Del Mar Pediatric & Adolescents Dental Group Soudabeh Sharafi DMD

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response 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.
[] I do not agree with Dr. [redacted] explanation. My son, [redacted] ,had many incidents where his brackets and wire broke because you confirmed that his bite was not aligned and this is what would cause the bottom brackets to break. In addition, at the beginning of the treatment the wire did break on three occasions because it was very thin. Dr. [redacted] indicated that this was normal and never provided a bill of services for the replacement of the wire or brackets. My son has been under orthodontic treatment with her office since January 2014, he has not been “ uncooperative” with his treatment as she indicated in her  letter mailed to my home. I had braces myself and know how important it is to follow the diet and dental care while having braces. Two years later, she decided to mail me a letter indicating that now I owe her money after I found out and questioned  her integrity when she submitted fraudulent claims to [redacted] Dental Insurance.
 
Per her letter,she confirmed that I paid you in full the amount of $4195, this included all orthodontic visits. She also indicated that orthodontic care differs in every patient and that sometimes a patient’s care may exceed the two year benchmark. We moved in October 2014 out of the San Diego area since then we have made the two hour commute to her office since she did not want to reimburse for any remaining balance on the treatment at that time. Yes, the contract states that I could choose to discontinue treatment at prior to six months of signing the contract, but her contract fails to address relocation. We requested to discontinue services in October 2014 because we were relocating.
 
Now, the issue at stake is that two orthodontists specialist ( did do residency in orthodontics) confirmed that [redacted]’s orthodontic treatment was not performed adequately. He will need to undergo the procedure all over again. His brackets are not aligned. His bite has not been fully corrected, and he has gaps between his teeth. In addition, since she decided to expose his canines and insisted that she could do it rather than have him see an oral surgeon, now his gum-line is receding in his upper canines area. 
 
When I signed the contract with her office, she personally assure me that she was an Orthodontist specialist. I decided to take her word and trusted her with my son’s care. Choosing an orthodontist is not a light matter. I would have not  signed a contract with her had I known that she is NOT an Orthodontist.  The two orthodontists I spoke to confirmed that she is  not a registered orthodontist. In December 2015,  I questioned her regarding when and where she completed her residency and to date she has not provided that information. In her letter she cited that ” according to the California Dental Association, State of California does not have dental specialty licensure, that is a dentist who practices a specialty is not required by law to have an additional permit, certificate, or license in order to practice the specialty”, I will be contacting an attorney regarding her statement to verify its accuracy, but regardless she should not advertise to patients that you are an orthodontist when she is NOT. She is a pediatric dentist, period.
 
Furthermore, she did file two fraudulent claims with [redacted] Dental Insurance. On November 14, 2015, she filed a claim for D7280 for surgical access of an unerupted tooth. [redacted] did not have any teeth surgically exposed on this day. He visited her office for his normal scheduled 5 week adjustment. I will be submitting a grievance regarding this procedure to [redacted] Dental as she provided evidence to them that is inaccurate. [redacted] was seen on November 20, 2015  by Claremont Dentistry and I have received the dental records from them as well as an affidavit from the dentist indicating that there was no evidence of any procedure done on [redacted] by her office.
 
On December 21, 2015, she filed yet another  a claim for D9110-Pallative Emergency Treatment of Dental Pain- minor procedure. [redacted] did not receive any emergency procedure nor was he complaining of pain. He did visit her office on December 21, 2015 for his normal 5 week adjustment.
 
She indicated in  her letter that she credited by other son’s account as a professional courtesy for the amount of $700. She has not seen my son since October 2014. Every time my son or I would visit her office, we would pay you our patient responsibility portion on my credit card prior to you rendering services. Her assistant [redacted] would collect the payments. Therefore, you are not providing a “professional courtesy” because we have paid for all services rendered. Again,she is fabricating lies.
 
We do not owe you the amount of $1034.00 nor any other amount that she would like to claim. We have paid her in full for all services rendered. In fact, she owe us money for not providing quality care and for [redacted]’s new orthodontic care treatment that will cost  $4600. 
 
We are requesting that Dr. [redacted] refund us the remaining portion of the treatment so that we can apply this amount to the new Orthodontist in Claremont, Ca.
Regards,
[redacted]