Stacy Laxen

Review of Aspen Dental

I had a surgical consult with Aspen dental in Fair...

I had a surgical consult with Aspen dental in Fairmount in early December. I was in a lot of pain with my wisdom teeth. I arrived that day on time and had all my new patient paperwork previously filled out and I was told to take a seat and someone would be with me shortly. I patiently waited for almost 50 minutes before I asked when I would be seen as I had to go back to work in another hour. At that point I was the only person in the waiting room and no one had spoken to me or even acknowledged that I was waiting for almost an hour. I was told that I would be seen very shortly and asked if I wanted to reschedule the appointment. I said that would not be necessary if I was seen soon.
About 20 minutes later, I was brought into a room and the oral surgeon very quickly discussed my previous oral radiographs with me and said that my problem was with my lower wisdom tooth that was impacted and infected. The oral surgeon said that he probably would not recommend extracting that tooth because it was close to a nerve that if he hit during the extraction, I could lose sensation on that part of my lip. However, he could perform a CT of my mandible and that would give him a more accurate picture if he thought that nerve was at risk of being damaged. I was quickly rushed to perform the CT and when I asked the financial person how much it was going to cost, she said it would be covered because I was a new patient at Aspen. At the end of the appointment I was told it was going to be $60.00 for the consult and I signed the receipt after I gave my credit card. The office later called me that day and told me that the oral surgeon did not recommend extracting that tooth.

I was very frustrated with that visit and still was in a lot of oral pain so I decided to get a second opinion. I am so thankful that I did as the new oral surgeon explained to me that the problem is actually my upper wisdom tooth is over- erupted on that side and rubbing and irritating my lower gums. If the other oral surgeon had taken the time to look in my mouth, he may have seen that too. The new oral surgeon removed my wisdom teeth without any complications and I am finally pain free.

I wasn't going to leave a negative review despite my experience, but 1.5 months later I was sent a bill for the CT of $155.00. I called Aspen Dental in Fairmount and they told me not to worry about it as it was covered by Aspen since I was a new patient. I shortly received another call from Aspen dental and was told that I would be financially responsible for it if my insurance did not cover it, which I knew that they already had denied the claim. When I tried to talk to the women regarding the miscommunication as two team members told me that it was covered, due to the new patient policy, she was very rude and did not even apologize and just said it was up to the insurance and I already signed off on it. I was willing to pay the bill regardless, but I just wanted to discuss the miscommunication and to prevent it from happening to anyone else in the future. When I explained that to her and said I just wanted an apology, she was again very rude and gave me an insincere apology and said it was up to the insurance.

This is the first negative review that I have ever written and I felt like I had to make it public to hopefully prevent anyone from going through the experience that I went through. I was not only misdiagnosed by the oral surgeon, and treated very poorly by their customer service team, but there was a huge miscommunication on their part regarding the cost of services, which they would not even acknowledge.