Business ProfileforDC Pearls Dental Boutique

The dental work is good. The office is a train wreck. The front desk is apparently unable to correctly bill people -- they've taken hundreds of dollars from me that I wasn't warned about beforehand. If you make the mistake to go here, be sure they're really clear about all your payments up front. The surprise Novocain shots and the disrespect for time are the real cherries on top.

Dear patient, we are very sorry about your experience. Sorry if you had any billing issues at our office. We are an in-network provider which means we are in network with your insurance and therefore, we have to communicate back and forth between you and your insurance company. we understand going to a dentist on its own is a painful and unpleasant experience and on top of that expensive copays even when you have dental insurance can be frustrating. The frustration only increases when patients are not familiar with their insurance policies… which makes our job very complicated because some dental insurance policies simply put are very unfair and one sided and not beneficial for patients at all… unfortunately, in such circumstances people may actually think that it’s the dental office that is doing something wrong or to use your words “train wreck” when all we are doing is actually relaying your insurance policies to you. Sorry if we did not do a good job of explaining your policy to you and we will try harder to do better in the future. The Fact of the matter is that Dental insurance companies are for profit companies that do not offer full coverage for anything in dentistry except for exam and cleaning. The percentage they cover varies from procedure and the location of teeth that needs the procedure. To make matters more confusing, if your treatment plan changes in the middle of work from something simple to something more complicated, we have to rerun all the numbers with the new codes and relay the information to you which could be frustrating and confusing… but we have no control over that. In addition, most dental insurance policies have an annual maximum limit which means ones you reach that limit, they do not pay for anything no matter how urgent your dental condition is… It is our goal to educate each patient about their insurance plans and coverage as much as possible, and it is our goal to give accurate estimates for work that is being done but ultimately, patients have to take accountability over their insurance plans and dental care- just because we provide you with an estimate out of courtesy, it does not make it our “responsibility”. It is our recommendation that all patients should familiarize themselves with their insurance policies and we urge you to understand that we have to follow your insurance policy, their fees, and their coverage policy and unfortunately, that can be a VERY FRUSTRATING AND CONFUSING PROCESS. AND it is important to note that the provider portals and tools that are available to providers only offer and “estimate” of coverage not a “grantee of payment”.