Michael T Bodensteiner, DDS

Overpriced and oddly concerned with using all of your insurance allotment.
I have never been to an office that is so outwardly trying to make money. My first visit was back in October of 2014. At that time I went in for a cleaning. When I got there they insisted on doing full x-​rays which is fine. No cavities and good to go. At this point not only was the dentist in the room but someone who’s job is apparently explaining insurance coverage. I asked about the cleaning they said what I really need is a deep cleaning and that is going to cost 1,200 dollars for all four quadrants of my mouth (I’ve never had my mouth described in quadrants before but whatever.) Unfortunately, they told me, they already used ¹⁄₃ of my yearly insurance allotment to do the cleaning and I did not have the 1,200 dollars left to cover the deep cleaning.
I suggested that they do 2 of the quadrants then since my insurance would cover that. They said there was no point and that if you did not do all four quadrants at once then the bacteria would just come back. That may be true but then what the heck is the point of dividing it up into four quadrants? Why not just say, «hey your mouth is extra nasty and its going to cost $ 1,200 bucks?»
He also explained to me that after the deep cleaning I would need to come in every 3 months in order to maintain it. I pointed out that my insurance only covers one cleaning every 6 months and he said that it would be worth the out of pocket expense (which is $ 300+) for the extra cleanings. I have never heard of that ever but oh well.
So we didn’t do any of the deep cleaning but we scheduled it for the first of the year after my benefits reset. Bodensteiner then sat with me and tried to come up with something they could do for my teeth. He said something along the lines of «you have insurance benefit left and you wouldn’t want it to go to waste.» After listing a bunch of stuff that I didn’t want he finally gave up. Now I get my cleaning right?
Nope. I asked about the cleaning and he said there was no point giving me a regular cleaning because I’d be getting deep cleaning in 4 months. Really? No point? No point at all? You’ve been trying to get me to get dental services I don’t want and now you won’t give me a cleaning because there is no point? Do you lose money on these or something? I pointed out that even if I got deep cleaned today I would still be coming in for a cleaning in 3 months. I also pointed out that I hadn’t had a cleaning in a while (I moved here a while ago and just kept putting it off) and that surely some benefit was to be gained by cleaning my teeth. Nope he insisted, and so I didn’t get my cleaning.
Now, at the time I was assured my insurance would cover this process. Today I returned for my deep cleaning. Seemed to go smoothly enough. The person Karen, who did the cleaning was excellent and nice. Then on my way out I was informed that I have a $ 160 co pay. Would have been nice to be told about that up front. Then looking at the receipt it looks less like a co pay and more like I am covering the cost of the procedure that insurance doesn’t cover (My insurance cover $ 960 and the procedure was more than that.) AFTER I signed the receipt for the credit card and was walking out of the office I was informed that the $ 960 was an estimate for how much the insurance would cover and if it turns out the insurance covers less then they will be sending me a bill. What the hell? You couldn’t have figured that out before I had the procedure done? If I’d known it was going to cost so much out of pocket then I would have gone to another dentist who probably would have just cleaned my teeth on the first visit.
It could be that everything I was told was true. I doubt it but it could be. The problem is that if it is true then they did a poor job communicating with me and that alone is worth a negative review. Even worse, I left the office on both occasions feeling like they were more concerned with getting as much money as possible from my insurance company instead of caring about the health of my teeth.
Never going back.