Lifetime Dental Care

*** *** has been a patient of Lifetime Dental Care since 3/19/ She has always been a cash pay patient (no insurance) Although we sympathize with her situation we explained that as a medical facility it is our legal obligation to give all of our patients the best care we
possibly could It is the policy of this practice to take a Panoramic Dental X-ray for each patient We also take at least one Bitewings-four films each year If the patient has a history of problem areas, we will take them every months When *** came in our hygienist noticed that we had not taken a Pano and it had been since 11/21/since Bitewings had been taken This was explained to her and she approved At the end of the visit, *** said she was unable to pay for the visit all at one time We offered to let her make payments and she gave us her credit card number and authorized us to charge it monthly until paid in full She paid $that day and we charged the card another $a month later It was after that charge to her card that she began calling the office complaining about the cost and claiming that we were unethical.
At the time that the Pano was taken, DrW*** noticed an area that was of concern to him He asked our Dental Assistant to call *** *** and refer her to an Endodontist
She claims she was tricked and wouldn't have authorized it if she had been told she had the choice Our patients all have the choice She was not misled or manipulated in any wayIt was explained to her that the x-rays were needed Since then she has called our office numerous times and has "harassed" our office personnel She has threatened our business I was asked (after several conversations with *** ***) to call *** *** on a Friday evening I only work on Mondays and *** started calling the office first thing Monday morning When I called her in the late morning on that Monday she began the conversation by yelling at me and told me she didn't want to hear anything I had to say She ONLY wanted me to tell her that I had the authority to refund her the second $and not charge her the balance on her account I tried numerous times during this conversation to explain our policy and the reason behind the x-rays Every time I spoke she cut me off and demanded that I only listen to her because she didn't care what I said, I wasn't going to change her mind She threatened to get an attorney and tried to intimidate me She called our Doctor uncaring and crooked and questioned his ethics At this point (after about minutes) of her threats, I finally told her that she could do what she felt she needed to do and that we would do what we felt was necessary.
We have since sent a "Letter of Dismissal" to *** and have offered to recommend another dentist for her and also see her in the next days in an emergency situation if she had not found another dentist yet

I bought a plastic splint (about an 1/2" in size) for my TMJ issues for $500 plus the office visit charge. The dentist would not repair/replace it after it broke in my mouth while I was sleeping. For the price paid I feel they should have repaired/replaced it free of charge!