HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
The thing is, I am a reasonable person. All I expect when I receive healthcare and dental services is to be treated with respect and good customer service. This has not been my experience at this dental office. Instead I have experienced incompetence and downright rudeness from the office/scheduling staff.
*I would like to clarify that the actual dental hygienist and the dentist were both fine and I did not have any issues with them. It is the way I have been treated by the office in general that I have a problem with- specifically the snide and overbearing attitude of the office manager, Susan.
First of all I made my appointment on Monday, May 22 and the appointment was set for Tuesday, May 23 at 1:45 pm. They said they had a cancellation and they specifically said I could come in "the next day". I keep meticulous notes about these interactions because I am a meticulous nurse myself.
Anyway. I show up at my appointment time, and the receptionist tells me that "my appointment isn't until tomorrow" and I was a day early. Confused, I left, came home and checked my notes and confirmed, and called them back and asked why my appointment was changed. The receptionist said she "isn't the one who made the appointment" and she "didn't know" but they offered to squeeze me in at the end of the day. So I ended up going.
After looking at my x-rays and examining my mouth, Dr. Johnston stated that I needed a crown, a filling, and a removal of a bite ramp which was placed when I had braces years ago (from Dr. Sherry in Yukon, OK, if you ever get out that way she is amazing!) Anyway he said that was what I needed, after telling me he had "never seen anything like that" and "maybe that was something they used to do years ago because he hasn't been practicing dentistry for that long." (Dr. Sherry, by the way, was and is on the cutting edge of cosmetic dentistry, but that is another topic.)
OKAY! So, I'm all done, and the office manager, Susan, who has obviously already closed up shop for the day and is clearly ready to go, tells me that she will coordinate with the doctor's schedule and my insurance, and both EMAIL and CALL ME the NEXT DAY to get everything set up for my return visit.
She did not in fact call or email me, at all. Now granted, later that week the dentist office closed for vacation, and that weekend Memphis had the big power outage, but that is still no excuse as they were open and running on Wednesday the 24th.
Well, I didn't know what was going on, so I called two different times over the next week and left two voicemails asking them to return my call.
Susan finally calls me back on the 30th and says "We got all of your messages" in a condescending tone, talks over me and interrupts me several times, and basically tries to blame the recent power outage for her incompetence, despite the fact that it happened AFTER she was supposed to have emailed and called me. But okay, I gave them another chance, and I set up an appointment.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY, I call and speak with Susan again in order to confirm how much the work I need is going to cost and if we can cancel the crown for the time being, and she tells me, "What I quoted you is just for the crown, because that's all you asked for." Which is incorrect. From the beginning I specifically said I needed all three things done that the dentist recommended. I was laboring under the misconception that the total cost was $636 for everything. No, the total cost for everything was going to be $1100, AFTER insurance. $500 just to pop the bite ramp out from behind my teeth! And none of that was ever explained to me. I tried to talk it out and I was at least going to do the filling. Well, she then began talking over me and interrupting me again, and she HUNG UP IN MY FACE!!!
I called back and told her to cancel my appointment and told her she didn't need to be a rude bitch to customers/patients. And I meant it.
This place is just not for me. I will be seeking an older, more established dentist office with friendly and competent staff who don't try to blame others for their failure to do their jobs. read more