Complaint Review: Coast Dental

Billing Problems;
On November 1, 2013 I was fraudulently overcharged $531.08 of $1496.44 by the office manager, who lied about my insurance limits and the correct  in-network MetLife-Tricare dental PPO fees.  I have made dozens of attempts to correct their records without any honest cooperation from Coast.   Discover Card Fraud Investigation unit agreed the charges were indeed fraudulent and removed $531.08 from Coast account and credited to mine. Coast continued to have inaccurate records and I continued to try to correct them to this day.  Metlife's Explanation of Benefits did not completely come to me until months later, as Coast made 5 incorrect claims to MetLife before finally one filed in January 2014 .  I had done the exam and x rays in October, then got dental insurance and repeatedly informed the office managers and others of the insurance plan, of which they are a PPO preferred provider, obligated to certain lower rates. On November 1, 2013 not only did Dr. Reyes do the entire mouth initial periodontal treatment, she also took off two crowns. I was in the office from about 9 a.m. until well after closing. It took nearly an entire two months for both crowns to be finished, with the temporary crowns frequently falling off. So in a way, I was hostage to them from 11-1 to late December. There were three different office managers at the now closed East Naples office as well as their corporate office in Tampa  that promised corrections but were just being deliberately dishonest.  In October 2014, I have just now discovered by a semi annual check of credit report,  and there was no previous notice, Coast Dental illegally dinged my credit for $531.08

Quality of Work:

There were dozens of worms on the lobby floor and the idle office manager did nothing.

There was a different dental assistant  for each office visit, only one assistant and only one dentist,  and never a hygienist. The first Haitian girl repeatedly jammed the x-ray film bracket very painfully into the mouth and also was incompetently striking with force my head and upper body with the stand-up x-ray machine. She also presented a paper and stated "just sign here". It included a unsolicited and very high charge for un-necessary "Oral Cancer Screening" (most dentists do for free). That of course was declined. On 11-1-2013 either the dentist had the chair at a wrong angle or the assistant was not doing suction correctly, because the entire day I had far too much water, etc. pooling into my throat. At one point it caused me to vomit slightly.  At one point Dr. Reyes dropped a tooth into my throat, luckily I coughed it up and spit out, otherwise would have required hospital visit and stomach pumped.  Although charming, Dr. Reyes is a very inexperienced dentist, as she graduated dental school in 2013 and the East Naples office had very few patients.  

I initially made the mistake of choosing this office because of convenient location (now closed) and membership in dental PPO (won't honor contractually obligated rates). I have since learned that the large chains such as Coast, Aspen, Great Expressions, etc,   are always doing these type of financial scams and frauds, unnecessary and inferior dental work, etc.. They are only about profit, not patient care.  Most dentists are either inexperienced, or otherwise unable to be in a private practice.  I strongly recommend anyone needing  dental service avoid large chains and find a private practice.  Coast is the worst, don't go there, you will regret it.