Needed a root canal, my regular dentist in Sinking Spring left for another office that is out of…read morenetwork, and his replacement wrote a referral and recommended an endo that was out of my network.
So my wife and I called around to find someone in our insurance network to do it. I had a vacation coming up, so we scheduled it with the Ephrata office of Smilebuilderz for 9/1. Ive heard they're known to double dip on insurance, but I was in constant pain at that point and just wanted it done with. I heard my wife flat out tell the receptionist on speakerphone: "he needs a root canal asap, he's in constant pain", and the receptionist told her "no problem, we can get you in Tuesday 9/1 at 10am."
I arrive at the appointment, they call me in, the dental assistant is very kind and personable, honestly she was the only good experience I had throughout the process. She takes my X rays, and throughout talking while waiting on the dentist, tells me that the root canal is a "two part procedure", and only the Lancaster office can do part two. I've never heard of a two session root canal. I figured well that sucks, and asked, " you can at least get me out of pain today, right?" She assures me it's no problem, I'll just have to schedule another appointment with Lancaster for the temp crown. Not a huge deal.
Dr. Williams comes in, looks at my x rays and photos, decides I do indeed need the root canal, badly, but then just walks out and tells me to have a good day. The assistant then tells me "she doesn't have time today", and I'll have to reschedule and come back.
So I had a 10am appointment scheduled for a root canal, only to be told they can't actually do the whole thing at this office, to then be told to kick rocks and keep taking my antibiotics and hope the pain subsides. They literally took my x rays and sent me home.
I go to the front desk to see if they have availability during the week while I'm off work at least for "part 1" to end the pain. The receptionist tells me she "has no idea if my in network blue cross insurance will cover it or not, and if so it'll only be about 50% (due to double dipping, at my regular dentist they covered %80 for the entire produce at once).
She then tells me if I want to even schedule an appointment, I have to put the 50% up front, and toss a Hail Mary hoping the insurance will even cover that, which I won't find out for 6-8 weeks.
Thankfully, due to a cancellation, I managed to get an appointment with a legitimate in network endo this morning 9/2, and left there with a temp crown, no pain, and an out of pocket bill that was less than 1/2 of the "50% deposit" smilebuilderz wanted to charge. The downside was that I had to go to Paoli from Denver area, but it was well worth it.
I would never recommend smilebuilderz even to an enemy. They double dip your insurance, intentionally misrepresent the services they will provide to get you in the door, the dentist hardly gives you the time of day as a new client, and the lady who schedules you afterwards doesn't even know how major in network dental insurance companies cover procedures, then acts confrontational when you call her on it.
Thank God I'm on vacation anyway during this week, because the thought of taking off work and losing out on 12+ hours of overtime just to be deliberately mislead and leave in pain anyway, then be met with attitude from someone who can't even do her cushy job, would be enough to make someone crazy.
