In late November, I had a filling come out of my tooth. I went to see my dentist and they told me I needed a root canal and they referred me to an endodontist. Unfortunately, that endodontist did not take my insurance so I used my insurance's website to find an in network endodontist and found Dr. Behnia (Fallsgrove Endodontics). Since he had relatively good reviews online, I decided to call and make an appointment.
The person who answered the phone wasn't exactly all that friendly, but I wrote it off as being unfortunately common among medical receptionists. Plus the receptionist's attitude shouldn't reflect badly on the medical care provided at the location. Looking back now though, that should have been the first red flag. A little red flag, but a red flag nonetheless. I explain the issue to her and ask for an appointment for a root canal. This was on November 18 and I was told the earliest appointment they had was almost a month later, December 14. Later on, because of some issues on my part, I had to reschedule to December 22 at 1:00 pm.
The second red flag came the day before my appointment, when I didn't get a verification/reminder call. Like the previous issue, not a huge deal, but definitely one of those "that's weird" moments that make sense when you look back at the whole situation.
On the day of my appointment, I arrived at 12:50 pm (10 minutes early) only to find an empty front office. I could hear people in the back talking so I waited at the front desk for someone to show up. After about 5 minutes and after it was clear no one was coming to the front desk, I did one of those courtesy "there is someone here" coughs.
You know in the movies when someone is robing a store and an unsuspecting customer walks in and the robber comes to the front and is bothered but tries to act normal? That's how this went down. The receptionist treated me like I was thoroughly interrupting her day, which apparently I was since she later informed me that their lunch hour runs until 1:15 pm and I wouldn't be seen until then. So, why did they make my appointment for 1:00 pm?!
Anyways, I fill out all of the paperwork, including the one where I sign saying that I understand what is involved in a root canal, etc. and wait again. A little after 1:00 pm another patient shows up and basically goes through the same song and dance ("Our lunch hour goes 'til 1:15 pm you'll have to wait until then") but this time with the dental assistant. And this is when the first big red flags goes up... There only seems to be one receptionist, one assistant and one endodontist in this office, so why are they taking two patients at the same time?
Around 1:20 pm, I'm finally taken to the back and have x-rays taken. About 5-10 minutes later the Dr. Behnia shows up. He seems nice enough but he starts going through essentially the same spiel that my dentist gave me: "Even though it's not hurting you right now, you need a root canal because it's too close to the nerve; It's going to take about an hour; etc." The whole time I'm thinking "Yes, I know all this. My dentist already told me this. That's why I'm here, doc." but I'm not to be rude, so I listen along. But then slowly, much like that scene in Six Sense when you find out about Bruce Willis's character (no spoilers, right?), it all started coming together. The terrible communication, the other patient, the spiel: "Oh my god... this guy isn't planning on doing the procedure today!"
Eventually, and after having to ask for clarification, he gets to the point: this was just a consultation appointment and he can't do the procedure today! Remember that this was an appointment I made over a month ago and I'm finding all this out over half an hour (the procedure supposedly takes an hour?) after my scheduled appointment time. To make matters worse he wanted me to do a cleaning and other "prep" work, which obviously my current dentist didn't seem to think I needed prior to the the root canal.
TL;DR at Fallsgrove Endodontics:
1. It takes almost a month to schedule an appointment.
2. That appointment will likely JUST be a consultation.
3. No one is going to bother telling you that you are scheduling JUST a consultation.
4. A month later, no one is going to remind you about or assure you that you still have an appointment.
5. If they give you a 1:00 pm appointment, don't bother showing up until 1:15 pm because that's when their lunch hour is over.
6. It looks like there is only one endodontist, so if you see another patient show up around the same time, it's very likely that one of you is just in for a consultation.
7. The endondontist will probably want you to have some work done prior to the root canal... nevermind that your dentist may not have deemed it necessary. read more
