Dental Fee Dispute with Palo Alto Dental Group in Palo Alto, California, USA:

Last month I walked into Palo Alto Dental Group (PADG) for
consultation on my wisdom teeth. I signed papers which (I vaguely
remember) had statements such as "the quote of the charge is only an
estimate, patients are obliged to pay the rest" etc. The problem is,
my entire time there they didn't give me a quote. And when I called
before I was told that consultation was about $70. The bill they sent
me was $199 with $75 consultation and $124 x-rays fees (they took
bitewings-four films and four intraoral-periapical).

Had the x-rays proved useful, I would pay them. The problem is, the
oral surgeon told me that the x-rays they took were not good enough,
so I had to go through another x-ray at the oral surgeon's place.

But my entire bill at the oral surgeon (Dr. Trebowski of Welsh Rd.,
great guy!) is only $440, which includes a separate consultation fee,
extracting 2 wisdom teeth, and a check-up by the nurse a week later.

I contacted PADG twice and they simply said "no". Reason given was
something like those are part of the service. But hey~ I wasn't aware
of the charges, plus the stuff you did was useless. (I am willing to
pay the $75 consultation fee, btw).

I also heard that if I ignore their statement, they could put my
credit to default via my social security number.

HELP. What weapons do I have against them. I need a response in 24
hours cause the deadline for payment is May 10th, pacific time.

Thank you!

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 08 May 2006 12:54 PDT

One option would be to let your dentist's office know that if they
insist on payment for the X-rays, then you would pay, but also file a
complain with the state licensing board for substandard care, since
the X-rays were no good, and you have another dentist who can confirm
this.

The complaint process is here:


http://www.dbc.ca.gov/how_to_file_complaint.html


Dollars to donuts they back down at that point.

Let me know what you think,


pafalafa-ga