Karmic Konsumer

This is a personal experience with this particular dentist office. I can’t speak for anyone else who uses them nor do I know that this experience has been repeated in other situations. We won’t go to them again to find out.

So I go to this dentist’s office today - Plaza Family Dental in Carlsbad, CA (north of San Diego) - and was immediately turned OFF. I should not have even bothered. I should have turned around and walked out. All of the patients appeared to be very low income or non-english speakers and I heard 4 arguments over payment plans and financial arrangements with the front desk in the time I sat in the waiting room - which wasn’t the greatest looking to begin with. But I didn’t. I shoved it all down inside and did it anyways.

The girl who did my x-rays was rude, sullen and had no concern for my comfort. About halfway thorough the x-rays, someone came back and modified my chart with insurance information - and all of the sudden she needed 10 additional x-rays. Shady. I should get the same level of care insurance or not. No?

So she finished and I sat and waited for a little while and the dentist came in. He didnt say much.. introduced himself (Dr. Welch) and started poking around. He found no cavities. None. Zero. And according to him, the x-rays didn’t show any cavities either.

To give you some history, I was told 6 years ago that I had small cavities that needed to be filled. I was pregnant though so they wanted to wait until after my son was born. I never got it done. I went to a new dentist last year who found the same cavities as well as an additional one. I didn’t have the money to get them filled though… so I waited. I KNOW I SAW the cavities on my last x-rays. I felt the metal tool stick at BOTH dentists offices. I HEARRyan the tool that shot sound into my tooth, to detect tiny cavities that might not be visible yet, find the cavities. After a few years, I started having difficulty eating sweet foods because it HURT. I’m POSITIVE they are there.

Now, on new insurance, I went to a new dentist KNOWING I needed to have these filled - and will all the insurance and money I needed to have it done. Back to the present day at Plaza Family Dental, I felt the tool stick twice, myself but he didn’t pause. He poked exactly 8 times and confirmed that nope, I do not have cavities. I insisted that he look again. He pried around a little more. He didnt believe me. He was condescending and told me I wanted to have cavities awful bad. He was defensive and flat out rude. I told them I would not be making a follow up visit for cleaning. I would be going elsewhere.

So the moral of this story is dont go to Plaza Family Dentistry in Carlsbad California (north of San Diego) Never. Don’t bother. I have called my old dentist for some recommendations of people in my area that he would trust and I’m checking Doctoroogle.com for reviews of dentists in the area and I’m starting from scratch.

Update: I found a wonderful dentist who found the exact same cavities in the exact same spots as the original 2 dentists. The dentist (Dr Welch) at Plaza Family Dentistry in Carlsbad was WRONG. Had I listened to him, me teeth would have continued to rot. Yay. I had the cavities filled and I have no more pain from eating sweet food. Let the chocolate eating commence! :) As a side note, Plaza Family Dental also filed my insurance incorrectly - TWICE - so it was a pain to deal with that - and even dealing with Plaza Family Dentistry to get copies of my x-rays after the fact was a pain. They didn’t have them ready when they said they would and when they finally had them ready (and called me to tell me they were ready), two weeks later when I wanted to pick them up, they told me they werent actually ready - but she could get them done in the 15 minutes before I got there. So why the heck the two week waiting period to get them!?

Also, check out my reviews of 3 other North County Dentists and Why Medi-Cal (or medicaid or denti-cal) and Dentists are a Bad Combination. And if you’re looking for a good dentist in North County, check out Daniel Charlton DDS, Del Mar CA.