I've felt the need to revise my prior review.
The good part is, that they do excellent dental work, they are very friendly, and the office is extremely nice.
The bad part is that they rather aggressively recommend unnecessary and excessive treatments and mislead you about what your insurance will and won't cover.
I went there almost 3 years ago because I needed a dentist and hadn't been to one in well over a decade (seeing incompetent small-town dentists as a kid can certainly give someone great anxiety about dental work).
At my first visit they gave me some great dental care and come back the next day for some more work. I do that, and they get me taken care of. They then asked me to come back in another 3 months for a followup exam and cleaning. Insurance only pays for 2 visits a year for cleaning and examination, but they insisted I needed 4 exams and cleanings a year because I'd gone so long without dental care. I could understand maybe an extra check or two right after my first dental visit in so many years, so I didn't complain.
Well, two and a half years later they kept insisting I come back in every 3 months. Insurance only pays for 2 visits a year, so that meant I was paying about $80 out-of-pocket twice a year for a routine cleaning on top of my insurance and everything else. . .while they tell me my teeth are fine and I've got no problems, but I still need to keep coming in more than my insurance will pay.
Then, a few months ago, I went in for my quarterly cleaning. It was a new year, so my insurance should pay for my first 2 visits of the year. Yet, when I went to check out, they insisted I owed them $70 for the visit, and that my insurance wouldn't cover it. I knew they accepted my insurance, I knew they should cover it, but they demanded payment.
That left a very bad taste in my mouth. What am I paying dental insurance for, if I have to pay out-of-pocket at every routine visit? Why are they insisting I come for cleanings and examinations 4 times a year more than 2 years after I started going there when they keep saying I'm in perfect dental health and doing fine?
So, I went back to ask some questions. They said under my new insurance, I'd have to pay about $70 for every appointment. I wondered how that was possible, since my insurance had two cleanings a year fully covered. I also asked why, after almost 3 years, I still had to go in every 3 months for a checkup.
They then told me that I wasn't receiving "cleanings", I was receiving "periodontal maintenance", which wasn't fully covered by my new insurance, that I was ineligible for regular cleanings and would now be coming in every 3 months for the rest of my life. They even tried to tell me that if they billed the insurance for a regular cleaning, it would be denied.
So, instead of not paying anything out of pocket for 2 checkups/cleanings a year (like most people with most dental insurance do), they wanted me coming in 4 times a year, paying $70 a visit to do so, and saying I could never get those free cleanings covered by my insurance any more.
I thought that was preposterous. I decided to get a second opinion, I booked an appointment with a different dentist, got a checkup and cleaning from them (with nothing out of pocket), and told them about my prior experience. They told me that coming in every 3 months was totally unnecessary, that based on their examination I didn't need the more expensive appointments and that I certainly could get regular cleanings again.
Also, this whole experience is making my wife and myself re-evaluate the dental care she received there. My wife had a lot of various dental work done over the years. When she went to Bluegrass Dentistry for the first time, they told her that everything every prior dentists had done was bad and would have to be re-done by them (which wouldn't be covered by insurance, since dental records showed those teeth had already had those services performed). She spent several thousand dollars, at their strong insistence, having fillings replaced, root canals re-done, and other various dental work re-done there. They also tried to tell her she needed to come in every 3 months, but she just cancelled those appointments and stopped coming in because she began to suspect, long before I did, that they were exaggerating. In retrospect, we're coming to suspect they were just seeking some bill padding with her too.
Ultimately, they provide good dental care, in a clean and friendly office. . .but their billing practices and push for work of questionable necessity made me seek out a new dentist. read more
