DO NOT GO TO THIS DENTIST!…read more
This review will be a bit long, but I think it's important to give context to my experience at this dental office. The long and short of it is: they are unethical and will tell you that you need work done when you don't.
I am posting this just two days after seeing a different dentist: I wanted to post this last year after my appointment at Select Dental, but I believe in getting all my facts straight. So, let's get into this long tale.
My husband found Select Dental online and saw generally favorable reviews. It was also very close to where we lived, so he thought it would be great to have a dentist so close; we had just moved and needed a new dentist. He scheduled appointments for both of us at the same time (this is important).
We arrive at the office about 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork. The first issue we run into is the hygienist is running really late, so our appointments have been delayed by about 45 minutes. Okay, life happens, fine. But then we slowly realize that no other hygienist has come to get one of us: we were scheduled for concurrent appointments. Turns out, they scheduled us with ONE hygienist, back to back. At any other dental practice, they either schedule hygienists for both of us OR tell us the appointments will be back to back. We were never informed of this until we were already at the office. Alright, fine, that sucks but we're already here and most appointments don't take that long. *sigh* I should not have been so optimistic.
After my husband goes in for his appointment, I am left waiting for nearly two hours before it's my turn. Two hours is very long for a dental appointment, doubly so when I still haven't been seen. Husband finally comes out and says he has 7 cavities. That seemed...excessive, but I had been waiting so long I didn't think much of it. My appointment takes less time, or at least it feels shorter because I'm not just sitting around, and the hygienist is very nice. The dentist was also nice, but when she began to examine me she just starts calling off teeth rapid-fire. No explanation as to what this is, other than "cavities", since their machine happens to be down and they can't show me what they're seeing--could be true, could be bunk. Turns out, I also have 7 cavities.
Okay, this should have been a giant red flag, but I'm not a dental expert and I'm the type of person who gets paranoid that if I miss any dental appointments I'll suddenly have cavities (we'd gone one year in between dental appointments at this point, neither of us had cavities at that last appointment). I was also tired of being there, so we scheduled our appointments to have our cavities filled. And I noticed something interesting on the bill: the total charges to the insurance magically ate up all our insurance coverage for the year. Within probably $100 of our yearly coverage. Now, this could be coincidental, but I have my doubts.
So, we get home and over the next few days we are feeling very apprehensive about this whole thing. I do some googling and find that this is a very common tactic in less ethical dentistry practices: they will find even the tiniest thing and say it needs to be drilled and filled, when many other dentists recommend fluoride rinses to remineralize these areas because you can't go back once you drill. We cancel our appointments to have these "cavities" filled and start searching for a new dentist.
Fast forward to this week, where we both had dental appointments with a dentist my husband had seen when he was younger (they were 30 minutes away, so they hadn't been our first choice). They scheduled us at the same time and *gasp* they have two hygienists for us. I have no cavities. In fact, I have great teeth. My husband has one cavity. We go from 14 cavities last year to 1 cavity this year.
I am appalled by the practices of Select Dental Group and I hope anyone who reads this will find a more reputable dentist. I hate that they made me so paranoid about my dental health and broke my trust as a patient.
