Aspen Dental

I have had very unsatisfactory service from this Aspen Dental. My son and I have for the past few years gone to this Dentist office regretfully. They cancel appointments without phone calls and their work is poor. I moved to Massachusetts 6 years ago from upstate NY and I have never had so many problems with a Dentist as I do currently from Aspen Dental. I have taken partial days off from work to take my son into this dentist office only to be told when I got to the office that his appointment was cancelled. When I asked why I did not get a phone call, the answer was, we left a message. They did not leave any messages anywhere. I have three phone numbers and three voicemails, non of them had any messages stating that the appointments were cancelled. I had to use my own personal time and lost it due to their neglect to be considerate and call to cancel. If a patient was to not show up for the appointment and not call to cancel 24 hours ahead of time (per their requirments) that patient gets billed $25.00 for not calling. What about when they cancel your appointment and do not call? Do they reimburse those who have to take time off from work to go to the appointment? NO, they don't. I did speak to the office manager about this the third time that it happened and told her that if it happens again I would be sending them a bill to reimburse me for my time off from work and my gas to have to pick my son up from school, drive him to the office, and then drop him back off at school. The office manager was apologetic, but I could tell that she was just pacifying the situation. Another complaint is that I have had 3 fillings replaced and a tooth pulled due to the poor dental work that this office provided. They did replace the three fillings without charging me, but when I had to have a tooth pulled, I was told by the office manager that I was not going to be billed for any of it. I had a tooth that was bad but could be saved with a crown. The dentist put the temporary crown on and did not mention that I needed a rout canal. About two to three weeks later I had the permanent crown put on. That was an experience in itself. The nurse that was helping the dentist did not numb me to take the temporary crown off, she stated that I would not feel it. I have no idea where she actually got her degree. The temporary tooth was cemented on with a temporary cement, and it hurt extremely when she yanked it off. I screamed and she said that it should not have hurt and that I made a big deal of it. One week later I ended up with a severe infection all the way to my jaw bone. I went back to the office and the dentist told me that she could not tell, without an x-ray, if I had an infection. She referred me to a rout canal specialist. I went to him the next day and he took one look at me crying and one look at my face, and said that he did not need an x-ray to tell him that I had an infection, he needed the x-ray to show how far the infection was. He took the x-ray and told me that the infection was all the way down to my jaw bone. I then had to make 5 visits to him so that he could drill and pack the tooth with antibiotics, along with me taking antibiotics and pain medications. I had called many dentists and was told that the route canal should have been done first to clean up the remaining tooth and to make sure that there were no signs of infection and no nerves. Everything was fine until about 4 months later, I lost the crown. I went into Aspen Dental and was informed that there was no way to put a crown back on the tooth due to the tooth was decaded under the crown from the infection that I had that caused me to get the route canal. I spoke to the office manager and told her that this was totally unacceptable and that I should not have to pay for the tooth to be removed due to the negligence of the dentist. She agreed and said that I would not be billed. I had the tooth removed and walked out of the office without having to pay. Well, that procedure was on December 30th 2008, yesturday, July 23rd, 2009, I received a bill in the mail for the cost of the IV Sedation. I called the office and asked to speak to the office manager. I was informed by the office manager that she just started at this office recently and was not familiar with my case. She did look at my records and I told her what had happened and that I was EXTREMELY dissatisfied with the service at that office. I also told her that I want my son's records and my records immediately and I will be looking for another dentist. She did appologize for the inconvieiance and informed me that they will have my records available for me to pick up in 24 hours. I do not and will never recommend this Dental Office to anyone. I have put a complaint into my insurance company and also to the Dental Association.