Coast Dental Services

To see the evidentiary exhibits referred to throughout the complaint, please see this link: https://imgur.com/a/UuKmHnS

On 05/28, I had an appointment for an exam and fillings. I was told they couldn’t do the fillings without an expensive deep cleaning treatment, which came to $1270.99 after insurance. It was a cleaning as well as antibiotic placements and take home trays.

They were able to start 2 crowns I’ve wanted, and presented me with options. I chose porcelain crowns, and signed a treatment plan saying as much. (Exhibits 1A - 1B)

They charge $1,563 dollars per porcelain crown, my HMOs negotiated rate brings it down to 500. Then, they cover $150 with insurance, so my responsibility was for $350 per crown (Exhibit 1A.)

Altogether, the crowns would cost me $1,327 after insurance, including the “preparatory” things like temporary crowns, irrigation, grinding my teeth down, as well as my XRay and an oral cancer screening. They scheduled my permanent crown seating 3 weeks out, the day before my deep cleaning.

So $1270.99 for the cleaning plan, plus $1327 for the crowns brings my total to $2597.99. I declined the $89 cancer screening (Exhibit 1B.) this brings the total to $2508.99 as you can see on the itemized receipt (exhibit 2.) We agreed and we paid upfront for everything, as you can see on the customer receipt (exhibit 3.) This is proof we accepted and paid for every treatment offered, sans the oral cancer screening.

The dentist ended up not needing to do the $90 service for each tooth, and was honest and credited us. services rendered that day totaled $358, leaving us a balance of 2150.99 (exhibit 2.) So far, so good.

My crowns came in early! I went in on 06/07/2023 and they put my crowns in.

The next day, 06/08/2023, I was told they had an opening and I could come in and get my deep cleaning early! Woo. Could it get any better?

I arrived on 06/08/2023 to be met by the male receptionist who said I needed to sign 3 documents. One of them was the same cleaning plan as before, only it was doctored to say I didn’t pay for the perio trays. What? I knew we paid for them. But since my GF made the payment, they claimed she must’ve rejected them. Confused, it took my a minute to sign, but I did. The signature was to authorize the doctor to perform all the services listed above, not to decline anything, I figured we’d get it sorted out afterward.

They also said I had $180 in extra credits (remember the two $90 services they credited us for?) which would be enough for 3 antibiotic placements. But how about the other 4? And the trays? Ah well, we will figure that out after, I thought. After a suspiciously short full mouth “deep cleaning,”, my girlfriend picked me up. I asked her if she really did decline those services. She hadn’t. As we drove home we decided to go back and demand the documents I am posting.

I now had all the evidence I selected and paid for porcelain crowns and my share was $350 per. Even my online dental insurance portal showed they submitted the correct amount and that my share would be 350 each (exhibit 4.)

then he handed me two documents that showed the scam. They had inexplicably charged me $975 for each crown. (exhibit 5) $825 after insurance. $1650, instead of $700. It said that instead of the porcelain/ceramic crowns I can prove I selected and paid for, I received “full contour Zirconium”

They stole a difference of $950 dollars from my prepaid balance. to cover it up, they had me sign a new cleaning plan, doctored to exclude the trays. After I signed, they doctored it even further to say that I declined ALL antiobiotic treatments as well as the trays! (exhibit 6) Literally with a sharpie! This doesn’t even jive with the math on the bottom right of the same document. I paid for the full 1270.99. But they had already stolen $950 from me, so they took off the trays and said I accepted 820.99. That still didn’t account for the entire theft, so they just took a sharpie and pretended I declined other services too.

After a day of emailed complaints and posting evidence online, got a call and an email from the male receptionist admitting fault and promising a refund (Exhibit 7)

No refund has been issued.

In conclusion, the ONLY way to get to $2508.99, the amount I paid, is if I accepted every single service on BOTH treatment plans, save for the $89 oral cancer screening. $1270.99 for the cleaning and $1327 for the crowns, minus the oral cancer screening. $1270.99 + $1327 - $89 = $2508.99. Their claims of me declining the perio treatments are FALSE and exist only to cover up the theft of the $950 they overcharged on the crowns. No other conclusion is possible.

My husband went in for dental work on 2 front teeth in May. He was told it would be $1201 up front and they would restore the teeth, do root canal, and crown the teeth. He went in for the first visit, it was discovered he had an abscess and he was provided antibiotics and told to come back. He returned in June 2012 for the root canal and was told they could not perform the root canal and he would have to see a specialist. He then requested refund of the money we paid up front to be able to pay the specialist. He was advised by Nancy that this refund would come from corporate and would take 4-6 weeks. In September, we had not rec'd a refund and we found out they had billed our insurance and rec'd payment for the root canal. Not to mention we rec'd another bill for $668 from Coast Dental. We called and have called since and have been advised that the refund takes 10-12 weeks. We were told by Jolie in September that we would not be receiving a refund of the up front fees we paid to them for the services they had not performed to date because "it doesn't work that way" and my husband would have to return to them to finish the work after the specialist performs the root canal. I filed a complaint with the BBB and in October they responded to them that they would be refunding us and our insurance company for services not performed and any expenses we incurred. When I called Jolie in the Lakeland office, she advised this amount to us is $850. So essentially we have paid $351 for them to grind his teeth away and put on temporary crowns along with our insurance company payment. We also have yet to see the refund since their start date for the 10-12 weeks has moved from June to now October. This is rediculous. We contacted news channel 8 and they recommended we try the Florida Dental Association before they get involved. This is our next step for patient abandonment, insurance fraud (billing for services not done and receiving payment), and fraudulent billing practices.