I went to the dentist today expecting to have 2 fillings done. When I went to pay at the front desk, they told me they did an extra filling on one of the teeth that was already scheduled to get a filling, and presented me with a bill for 3 fillings "because you were already numbed up and we were working in the area." But I never consented to the extra filling, and it's quite a lot of money (1.5 times an already-steep bill) and an unpleasant surprise.
The office had previously sent me a treatment estimate for 2 fillings, so that's what I was expecting.
Trying to negotiate whether I wanted an extra filling in the middle of the procedure, with my mouth numbed up and kind of on a time crunch, would not have been ideal either. I probably would have said yes, but I wouldn't have been happy about it. Nonetheless, to not be informed at all really rubs me the wrong way.
If they were already in the area, I might expect the extra filling to cost significantly less. But they are charging full price, same as they would if it was the only filling they were doing and they had to prepare the area from scratch. It's not adding an extra surface to the planned filling, it's a small but completely separate filling on the same tooth. As far as I can tell, it took less than 5 extra minutes (though I'm not a dentist so who knows).
In general, I like this dentist a lot. She does great work, she explains things patiently and well, and I trust her opinion. I have a lot more work scheduled with her. It doesn't seem like they're trying to make an extra buck off of me. They saw something needed doing, did it quickly, and charged me their regular price for the work. It's just the bait-and-switch billing practice that I'm objecting to.
I'm paying out of pocket, so insurance is not involved at all. I'm fairly sensitive to price, especially since I'm going to need several thousand dollars of dental work this year. Because of this, I had previously called the office and asked how much they charge for fillings. The prices on the treatment estimate were already higher than what they told me over the phone, but I didn't say anything because I trusted the quality of care I was getting more than the other dentists where I'd gotten a first and second opinion (this one was my third). So even with the treatment estimate, it already felt like I was already paying more than I was expecting to.
I walked away having paid the price from the original treatment estimate, without the extra filling, but I'll be back next week for more work and presumably will need to settle up then.
Maybe I can ask them to reduce the price for the filling, since (as they themselves say) they were already in the area and it only added a few minutes to the procedure? Are there other options here? Location is California, USA. |
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