BBB Business Profiles are subject to change at any time. When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.īBB Business Profiles generally cover a three-year reporting period. However, BBB does not verify the accuracy of information provided by third parties, and does not guarantee the accuracy of any information in Business Profiles. BBB asks third parties who publish complaints, reviews and/or responses on this website to affirm that the information provided is accurate. It has been an innovator in providing information to help consumers make smarter choices for more than 40 years.BBB Business Profiles may not be reproduced for sales or promotional purposes.īBB Business Profiles are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Through a special arrangement with Washington Consumers’ Checkbook, readers can see Checkbook ratings for 512 area dentists for a limited time.Ĭonsumers’ Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services is an independent, nonprofit consumer organization founded in 1974. “We find, unfortunately, that some dentists are motivated by costs - by fees that they’re getting from their patients, and therefore, recommend too much work,” he said. “The most underutilized tool when it comes to dental patients is a second opinion.” “We get a lot of complaints from patients who say, ‘I tried a new dentist and the dentist said I have to replace all my fillings, or I need a really expensive restorative work,'” Brasler said. “We’ve found some practices, for example, were offering really low pricing to new patients for that first time cleaning and exam.”īrasler recommends being wary of a new dentist who recommends a lot of expensive new treatments. “They might offer you an exam, cleaning, X-rays, and even one filling as a package deal to attract new patients,” Brasler said.

Making those calls you might find some practices are offering new patients introductory package deals. How much is charged for X-rays? What is the cost of an adult’s two-surface composite molar? To get a sense of potential cost variations between practices, some questions you could ask include the cost for an oral exam and cleaning for new patients versus established patients. “Over and over again, we found these massive price differences from practice to practice for the same procedures.” “For example, for a simple filling, a two-surface composite filling, the lowest price our shoppers were quoted was $98 the highest price was $615,” Brasler said.

How’s the receptionist staff? Do they seem nice and pleasant and accommodating?ĭental practices can have dramatically different prices.

Is the hygienist or the dentist - whoever’s doing the cleaning - gentle?.

Does the dentist seem to listen to you?.

Self-evaluations of a new dental practice could include going in for a cleaning and exam. Most of them seem to do well by their patients in terms of overall dental care,” Brasler said. “The good news, though, is that the majority of dental practices that we rated got pretty high ratings.

Criminals impersonating the IRS are trying to steal sensitive personal and financial information. For one project, prices ranged from 11,223 to 17,848. Consumers’ Notebook Fraud Alert: IRS Refund Letter is Bogus by Herb Weisbaum, The ConsumerMan Last updated JNo, the IRS is not sending letters to taxpayers who are owed an unclaimed refund. “We found that there really isn’t this correlation between quality and price when it comes to dental care,” said Kevin Brasler, executive editor at Washington Consumers’ Checkbook.Ĭheckbook’s survey of patients about dentists they’ve used did find, however, substantial differences in quality from practice to practice based on answers to questions such as: Was the dentist thorough, did the dentist communicate well, seem competent, have a pleasant staff, have short wait times? Checkbook’s undercover shoppers also found huge price differences when they asked companies to bid on several specified re-roofing jobs. area dentists - you’re just as likely to be happy paying modest prices versus paying more than average for procedures, according to a locally based consumers’ group. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.

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