I felt I was treated in a racist and discriminatory way at Canyon Dental. My insurance confirmed they had already paid the office -- and even told me Canyon Dental themselves caused the issue by giving the wrong address. Yet when I was in the office, the staff insisted I had to pay right then and there and even said they would "never get paid" if I didn't -- which was both untrue and manipulative, since payment had already been confirmed. During a phone call, a staff member actually said to me: "Do you even understand how we are not getting paid and how we then did this work for free?" If I was treated this way, I worry that other patients -- especially those who don't feel able to speak up -- may be experiencing the same kind of disrespect.
When I mentioned I was traveling abroad, the staff used that against me, saying they had to collect immediately or else they wouldn't be able to "get a hold of me." A neutral assumption would have been: "She's traveling, she'll be back." Everyone who travels eventually comes back -- that's what made their comment so strange. But instead, their words implied suspicion -- as if I couldn't be trusted to return and pay. That assumption made me feel singled out and racially profiled.
What made this especially insulting is that I had already given them my Social Security number -- the most official form of identification there is. Yet they still claimed they 'couldn't reach me.' What did they think, that it was fake? That kind of suspicion reveals not just disrespect but racial bias -- because if I were someone else, would they have made the same assumption? As if I could just vanish without consequences, when in reality I'm a responsible adult with a verifiable identity.
When I found out my insurance had already paid and that the office caused the issue by using the wrong address, they didn't apologize. Instead, they made me spend three hours on the phone with my insurance to fix their mistake -- essentially treating me like their unpaid labor. It felt like they were perfectly comfortable using me for free clerical work -- and yes, it came across as racist. To add insult to injury, they even sent me a letter I had to pick up at the post office. That kind of coercive and demeaning treatment isn't just unprofessional -- it's offensive and discriminatory.
At one point they told me they had 'worked for free.' The irony is that the way they treated me revealed racial bias -- because they were actually making me work for free, forcing me to clean up their mistake with my insurance after they put the wrong address on the claim. It felt like my time and dignity had no value, and that kind of treatment is exactly what discrimination looks like in a professional setting.
The whole interaction was demeaning and humiliating. I also noticed the only other one-star review was from a Latino patient, which made me feel like my experience wasn't isolated. Their reply here talks about "misunderstandings" with insurance, but that doesn't excuse belittling a patient with disrespectful comments -- and it shows how out of touch they are with what really happened. I felt like this happened because they didn't want someone "like me" returning to their office. I will always remember how they made Nebraska -- my home -- feel like it wasn't mine when they implied I might not return. No patient should ever be made to feel like an outsider in their own community. read more
