IMO: STAY AWAY!!
I don't think I've ever posted a negative opinion before, Stephen Henry (bracesbyhenry.com) will get my first. The experience was horrible, now my daughter has had to start over from scratch with a new practitioner and will have braces far longer than ever anticipated. Moreover, Henry used up all our insurance, refuses to refund monies and now we are going to pay for new braces out of pocket (twice).
Let me start by saying that the staff was very friendly, and Stephen Henry comes off very charming. The perfect salesman. Unfortunately, in our opinion, his work is atrocious.
After over two years of treatment my daughter was told her braces were finally ready to be removed. I was surprised by this because when looking at her bite, it didn't appear she could chew food with one side of her mouth, so we got another opinion. Apparently, she had what is called an "open bite" and had learned to chew with just one side of her mouth.
I was so taken back that Henry's "high technology practice" missed this that I wrote him an email asking some questions and to confirm they were really ready to take the braces off. At first he refused to correspond in writing insisting on doing it by phone which made me suspicious. It took several emails and canceling an appointment to get him to provide written answers. While some of the answers conflicted with things he had previously said, we did get an answer confirming the braces were ready to be removed. I also asked for a copy of her charts.
I accompanied my daughter to see if they were really going to overlook the obvious open bite condition and sure enough they were. I asked Henry to personally inspect her teeth which he did (normally the work is performed by assistants at this bustling practice) and after he did I asked him if in his opinion the braces should be taken off that day. He emphatically stated: "Yes, absolutely!". I then pointed out the open bite and only then did he admit more work needed to be done.
Now, and after realizing we knew that the work was incomplete, he started plotting a new course of action. We told him we were not sure that we were comfortable having him do any more work after he was ready to send her home unable to properly chew food for the rest of her life and questioned him about his other recommendations. We were concerned because he had recommended three indepth and expensive additional procedures, two of which he didn't even mention until near the end of treatment.
He went on to say things that contradicted his emails and previous recommendations. I asked him to show me his diagnosis and previous recommendations in the charts (he may not have known that we already had a copy) and he stared blankly at them for a while and then admitted it wasn't even documented. This was a big concern, his practice is way too busy for anyone to remember every mouth and recommendation made with consulting a record. I told him that there were two potential courses of action going forward: 1) We let him continue and finish the work he had started but he would have to share in some of the additional expenses for treatment he had failed to originally identify; or 2) He could refund the monies paid and we would go elsewhere. He recommended we go to one of the recommended specialists that we should then decide after getting her opinion.
When we went to the his specialist we withdrew any rights for her to communicate with Henry. we wanted to get an unfiltered honest assessment without further input from Henry whom we had begun to distrust. We discovered that the treatment recommended by Henry had to be performed while the braces were still on! (Stephen Henry tried to remove the braces before she even went in for the consult). At this point our opinion that Stephen Henry was either too uncaring, or incompetent was solidified and we decided that to pursue the refund/new practitioner route.
The list of things that make up the basis of our opinion about Stephen Henry is long and much of it not noted here. Yet, we were going to take a refund from Henry and go about our not so merry way but when I called and told him that was our decision, his demeanor became rude and he refused.
We now have to start from scratch, pay another dentist, and now an attorney too. My guess (and this is purely a guess) is that Stephen Henry has gone through this before. He knows that the recourse against him is expensive and not justifiable from only a financial point of view. He won't admit to any wrongdoing, instead insultingly stating I don't know what I'm talking about (which I don't) but the open bite is obvious, documented and confirmed by a qualified practitioner. His ill timed post-removal referral to the specialist is a matter of fact. His sloppy record keeping, changing stories, and sometimes insulting demeanor towards his patient may be more debatable, but a firm opinion of ours and I'll add one more: Stay far away from Stephen Henry. read more
