Bird Almost Gets Hustled Today

This morning I woke up with the most horrible toothache ever. I couldn’t even think clearly, it hurt so bad. Chef had set up an appointment for himself, but he kindly gave me his appointment, and off to the dentist I went.

Now, I hate going to the dentist. I have a whole separate case of PTSD from a dental visit when I was 16. My mom had decided to save some money by taking me across the border to Mexico to have a tooth pulled. The

dentist made some bad errors, and I ended up screaming in pain, and later had to get some of the tooth pulled in the States because he had failed to pull all of it out. On top of that, I ended up with a bad infection…wonder how that happened???

The result of that trauma is that I only go to the dentist when the pain is so bad it outweighs my fear…like today.

This is a new dentist to me, and I have to say I was very unimpressed. My appointment was at 1:30pm, but I was to get there at 1:00pm to fill out paperwork. I filled out my paperwork in less than 10 minutes. I tried handing my paperwork in to the receptionist, but she waved for me to just set it there on the counter. I didn’t think much about this at first, but even when she was off the phone, my paperwork with all my private information just sat there for the world to see, while patients kept going up to the counter. Finally, I had to tell them to put the paperwork down where everybody and God couldn’t see it. They were polite about it, apologizing for the oversight.

An hour later, I was still waiting, and no one had mentioned anything to me about why they were running so late. My pain-killer was wearing off, so I went up to the receptionist and asked her what time they were planning on seeing me. Her answer kind of threw me off. She indicated that they had decided to have an impromptu staff meeting, and that they would get to me when they could. Now, that is not okay. She apologized for the wait, and then launched into a diatribe with another patient about the importance of showing up for his appointments on time…If he was more than 15 minutes late, he would be charged for the visit and would have to reschedule to be seen by the doctor. I just made eye contact with the receptionist as she said that, and she quickly looked away. Hardly seems fair to be so strict with your patients when you aren’t living up to your own expectations, huh?

An hour and a half later, the dentist finally saw me. He was very charming, and I felt somewhat shuffled through the process. He informed me that he would give me some medications to get rid of the infection, and if I qualified for credit, they’d reschedule me to come in and get the work done that I needed. Then, hurting even worse because of his poking and prodding, I was escorted into the finance room where I had to fill out a credit application. No one had even discussed with me what needed to be done, much less any prices yet. It was at this point that I told the finance guy that I needed to know how much of this my dental insurance covered. His answer: we don’t take insurance. Now, why did they need a copy of my insurance card if they don’t even take insurance??? I wasn’t pleased about that at all, as it seems kind of deceitful to me…There are no signs anywhere indicating that they don’t accept any form of insurance, but making a copy of an insurance card that they obviously don’t accept….that is plain, old lying, in my opinion.

I let the guy know that I appreciated all they had done for me today, but that I was probably going to find a dental office that accepted insurance. He said he understood, then quickly told me that I had pretty red hair, and that he couldn’t believe I had three grown children. The change in the conversation was so random, I was caught off guard, and all I could say was thank you. Then, he asked me the next question on the credit form!!! He was trying to make me so giddy with his compliments, I wouldn’t notice we were still filling out the credit application!! I politely asked for the form and let him know that I would talk with my husband about this and we’d get back with him. Wow!! It’s been a while since I’ve been hustled!!!

I have to say kudos to that office, though. The last time I dealt with this sort of sleazy salesmanship, I was buying a used car!!

I did get the medicines filled though, and now I’m feeling no pain… 🙂 We’ll call that little experience worth it…

🙂  Bird