I initially sought out Aspen Dental because it was new and close to home. I had a broken tooth and my first appointment was scheduled in a reasonable amount of time. Since it had been some years since I'd seen a dentist I had a couple of cavities in addition to the broken tooth. I went in for my initial cleaning and x-rays. The following day I came down with a pretty bad upper respiratory infection which I attributed to the winter season. My subsequent visits were allocated to filling my cavities and some extra work on my front teeth that had become worn near the back. The dentist filled those worn areas and leveled out my one chipped tooth from early childhood.
Now it was time for the broken tooth. At first, they wanted to cap the tooth but decided to save me some money and extract it. Fine, not a problem. Except after the procedure, my face became severely swollen and I was in quite a bit of pain. I also developed a fever in excess of 103 degrees. I called the main office and they assured me someone would be back to me in 20 minutes, company policy. More than 20 minutes had elapsed and the corporate call center person called me back to see If someone had gotten in touch with me. I explained they had not and the nice person said they would call the Freeport office again. This exchange went on for a couple of hours. Finally, after 5:00pm, the office called and all they could tell me to do was go to the emergency room. Long story short, the attending physician said I should have been prescribed some antibiotics from the dentist to insure I didn't get an infection and the pain medicine they did prescribe was not sufficient and contributed to the swelling. This event cost me after hours emergency room fees with my insurance company and 2 days off work.
Okay, I'm still not really upset and things do happen in life. A couple of months later, one of the filled areas on my front tooth broke out. Not at the bite area but half way up the tooth. I called Aspen, they got me in and fixed the problem. However, within the month, another one of the four teeth broke out in the same position, further up on the tooth. Because I was busy with work and scheduling It took me another couple of weeks to call. Aspen set up another appointment and I showed up.
This is where it gets interesting. They sat me in the examination chair and the dentist came in poked around at the broken portion of my tooth and left the room. In a couple of minutes, the assistant came in and escorted me to the office manager and she explained they wouldn't be able to work on me today and thanked me for coming in. No other explanation. I called the next day to complain and was told they would channel my complaint to upper management and get back to me.
Eventually, they agreed to set up another appointment with me since this was basically warranty work. Within a couple of weeks, the first tooth that had been repaired broke again. I called to let Aspen know immediately and requested someone call me back. No response. I waited a week or two and called back to verify my appointment, express my concern that I now had two broken teeth and that I wanted an assurance that this would be resolved this time. I explained that I did not want my time wasted again because this is no paid time off from work. I was told this would be taken care of and I did not need to seek out the services of another dentist.
I showed up today for my appointment, they cleaned my teeth and the doctor came in to poke at my teeth again. This time she forced me to position my jaw so that my upper and lower teeth came in contact with each other and blurted out, "see it comes from you grinding your teeth" and proceeded to tell me there was nothing else she could do and I needed to consider crowns to fix the problem.
As you can tell, this was another wasted trip. When I started to question the doctor why I was told that my teeth would be repaired and why she wasn't going to do it, she became very agitated, angry and accused me of insulting her and stormed out. Huh. The hygienist took me to the office manager and she patiently listened to me. Explained the doctor has the final say and that we were at an impasse. In our conversation, she pointed out that this doctor was the only remaining doctor in this facility and I pointed out that some of the google reviews were perhaps an indication why. She didn't have a rebuttal.
For me, this is the last time I will ever set foot in this, or, any other Aspen Dental locations. You make up your own mind. read more
