiver form for jury trial. I asked why must I sign this to be seen. Because it’s company policy I was told. So....are you not performing quality care where one would need to nullify my right to jury trial in a malpractice suit??? They can’t answer and became very rude!!!! If one cannot give clear reason for policy, why should customer be forced to sign!?!? Mass production of poor care to less fortunate and unaware innocent individuals!!!
I went to them in October 2018, paid for deep cleaning kit every month thereafter. The cold part is that I never received the kit until February 2019! They really had me pay for something that I did not have. I've called and complained numerous times and each time I keep getting a ruder person.
Western Dental & Orthodontics Company Information
- Company Name:
- Western Dental & Orthodontics
- Formerly Named:
- Western Dental
- Website:
- www.westerndental.com
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