Account Lisa Russo #610402-0061 service for daughter Lea.
Lisa Russo is a single mother with 2 children to raise on her own, and a health problem (MS) that drains her energy and for which she should avoid stress. She works full time and maintains health/dental insurane for the children which is of major help to her. Lea Russo was diagnosed to have 4 impacted wisdom teeth and needed oral surgery. Lisa Russo was assured that the procedure was covered by her insurance plan. Aspen Dental went outside of the covered network in engaging an oral surgeon thus resulting in a horrific dental bill which she can ill afford to pay. Lisa was never informed of their choice of oral surgeon, nor of the resulting charges - in advance - thus she was not given a choice to reschedule with another network oral surgeon or other provider of dental service. Prior to this Lisa Russo has been an excellent client and paid all charges on a timely basis. This mother needs help on recourse.
This is being written by her sister, at paralegal, who can be reached at: [email protected] Thank you.

BEWARE these are the worst dental providers out there! Fraud Alert-billed me and my insurance company for services/products that I did not order and when I demanded a refund, it was refused. I was told I HAD to purchase said product though I did not request it. OFFICE STAFF IS UNSKILLED, LIARS AND CHEATS. Had a dental appointment on 5/11/09 and office staff left in the middle of a proceedure. Find a PRIVATE PRACTICE DENTIST IN EVANSVILLE AND STAY AWAY FROM ASPEN DENTAL.

I WAS SEEN ONCE AND WAS ALREADY BILLED FOR A LOAN THAT THE HOOKED ME UP WITH AND I HAD NOTHING DONE AND NOW THE LOAN COMPANY HAD AREADY PAID THEM IN ONE DAY FROM SEEING THEM AND I CANCELLED MY APPOINTMENT BECAUSE I WANTED TO GET A SECOND OPINION BECAUSE THE Amout the were seeking was way over what i was told from my sister that i should pay and to go see her dentist. they already billed me for 5820.35 and i haven't even had one tooth removed. i talked to the loan company and they said i had to dispute it because they paid them and now i have a bill for 244.00 a month because aspen was already paid. i really hope aspen gives the money back, shoot what if i died tomorrow and never had the procedure done, then what?

On April 27, 2009 my prescheduled appointment was for 3:30 PM. My arrival and sign in was at 3:15 PM. I sat and waited until 5:50 PM. At that point one of the ladies from behind the desk walked out front and locked the door. So I went up to the desk and asked if they were closing soon and the receptionist said that at 6 they were closing. I asked if they were going to give me my dentures today and they asked if I had an appointment. I showed them my name on the sign in sheet and the 10 or so who signed in after me and had been taken care of already. The first reaction was accusing me of not saying something sooner.
A little history at this point. This was my final visit to try my dentures. On my initial visit as a new patient, I had asked the receptionist after filling out all of my paperwork and showing my insurance card and waiting for half an hour if she had an idea how long it would be until my appointment. I was told to "just sit down and wait." 20 minutes after that the dentist saw me for the first time. Before leaving my dentures and the next two visits had to be paid in full. The second visit was a little over an hour wait. My wife was with me on the first two visits and I asked her if I should file a formal complaint. She talked me out of doing that both times.
To me it is obvious that the patient is not the priority in the Lancaster, Pa. office. Everyone's time is valuable to them. If Telling my story helps one person make the correct decision about not using Aspen Dental then my wait(s) were well worth it.

A couple things listed:
My daughter worked as a dental assistant for about 4 years so she knows the ends and outs of dental "rules" she was also Hipaa trained by the state of Washington.

#1:At my first appointment the dentist recommened doing the advance cleaning because I was at a "2". When I told my daughter this she said that I did not need to have the advance cleaning because 95% of the population is at a 2 and that a normal cleaning would be fine. Now this cleaning was going to cost me over $200 because my insurance won't cover it. Anyway I asked to cancel this appointment and to schedule a regular cleaning. I was told that this could not be done because they can't go "down" on a cleaning. Is this Aspen Dental's policy and/or is this someone trying to make money?

#2: When I went to the Aspen Dental Office this morning April 6, 2009 I saw my name and cell phone number written on a large note pad by the phone. There was also at least one other persons name and number on it as well. This paper was able to be viewed by ANYONE going up to the front desk which you had to do when you first came into the building. This information was given to a clerk on April 3, 2009 at 11:59 am. I mentioned this Hipaa violation and the paper was thrown away.

#3: Is it normal to call the emergency dental number for help with pain only to get a return call 7 1/2 hours later? Thank God that the call was returned by a ******* out of Troy, Ohio (at lease that is what I thought he said). He listen to my concerns and put me on antibiotics right away.

#4: Someone else wrote on here how they had teeth pulled and wasn't completely numb. Ditto here. I even complained to dentist and he acted like it was bother to stop and give me more shots. Which wasn't enough.

#5: Thanks for reading these issues. I am still in pain from a tooth extraction on the 31st of March. Saw my new (more than likely now old) dentist yesterday morning and he said everything is healing and looking good he didn't see any signs of a dry socket on the x-ray (<~~~found out later you can't see those on x-rays!). Can't explain pain. I wish I knew the answer because I would fix this exposed root feel! Doesn't seem normal for 8 days of pain. Hopefully tomorrow the pain will be gone since the antibiotics will have been in my system for 72+ hours. NOTE: Do a web complaint search on Aspen Dental. You will find more complaints about the Richmond office along with other Aspen Dentals.