Charlottesville Blue Ridge Dental, PLC

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
[Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
I appreciate the options that were offered however due to position that this issue has put me in, the options are not solutions to my dilemma Before filing this complaint I only asked that the partial be repaired at no cost to me and on numerous occasions and was denied The reason I requested it to be fixed at no cost was because I had no knowledge of any limited warranty and felt that the denture should have lasted a lifetime under circumstances or close to it I also could not afford the cost of repair due to my financial condition However in researching the case I discovered the reason the denture broke was due to the design of the product It is not supposed to be used on patients with bone loss due to the lack of support needed to hold the partial in place thus allowing it to move and break My dentist recommended this product to me with full knowledge of my bone loss and should have been aware of the drawbacks I trusted his judgement without question and now I have found that I can no longer trust their judgement I have lost faith in their integrity and do not wish to use their services again They have clearly made an error in judgement and I have been suffering the consequences ever since It's is my hope that they resolve the complaint immediately and be able to restore their reputation
Regards,
*** ***

[redacted] is the best in the business. He is on time, efficient, caring, and most of all passionate about his work. He is honest, dependable and in addition to being an awesome dentist is a real person that connects with his patients. His staff is also top notch...especially [redacted]!

We have received the complaint from our patient regarding services associated with his [redacted] partial denture and are very disappointed to learn of his continued dissatisfaction.  Our office prides itself in our service to our patients and would like every one to leave...

happy.  We have discussed this patient's case with him at length over the phone and in the office attempting to come to a reasonable solution.  Here is our record of the case history:
 
8/14/2012:  Patient first presents to office.  After having lost his old denture, the patient is treatment planned for new denture and a single crown (for a tooth that would need the support of a crown to be strong enough to support the denture) .  Patient informs our office that he would not be paying for treatment, but that it would be covered by the hospital that lost his denture during a recent stay.
 
8/15/2012:  Patient returns for crown preparation and impressions for crown and denture.  The type/material of the denture is selected by patient and doctor based on stability of supporting teeth and aesthetic importance of replacing the front teeth.
 
9/6/2012:  Crown is delivered and cemented onto patient's tooth.
 
9/26/2012:  Denture is delivered.  Patient is very happy with results.
 
10/4/2012:  Patient returns for small denture adjustment to a sore spot.
 
1/28/2013:  Receive check from hospital in payment for services provided.  Bill was for:
[redacted] Partial Denture - $1500
Crown - $915
Exam - $64
Total - $2479
 
No further communication until patient schedules the next appointment.
 
12/27/2013:  Patient presents to office with complaint that tooth has fallen off of partial denture.  Our office explains to patient that the lab that made the partial can do a permanent repair, but the patient was unwilling to leave denture to be sent to lab since patient would not be in town to pick up the case when it returned.  We offer to ship the denture to the patient when it was returned from the lab, but patient refuses that option.  We then bond the tooth temporarily to the denture as a cosmetic fix for the patient, but tell the patient to be very careful in chewing because it is not a permanent repair. 
 
After patient's appointment we speak to the lab on the patient's behalf and they inform us that because the patient had not returned within the 1 year warranty period to have the denture repaired, they would have to charge a repair fee.  Our office explains that the patient stated to us that the tooth was lost prior to the 1 year warranty being expired, but the lab has no proof of the date of the breakage since the patient did not return to our office until 3 months after the warranty period had elapsed.  Therefore, they will not honor the warranty.  The lab also requests that they only communicate with providers (our office) and not patients directly.
 
1/8/2014:  Phone call with patient during which our office explained the situation with the lab and offers to do the repair at the lab cost ($45 for the repair + $11 if a new tooth was needed), not at our usual fee ($162).  The patient argues again that the tooth broke shortly after delivery, but since the patient had not communicated this with us at the time of the break, we had no record of this complaint and no proof of the break until his appointment on 12/27/13.
 
3/4/2014:  Patient calls with an angry, aggressive tone and profanity attempting to convince our office manager to provide him a replacement or repair for free.  Patient stated that he blames us for his current lack of job and financial struggles due to poor appearance.  Patient threatens to do everything he could to force our business to close.  Our office manager tries to explain multiple times the lab's position, our position, and the fact that we would be happy for the patient to cover just the cost of the lab repair and we would not charge our regular repair fee.  After at least ten minutes of abusive language, multiple tries to explain and find a solution, and with no end in sight to the conversation, our office manager terminates the call.
 
 
We strive to provide our patients with the best care and are disappointed to hear of this patient's dissatisfaction.  However, we can only treat patients when they communicate with us and visit our office.  This, unfortunately, did not happen in this patient's case.  For example, in the patient's complaint, he mentions the denture, "(...) split, then become misaligned, shift, and fall apart."  The only complaint, and the only thing visibly wrong with the denture when he visited our office in December of 2013, was that one of the front teeth had come off.  We cannot address or repair any issues of which we're not made aware.  For the issue that was presented to us, we provided a temporary fix and proposed a permanent one.
 
There are a few other inconsistencies between the statements in the patient's complaint and our records that make it difficult to find a reasonable solution to this case. The patient mentions that our office refused to repair or replace the partial until it was sent back to the lab.  Our office (like most) is unable to repair this type of denture in the office.  For a permanent fix, it must be sent to a lab.  However, unlike the patient stated in his complaint, we did not refuse any kind of repair.  In fact, we bonded the tooth back to the denture as a temporary cosmetic fix at no charge.  This patch was meant to last the patient until we could contact the lab and let the patient decide what to do more permanently.  Another inconsistency is that the patient states that the denture was $2500 and was overpriced.  As outlined above, the patient's total bill was $2479.  The denture itself was $1500, not $2500 as stated in the complaint. As for the fee being "overpriced," according to a 2013 report by the [redacted]), for this area of the country, the fees for this procedure range from $1269 for the 40th percentile to $1750 for the 95th percentile.  Our fee of $1500 falls right in the middle of this range.  Last is the inconsistency with the timeline of events.  On a phone conversation with our staff, after being discussing the one year warranty period on the denture, the patient reported the tooth breaking shortly after delivery of the denture (within the warranty period).  On the complaint form, he states first noticing problems in June (10 months after delivery), but also entered the “Problem Occurred” date as 10/1/13 which would be more than one year after delivery and outside the warranty period.  The patient then states in the complaint, “Then in November the front left tooth broke off.”  This is at least another month after the “Problem Occurred” date and is even further out of warranty.  One of the patient’s arguments was that he was unaware of the warranty and would have reported the issue earlier had he known it existed.  Based on the reported date of occurrence of either 10/1 or sometime in November, the break seems to have happened after the warranty had expired so no warranty would have been in effect even if the issue was reported immediately.
 
With regards to the patient's request for an additional $2500 in damages due to "mental anguish and the fact that I have not been able to work in a career due to lack of a presentation," we are certainly aware of how a smile can affect a person's self confidence and, sometimes, other people's perception of a person.  However, we cannot fix an issue and help a patient when they do not communicate with us and present us with their problems.  If the lack of a satisfactory cosmetic condition was so detrimental to the patient's well-being, we would assume that he would want it addressed promptly to improve his chances at success.  However, we did not hear from or see the patient until December 2013 - 15 months after the denture was delivered to the patient and 5 whole months after the patient reports in his complaint first noticing problems.  If, in fact, this issue had a significant impact on his productivity, the effects could have been substantially mitigated by addressing it immediately.  The fact that the issue was not addressed earlier was due to lack of notice from the patient, not due to a refusal by our office to see the patient.  We would have been happy to schedule the patient and propose a solution promptly if the concerns had been communicated promptly.   Also, in the complaint, the patient states that the tooth did not actually come off the partial until November.  If the issue did begin in November and not June as also reported, we saw the patient as quickly as he could come in (December), provided a temporary fix, and proposed a solution to aid the patient in obtaining a more permanent repair.  Little time had elapsed from the time the issue occurred (according to the complaint), was reported to us, and was addressed in our office.
 
We understand the stress to the patient in this situation, so as a measure of good faith, we would like to extend the patient a one-time repair of the broken tooth at no charge to him.  There is no good way to fix it unless we can send it to the lab for the repair, so we would need to have the denture for the time necessary to complete that.  If he is not pleased with the type of denture chosen, we will be willing to replace his denture for the cost to us from the lab (which will vary based on the denture design and will be determined at his office visit) instead of our normal, full fee.  Hopefully, one of these options will provide him with a cosmetically acceptable solution to his concerns and struggles.

Review: After ten months the valplast partial that was purchased for me from the Charlottesville Blue Ridge Dental began to split, then become misaligned, shift and fall apart. I called the Charlottesville Blue Ridge Dental office and advised them of the problem. Then in November the front left tooth broke off completely leaving me with only one front tooth, it has been publicly embarrassing, and uncomfortable to eat properly with out that front tooth. They recommended I go into the office and see them personally. When I did make it to the office they advised me that the warranty had expired and I would have to pay for the repair. I explained that I was not told about any warranty on the product until it needed to be repaired and I further explained that perhaps there was a defect in the partial that was made. They refused to repair or replace the partial until it was sent back to the lab with the necessary money for repair. I then wanted to deal directly with the lab that made the appliance. The dental office refused to give me any information on the lab that made the partial so that I could contact them directly. And the dental office was not willing to pay for the cost of the repair, they insisted that I pay for it. Now the second front tooth has dropped and is literally hanging on a thread, I am not able to even touch this tooth because any agitation will cause it to fall out and I will have no front teeth at all. I have tried to resolve the issue peacefully and quietly. However I recently discovered that since I have a periodontal problem and have several teeth that are missing due to bone loss, that the better a option would have been to get the rigid metal denture that will support weak teeth. I found out that the $2,500 that was paid for the valplast was overpriced and should have not been more than $900.00 in addition to that fact that it should not have been used at all. Now the dental office refuses to take any calls and just hung up on me. They are not standing be behind their workDesired Settlement: I am asking for a full refund in the amount of $2,500 for the dental partial due to the fact that I do not want to use the dental office or the dental lab that originally made my partial. I further feel that the partial denture is was a mistake and would like to use the proper type of dental work that is suitable for my dental condition. And I would also like $2,500 for damages due to mental anguish and the fact that I have not been able to work in a my career due to the lack of a presentation

Business

Response:

We have received the complaint from our patient regarding services associated with his [redacted] partial denture and are very disappointed to learn of his continued dissatisfaction. Our office prides itself in our service to our patients and would like every one to leave happy. We have discussed this patient's case with him at length over the phone and in the office attempting to come to a reasonable solution. Here is our record of the case history:

8/14/2012: Patient first presents to office. After having lost his old denture, the patient is treatment planned for new denture and a single crown (for a tooth that would need the support of a crown to be strong enough to support the denture) . Patient informs our office that he would not be paying for treatment, but that it would be covered by the hospital that lost his denture during a recent stay.

8/15/2012: Patient returns for crown preparation and impressions for crown and denture. The type/material of the denture is selected by patient and doctor based on stability of supporting teeth and aesthetic importance of replacing the front teeth.

9/6/2012: Crown is delivered and cemented onto patient's tooth.

9/26/2012: Denture is delivered. Patient is very happy with results.

10/4/2012: Patient returns for small denture adjustment to a sore spot.

1/28/2013: Receive check from hospital in payment for services provided. Bill was for:

[redacted] Partial Denture - $1500

Crown - $915

Exam - $64

Total - $2479

No further communication until patient schedules the next appointment.

12/27/2013: Patient presents to office with complaint that tooth has fallen off of partial denture. Our office explains to patient that the lab that made the partial can do a permanent repair, but the patient was unwilling to leave denture to be sent to lab since patient would not be in town to pick up the case when it returned. We offer to ship the denture to the patient when it was returned from the lab, but patient refuses that option. We then bond the tooth temporarily to the denture as a cosmetic fix for the patient, but tell the patient to be very careful in chewing because it is not a permanent repair.

After patient's appointment we speak to the lab on the patient's behalf and they inform us that because the patient had not returned within the 1 year warranty period to have the denture repaired, they would have to charge a repair fee. Our office explains that the patient stated to us that the tooth was lost prior to the 1 year warranty being expired, but the lab has no proof of the date of the breakage since the patient did not return to our office until 3 months after the warranty period had elapsed. Therefore, they will not honor the warranty. The lab also requests that they only communicate with providers (our office) and not patients directly.

1/8/2014: Phone call with patient during which our office explained the situation with the lab and offers to do the repair at the lab cost ($45 for the repair + $11 if a new tooth was needed), not at our usual fee ($162). The patient argues again that the tooth broke shortly after delivery, but since the patient had not communicated this with us at the time of the break, we had no record of this complaint and no proof of the break until his appointment on 12/27/13.

3/4/2014: Patient calls with an angry, aggressive tone and profanity attempting to convince our office manager to provide him a replacement or repair for free. Patient stated that he blames us for his current lack of job and financial struggles due to poor appearance. Patient threatens to do everything he could to force our business to close. Our office manager tries to explain multiple times the lab's position, our position, and the fact that we would be happy for the patient to cover just the cost of the lab repair and we would not charge our regular repair fee. After at least ten minutes of abusive language, multiple tries to explain and find a solution, and with no end in sight to the conversation, our office manager terminates the call.

We strive to provide our patients with the best care and are disappointed to hear of this patient's dissatisfaction. However, we can only treat patients when they communicate with us and visit our office. This, unfortunately, did not happen in this patient's case. For example, in the patient's complaint, he mentions the denture, "(...) split, then become misaligned, shift, and fall apart." The only complaint, and the only thing visibly wrong with the denture when he visited our office in December of 2013, was that one of the front teeth had come off. We cannot address or repair any issues of which we're not made aware. For the issue that was presented to us, we provided a temporary fix and proposed a permanent one.

There are a few other inconsistencies between the statements in the patient's complaint and our records that make it difficult to find a reasonable solution to this case. The patient mentions that our office refused to repair or replace the partial until it was sent back to the lab. Our office (like most) is unable to repair this type of denture in the office. For a permanent fix, it must be sent to a lab. However, unlike the patient stated in his complaint, we did not refuse any kind of repair. In fact, we bonded the tooth back to the denture as a temporary cosmetic fix at no charge. This patch was meant to last the patient until we could contact the lab and let the patient decide what to do more permanently. Another inconsistency is that the patient states that the denture was $2500 and was overpriced. As outlined above, the patient's total bill was $2479. The denture itself was $1500, not $2500 as stated in the complaint. As for the fee being "overpriced," according to a 2013 report by the [redacted] ([redacted], [redacted]), for this area of the country, the fees for this procedure range from $1269 for the 40th percentile to $1750 for the 95th percentile. Our fee of $1500 falls right in the middle of this range. Last is the inconsistency with the timeline of events. On a phone conversation with our staff, after being discussing the one year warranty period on the denture, the patient reported the tooth breaking shortly after delivery of the denture (within the warranty period). On the complaint form, he states first noticing problems in June (10 months after delivery), but also entered the “Problem Occurred” date as 10/1/13 which would be more than one year after delivery and outside the warranty period. The patient then states in the complaint, “Then in November the front left tooth broke off.” This is at least another month after the “Problem Occurred” date and is even further out of warranty. One of the patient’s arguments was that he was unaware of the warranty and would have reported the issue earlier had he known it existed. Based on the reported date of occurrence of either 10/1 or sometime in November, the break seems to have happened after the warranty had expired so no warranty would have been in effect even if the issue was reported immediately.

With regards to the patient's request for an additional $2500 in damages due to "mental anguish and the fact that I have not been able to work in a career due to lack of a presentation," we are certainly aware of how a smile can affect a person's self confidence and, sometimes, other people's perception of a person. However, we cannot fix an issue and help a patient when they do not communicate with us and present us with their problems. If the lack of a satisfactory cosmetic condition was so detrimental to the patient's well-being, we would assume that he would want it addressed promptly to improve his chances at success. However, we did not hear from or see the patient until December 2013 - 15 months after the denture was delivered to the patient and 5 whole months after the patient reports in his complaint first noticing problems. If, in fact, this issue had a significant impact on his productivity, the effects could have been substantially mitigated by addressing it immediately. The fact that the issue was not addressed earlier was due to lack of notice from the patient, not due to a refusal by our office to see the patient. We would have been happy to schedule the patient and propose a solution promptly if the concerns had been communicated promptly. Also, in the complaint, the patient states that the tooth did not actually come off the partial until November. If the issue did begin in November and not June as also reported, we saw the patient as quickly as he could come in (December), provided a temporary fix, and proposed a solution to aid the patient in obtaining a more permanent repair. Little time had elapsed from the time the issue occurred (according to the complaint), was reported to us, and was addressed in our office.

We understand the stress to the patient in this situation, so as a measure of good faith, we would like to extend the patient a one-time repair of the broken tooth at no charge to him. There is no good way to fix it unless we can send it to the lab for the repair, so we would need to have the denture for the time necessary to complete that. If he is not pleased with the type of denture chosen, we will be willing to replace his denture for the cost to us from the lab (which will vary based on the denture design and will be determined at his office visit) instead of our normal, full fee. Hopefully, one of these options will provide him with a cosmetically acceptable solution to his concerns and struggles.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

[Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]

I appreciate the options that were offered however due to position that this issue has put me in, the options are not solutions to my dilemma. Before filing this complaint I only asked that the partial be repaired at no cost to me and on numerous occasions and was denied. The reason I requested it to be fixed at no cost was because I had no knowledge of any limited warranty and felt that the denture should have lasted a lifetime under normal circumstances or close to it. I also could not afford the cost of repair due to my financial condition. However in researching the case I discovered the reason the denture broke was due to the design of the product. It is not supposed to be used on patients with bone loss due to the lack of support needed to hold the partial in place thus allowing it to move and break. My dentist recommended this product to me with full knowledge of my bone loss and should have been aware of the drawbacks. I trusted his judgement without question and now I have found that I can no longer trust their judgement. I have lost faith in their integrity and do not wish to use their services again. They have clearly made an error in judgement and I have been suffering the consequences ever since. It's is my hope that they resolve the complaint immediately and be able to restore their reputation.

Regards,

[redacted] is the best in the business. He is on time, efficient, caring, and most of all passionate about his work. He is honest, dependable and in addition to being an awesome dentist is a real person that connects with his patients. His staff is also top notch...especially [redacted]!

I have nothing but high praise for this dental office. Everyone there is phenomenal!! I don't like going to the dentist, in general, but I have had a great experience here and would recommend Charlottesville Blue Ridge Dental to everyone I know!!! I came to them through an emergency situation, and it has turned into what I hope will be a lifetime relationship!