Gentle Dental Reviews

I started the new year 2024 with plans to pull teeth and manufacture both upper and lower partials. FOUR MONTHS, April 4-July 25, passed between the pulling of the four crucial teeth and the delivery of my partials. Jan. 12:The beginning of my journey begins with Dr ** at McClintock who pulled a tooth that had broken below the gum. All is well. Jan. 18 and March 18: Dr ** at Crossroads replaced a crown. The lab’s specimen did not fit; two more weeks to get a proper crown. April 4: Dr. ** pulled 4 bottom front middle teeth and ordered a flipper.

May 8 and May 17: I begin working with Dr. **. He tells me I’m not patient when I comment on how long the process takes. I mentioned that my teeth have been rotting ever since chemo 10 years ago. He tells me there are worse things in life. We talk about the process in building upper and lower partials and discuss possible additional extractions and support shelves on top. We opt out of this plan. He tells me that he doesn’t usually give flippers, that I could just wear a mask, until my teeth are made.

June 3: I waited TWO HOURS in the cold office waiting for Dr. ** and my mock-up dentures. After an hour in, Dr. ** comes in and says he’ll be in with my tray. Another hour later, Lisa, his nurse, has to tell me that the lab sent the wrong dentures. I leave with nothing. Dr. ** says nothing. It’s hard to believe that I sat there all that time thinking there was a good reason that I was waiting. June 10: Dr. ** asks me who is doing my upper partial. WHAT? He denies that we had detailed conversations about both partials. He tells me that I should listen more and talk less. I ask Lisa what she remembers. She remembers what I remember. I am so upset on this day.

** fills a cavity and plays with the molds again — both, I think. I ask if there is any way that I can get these teeth done by June 22 as I’m on vacation for 3 weeks. I had already told him this at an earlier appointment. Maybe he could intervene as it was the lab’s delay in sending the wrong teeth. ** says that that doesn’t affect him in any way. I remind him that the 2-hour wait in the office without his consultation cost me the timely delivery of my teeth. He told me that you have to wait longer than 2 hours at the DMV. June 25: Another fitting. All ok. July 22 My teeth were delivered. ** innocently asks if I ate some good food on my vacation. I told him that I ate a lot of omelets and hamburgers as I only have 13 rooted teeth and no bottom teeth to enable me to eat beef on this RV trip through Midwest beef country. He assured me that I would be back for adjustments.

July 25: I need an adjustment. No Dr. **. No available prosthodontist. July 29: I go to see Dr. ** for an adjustment because ** quit. Thankfully, it was a minor adjustment because you have no immediate prosthodontist. Yet, Gentle Dental wanted to charge me for an initial consultation with Dr. B. Why? I insist you figure out how to code so that my adjustment is part of the partial package. That your employee quit before he completed my treatment should not be my responsibility. Crossroads found the coding. Of course, I'm sure that Dr. **’s rude behavior and disregard for the patient’s personal concerns is not reflective of all of your staff. Still, I started with Sally ** at the Guadalupe store. She was great. She left.

Then I developed a relationship with Caryn **. She was the consummate professional. When she moved to Crossroads, I followed her. She left. Now I do not have a prosthodontist if my dentures require specialized attention. The McClintock office was not helpful. If I wanted to see one of their other dentists, I could. If I wanted to wait a month for the office to staff a periodontist, I could. I called Crossroads instead. I like Dr. **, but based on past experience, she will likely move on. I need to move on to a more permanent dental relationship. Your business model does not encourage longevity between patient and doctor. Also, I have endured 2-3 laboratory foul-ups in the years previous to this one. Finally, I hate having to fight with office personnel when I see an overcharge, which has happened twice.

However, after the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) was processed, it became evident that my actual cost should have been $191. The practice had unbundled many procedures, which should have been billed under one code as part of the same procedure. I have visited the office four times to resolve this issue amicably, each time being promised a refund or a follow-up call to get my card details for the refund. I have also called them weekly for updates, but my calls are now being ignored.

To recover my money, I have taken the following steps: Filed a complaint with the Washington Department of Insurance. Submitted a case to the Attorney General (AG). Filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Engaged Delta Insurance to start an investigation into the provider. The billing practices at Gentle Dental Fairwood are illegal and unethical. Double billing, procedure misrepresentation, and unbundling are unacceptable behaviors for a medical provider.

After my first visit, I went in Nov and today. In Nov, I declined the extra add-ons (I can't remember the cost but it was around $100). I only wanted what my insurance covered. They didn't say that it was an issue or that I required any of this next visit. I had flossed every day since my first appointment here. I told the hygienist I was really proud I flossed every day. She told me I wasn't doing it right and needed to bring it across the entire tooth. She proceeded to try to sell me on braces again the entire cleaning. She told me if I had straighter teeth, I would be "so pretty". I didn't really care, because she cleans so well. I can see this really hurting someone's confidence though, so I wasn't very happy about the way she was talking to me. I still scheduled another appointment. I figured I can just tune out the braces pitch as long as I am getting clean teeth.

Today (Aug), I again declined the extra add-ons ($163). After xrays, the same hygienist came in and asked if I had any concerns. I said I wanted to see if my insurance would cover a night guard (I get them made with Pro Teeth Guard at the moment since it's cheaper). She wanted to see my bite. She aggressively told me "You need braces". I wasn't in the mood to do the braces song and dance, so I told her "you always tell me I need them and I am always going to tell you no, I don't want them". She said why not. I said I cannot afford them. She told me I needed them. I told her I am almost 40 and I do not want them and cannot afford them. She was visibly angry/irritated. She briefly looked at my teeth, jammed my gums with the measuring device (it hurt), and then told me I have two cavities. I have never had a cavity in my adult life. I have been brushing and flossing regularly.

When I saw her in Nov she made no mention of signs of cavities. Today, she vaguely pointed to my cheek and said I have a cavity there and one in the front which she didn't point out at all. She brought up the x-rays saying I had inflammation under my gums. She didn't show me where on the x-rays. She told me I needed irrigation. I told her I only wanted to do the standard cleaning insurance covers. I always get a second opinion on any major dental work. She said she'd go talk to the doctor. I waited.

The insurance lady came in and explained the cost. I told her I declined it and only wanted standard cleaning. She told me I cannot do a cleaning without the $163 add-ons. We went back and forth, but the result was they refused to give me cleaning service without paying additional because my "gums are inflamed". I am going to get a second opinion from a dentist that I trust. They don't take my insurance so it costs a lot, but I rather put that money into someone I know isn't trying to upsell me or going to act angry if I decline a luxury service like braces.

From the start, the dental hygienist was very pushy but she acted nice the first two appointments. She did look unhappy when I declined in November, but this time she was very rude and trying to bully me. I can't imagine how she treats people who are less likely to stand up for themselves. I am sure many people just assume they have to pay their grifter upsell costs to even get their teeth cleaned, so I am sure they have ripped off many clients. You shouldn't be required to pay this extra fee, especially when you have healthy teeth/gums. I wasted time off from work thinking I would have my teeth cleaned. I will have to find a new dentist after this experience.

I do not recommend going here unless you have good insurance. If you end up going here just expect the hygienist to constantly try to upsell you on braces and other minor treatments. I am extremely disappointed with this experience. Good dentist are very hard to find when you have basic insurance, so just protect yourself from getting grifted. Places like these do this all the time. Most people do not get a second opinion on major dental work or are easy to push into things/spending more money and places like this know that.

Months later after my partials were finished I received a bill from Gentle Dental saying I still owed them $626.46 because my insurance would not pay for the procedure. So why did they tell me what my portion would be and what my insurance would pay when I first asked about the price of partials? My only income is Social Security and I do have a retirement fund. I normally am very careful about my budget and have good credit because I pay my bills. Now I find I owe $626.46 which I did not budget for. Gentle Dental is not an honest business. Do yourself a favor and look for another dental business to deal with. I believe Gentle Dental is unethical and they should write off what they told me my insurance would cover.

When I contacted them, the SAME woman, said it must have been someone else that I talked to.. Nope, same woman. It was at THIS POINT, the manager said "I am going to be brutally honest with you. This office has been through 9 dentists, in the last three years. We now have one dentist one day, twice a month. I don't know whether that's from the main office, or what." You folks better read that. So, last week one of the remaining teeth broke off, on Thursday, and put me in a ton of pain. I called them Friday, and said I need to either come in, or get some pain medication. I was told the manager would call the Dr., get it OK'd and call me back... Nope.

So, I called Saturday, and left a message about courtesy, and respect for clientele. So, they left me, in agony, over the weekend, for what? This morning I get a call from the manager and let her have both barrels. Yes, I was pretty nasty, with her. She MORE than deserved it. I told her that according to their "plan" I should have been done several months ago, and that they had driven so far off the trail that even they had no idea of where they are or what to do.. I also let her know that I do not have the time, disposition, or patience to put up with phony lip-service, and a diet of horse manure. I told her she is lucky I don't come into the office and absolutely humiliate her, in front of clients. I may yet. So, I told her to have a plan in order and call me by noon, today with it. There's more, but let me tell you: beware of this outfit. Deadbeat company.

My favorite asked me to acknowledge that holding my mouth open for a prolonged period of time could make my jaw ache. Another asked me to acknowledge that medications (not a specific medication but medications in general) can have side effects. Really? Final straw: this practice requires payment in advance even if you have insurance. After they refused to bill insurance first before billing me, the camel’s back broke and I left, never to return.

I needed a cleaning and reluctantly agreed to the deep clean. It was miserable and required 2 appointments, not because of my teeth but because that’s what insurance allegedly requires (my insurance denies this). Both times I left with half my face numb for 8 hours, leaving me unable to work, talk, eat or drink without issues the rest of the day - for a cleaning. Twice.

The first time I had the root canal and prep for the crown first, stupidly agreed to fill one of the “bad” cavities” and then had half the deep cleaning. My bill, with insurance coverage according to their billing department was over $1300. And it still left me with $195 to pay for the other half of the cleaning. Everything dealing with payment is very rushed, for what should be obvious reasons to anyone who’s fallen victim to their billing practices. I’m not ignorant; I’m a government attorney and represented a major federal hospital. I’m intimately familiar with insurance billing practices and collections. But when someone stands over you with a clipboard that gives you the ability to finish your dental work, you sign and pay.

Once I got home I immediately saw I’d been overcharged, even by their own estimate, because they failed to bill my insurance at all for the filling. That was (according to them) and overcharge of $60.90. I was told I’d have a credit. I said I wanted a refund but was told I’d have to wait for insurance to pay the claim and then see if I “owed anything.” That’s illegal. You can’t knowingly overcharge a patient and hang onto the payment on the off chance insurance doesn’t pay what you hope to receive. Insurance is a contract. If the practice accepts a policy they agree to accept the amount the policy pays as well as the patient’s responsibility as payment in full.

I received my EOB from my insurance a week before my second half cleaning appointment, which I was already dreading anyway. Not only had I been overcharged for the filling, I was charged $88 over the agreed price for the crown itself. And the filling? I wasn’t owed $60.90; I was owed $98.90. In total I was owed $191.90. My upcoming appointment was going to be $195.10. I showed my EOB and the billing staff claimed they hadn’t been paid by insurance and offered to credit the $60.90 to my bill that day. I knew if that happened I’d never get the correct amount refunded so I declined. They showed (unsurprisingly) an amount due from insurance that was about $100 over what insurance was going to pay them. Well, that might be due to their bill being off by several hundred dollars at minimum (it stands to reason their amount submitted isn’t the negotiated amount).

Last time for my root canal I paid $700 and they still came to me asking for $90 more a month later. And I can see this is standard practice. I got the staff to admit all new patients get deep cleanings (which is a huge foul when it isn’t clinically indicated - I have no periodontal disease per their own exam). Their next level billing department admitted to me that they overbill this way to collect so patients don’t refuse to pay post procedure. Again, there is zero legal basis for doing this because the billing errors don’t justify holding the correction and refund hostage waiting on insurance to pay. That’s utter and complete crap. I’ll stick with getting my exams from the military when on reserve duty, even if it is only offered once/year. I had a dental emergency that led me down this ridiculously expensive path and was thoroughly fleeced for my trouble. I won’t go back again.

Several weeks after the so-called resolution of my billing issue (in which I still overpaid completely unfairly), and me telling them I would never go to their clinic again, I got a call from Gentle Dental saying "can you come on Tuesday to start on your crown?" Like really?? This crown was never on my treatment plan, by the way, and I never heard about it before. The bottom line: I would not recommend trusting your teeth or your finances to this company, as they might mess up both.

There is no grievance dept for gentle dental in AZ... New manager took over has no clue what to do.. Told me to call other gentle clinics.. Been a runaround is what I went thru---3 years. Still asking for more refund.. Not near what I had to pay for correcting the crooked post- new bone grafting and so on... 3 years of running around they gave me. Old manager says she wants to help me. I have to drive 100 miles round trip...How many more trips will that take to resolve the problem??? Is that called help. Give me my money back uuugghhh. I left gentle dental in a flash.. Again stay away- save yourself grief- runaround- high turnover of dentists, I must have seen 4-7 different dentists while going to gentle dental over 3 years. Each time I went I a new face, go to a different place.

By September I still could not bite down without pain. I called the original office sounding as though they had no idea I was in pain, said I could see their new Endodontist who told me my tooth was broken, would have to be pulled and I would need a $7000. Implant. When I was upset that their Endodontist broke my tooth their office manager said "How can we make this right for you?" I said compensate me for breaking my tooth! They have been giving me the runaround since then and have not responded to my claim with the Better Business Bureau. I have now filed a complaint with Interdent their corporate office and the AZ state dental board.

My daughter Ella, had her last ortho appointment on February 1st. Then, she was scheduled for March 21 for her last adjustments, and also, the same day, she was scheduled for deband on April 1, 2020. In March the appointment was canceled due to Covid19. In March, Ella started to have some issues with her teeth. She complained about her teeth alignment. She stopped wearing her rubber bands that she was wearing for 24 hours.

I tried to get a hold of the Gentle Dental office but they had a voice message asking to leave a detailed message and someone WILL call you back, which I did leave a message but no one called me back. I started calling daily leaving the same voice messages about Ella’s struggles but unfortunately after leaving several voice messages there was still no response from Gentle Dental office. At that time Ella's cheek started to bleed because the bracket was scratching and her K nine was very sensitive. I started to worry.

In the morning, on April 1st, I got a call from Gentle Dental. I was so happy thinking that finally someone is returning my phone call but this was just the front desk assistant calling to cancel our April appointment. I explained the situation and my daughter's struggles but the assistant said they take only emergency patients and she will get this message to her manager and the manager will call me back by the end of the day. Obviously no one returned the call. I got a hold of my local dentist, and they recommended me getting wax from Amazon for the scratching bracket and extra fluoride for the sensitive tooth until I can get a hold of Gentle Dental. Continuously making calls to Gentle Dental, finally, I got through on May 18th and scheduled Ella’s appointment on the closest date on June 1st.

On June 1st, at 7 am, I got a call from Gentle Dental front desk assistant saying our appointment is canceled. I asked what’s the reason for cancelation, she said that she is just an administrator and she has no information about that, but she has been told to call us and to cancel our appointment again. I asked her if she can reschedule for another closest date available, she said she is not sure when the doctor will be available. I was very frustrated, disappointed, and upset about this nonsense.

Later, that same day on June 1st, I was calling to get Ella scheduled but no one was picking up the phone. I left the voice message that I want to talk to their supervisor. After I left a voice message I was still continuing calling and I finally got through. The administrator apologized for what Ella had to go through and said that she will get this message to her manager Natalli and will definitely get back to me by the end of the day she said. Also, she said that Dr. ** has an available spot this Thursday at 3:50 pm.

Of course, I was happy to any availability by this time, but I told her that I still would like to talk to their supervisor and she was promising that Natalli will call me by the end of the day. I lost all my hope and was doubtful that someone would call me from Gentle Dental that day. It is nonsense, insane, irresponsible that in the last five months I couldn’t hold of anyone in Gentle Dental at the same time I’ve been charged on the monthly bases by Gentle Dental. For what?

On June 2nd, I got hold of my friend that refer us to Gentle Dental and asked for help. My friend checked the schedule and told me that Ella is not on the schedule for this Thursday and Dr. ** is not working this Thursday either. My friend told me that my daughter is scheduled for June 25th. I could not believe what I was hearing. She couldn’t find any managers on duty, however, she referred me to Hope, PCC at Kent office. Hope said that she talked to Molly, HC and Molly will contact Dr. ** and the doctor will call me today, June 2nd, for sure. That same morning when my daughter was brushing her teeth, the elastics that haven’t been replaced for five months were completely worn out and burst.

It 8:30 pm and I haven’t received any calls that Gentle Dental promised me. Looks like Dr. ** and her team disappeared :((. At this point, I’m asking that someone at a higher management level will review my concern and take serious measurements on this case. If by end of this week June 6, 2020, I won’t hear from Gentle Dental, I will take this further for additional legal help.

I could go on and on about the problems that I have gone through here, but I just want to speak with someone and resolve these issues. A month ago, they told me that a manager would call me. Turns out that several of the offices DON'T HAVE MANAGERS! Then they told me I should "leave a review" in order to have the director of operations contact me. I tried to avoid that, and the staff said they would try to email her and have her contact me, but after at least a month I have had no response at all. So would someone PLEASE address this!