22.
“I’ve worked in the dental field for over 35 years. Good luck finding a competent dentist in the world of corporate dentistry nowadays. Instead of private practices, almost every dentist office is either corporate, or they hire staff to take the workload off themselves. These hires in both types of practices are either fresh out of school with no practical experience, semi-functional individuals for whatever reason, or dentists that have failed, lost their own practices, and now just hire themselves out to pay the bills. They could care less about your pain, discomfort, wait time, ability to get an appointment and keep it.”
“If you have a DMO (Dental Maintenance Organization), you’re out of luck; you’re not a priority as a patient. They will cancel, reschedule, or simply move your appointment and tell you that you came in on the wrong day. Hell, they schedule Medicaid and Medicare work over DMO’s since they literally get pennies for anything they do on a DMO patient. ALWAYS get a card from them with your appointment date! …
Research your dentists on your state’s professional or medical websites; you’ll be amazed at how many times they almost lost their license, have orders against them, or how many times they received a failing grade for proficiency or cleanliness. The support staff is no better. That person in charge of making certain all the instruments are clean, and you don’t get sick from them, is the lowest-paid position in an office. Your hygienist, only seeing patients where they get the most money, probably couldn’t care less about you. That nice, old doctor you currently go to and have seen for 30 years; he probably can’t pass a state test and is under a provisional order limiting his practice.
Dentures, crowns and bridges, implants: $5K, $10K, $20K. Yeah, you would be amazed at the cost of the supplies to provide you with this service. For implants, the total cost of materials, including lab work, is $300–$1K. For a top-of-the-line denture that they will sell you for a few thousand, it costs them under $100.
Good luck, and remember, they care about you — NOT!”
—Anonymous