Desert Dental Solutions

by john
(peoria, AZ)

In July of 2005, my spouse began a treatment plan with this group, beginning with an urgent procedure to arrest the further degradation of the structure of her jaw line. I paid $1433.00 on 7/13/05 to have the treatment begun and the structure of the jaw line stabilized. A large portion of these monies ($1072.00) was set aside for the permanent Crowns to be placed later along with the continued path of the prescribed treatment plan. These crowns were never placed, nor were they ever made to be placed. Dr. Abedi had set the treatment plan to entail a total of $25,500.00 in procedures… an amount of money we could not justify over other priorities. This treatment plan was well outside of our ability to pay.
During the length of time between then and now we had taken our three children, and returned ourselves for general maintenance and cleaning. During this time, we have never been provided a statement showing that we had a credit balance on account, and have never been given the opportunity to utilize this overpayment for other procedures (fillings, root canals) that we may have been able to complete for our children. These monies were sequestered and the balance never brought to our attention until we audited our own account to find a significant overpayment.
I spoke with Sara/Office Manager at Dental Desert solutions several times. I asked to speak directly to the doctor several times; she did not allow me to speak with the doctor. Her final decision is that they would return HALF of my money to me, and are trying to post a retroactive billing (not legal) on the account to cover the temporary crown placed in 2005. I tried to compromise with Sara and offered that they refund only $800 of the $1072 owed on account, however she has offered a refund of only $536, wanting to keep half of these monies for a service and procedure portion never begun or completed (again, the crowns were never made or placed).
I told Desert Dental Solutions that I expect a check for the half payment immediately, that the balance of those monies (another $536) is still being contested, and that my offer of refunding only $800 of these monies is now rescinded. I want all of the $1072 back!
These practices of Desert Dental Solutions, Billing Staff and Dr. Abedi, are in my opinion, unscrupulous, deceiving, punitive, fraudulent and unethical. They did not begin this way, but unfortunately the culture of the organization is one of trying to screw patients and attempting to retroactively bill for portions of treatment plan not listed on the original itemized statement.