| Affinity Dental |
| Financial ripoff, poor customer service and quality of services |
| 16th of May, 2013 by User91157 |
I am a former patient of this dental office. In this review I am exposing all the scare techniques and cheating strategies the management of this office uses to fool patients into accepting dental treatments for the profit of the owner doctors. I came to know about this after my initial visit because my friend is a dental assistant and former employee of this office. My friend’s job as a dental assistant offered her a first hand experience of the unbelievable system of deceiving patients that stands behind the operation of Affinity Dental in Fresno. What’s amazing is that everything she actually told me, proved to be exactly true?.
In spite of this office portraying itself as an outstanding cosmetic dental office, this is primarily an HMO office that accepts patients insured by low cost dental plans|. Because of the low level of patient education on the dental insurance matter and due to the high cost of running such a huge operation, the solution implemented by the owner doctors and management is simple: deal with high volumes, push dental upgrades and unnecessary treatments, collect as much up-front, send the work to the cheapest possible dental laboratory and wish to never see the patient back.
It all starts with the new patient exam. Patients are initially sized-up by a treatment coordinator. Questions like what’s your occupation, do you like your smile, when was the last time you were at the dentist and many other questions are asked in the friendliest manner:. You wouldn’t know that you’re actually embarking on a nasty and expensive ride". There is probably a scheme and specific pathway to follow depending on each possible answer!
After this interview is done, the treatment coordinator talks to the dentist who will be doing the exam behind closed doors. I don't know what’s exactly said in there, but after this conversation the dentist doing the exam will use any of the following techniques in determining the patient to accept expensive and often times unneeded treatment: convince and scare the patient that without deep cleaning and antibiotic treatments he/she will get heart disease and teeth will start falling out; embarass the patient about the looks of his/her smile then promise an expensive cosmetic dental solution; diagnose non-existent cavities; overlook dental treatments needed for kids because of the low reimbursement fees; plan unneeded gum cutting procedures; propose unneeded material upgrades.
After the whole speech and scare of what it would happen if these issues are not addressed immediately, patient is handed over to the treatment coordinator. Here the “sale” takes place, because in the end it’s all about the money in this dental office. These people are paid like used car dealers a bonus on the amount collected. The more is collected and work done with less expense, the more money they will make. So it follows that all kind of sale techniques are employed here including high interest credit cards where the whole amount is charged out even before the treatment starts, in order to avoid patients have second thoughts or change their mind once they left the office.
If you would like to be taken for this nasty ride, you definitely should pay this office a visit. If none of these bother you, it will probably bother you that at the end you will get a bad result. That is because they work with the cheapest dental laboratories in the country. Dentists employed by this office as well as the dentist owner are very rude with zero bedside manners, most likely the cheapest to employ they can find and they keep changing very often.
If you think of taking your complaint to the office manager, as related by my friend, dealing with her is a nightmare. Managers and dentists know what’s happening but they are ruthless for an extra dollar earned for themselves and this almighty multi-location California dental corporation. As a patient you don’t have a dentist, you will get the dentist based on his ability to perform the most tricks for the least cost. The work goes to the Philippines and Belize dental laboratories and the end product looks nothing like human teeth. Get a grip on reality, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. This corporation has offices in San Diego, Fresno, Ventura, Los Angeles and many other locations probably coming up running by the same business model. |
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