Business ProfileforDental Group of Mentor

If you’re planning to schedule an Invisalign consultation at this dental practice, this may interest you. This is what happened to me on 11-17-2022... I was a former patient returning for an Invisalign consultation & to have a cavity filled. Dr. D****** ******* took care of the dental work, but then recommended I see an orthodontist instead of seeing his colleague at this practice, Dr. B***** ***** who does the Invisalign. Dr. L****** provided me with 2 orthodontist referrals outside of this practice for the Invisalign, and he said Dr. G*** lacked the experience & expertise to do a good job with Invisalign. When I returned home, I looked at the website to see if Invisalign was a service listed (it was) and noticed that Dr. G*** is a black, female dentist. Now of course, I have no way of knowing Dr. L******’s motives; but I could only conclude that 1.) Dr. G*** really is inexperienced and not proficient at this type of work; or 2.) Dr. L****** has something against Dr. G***. I thought I should make the owner, Dr. Jeff R*******l, aware of the situation, because if the former is true, they should stop advertising the Invisalign, and if the latter is true, then it’s costing Dr. G*** business, and it should be stopped. Sadly, Dr. R*******l’s response was avoidant and completely ignored my concerns. And after I told him how disappointing this was, he sent me another email that still did not address the true matter and he "dismissed me" as a patient, telling me that I am no longer welcome there & they will be notifying my insurance plan (lol, what?). "To summarize, you have been dismissed as patient at Dental Group of Mentor. Have a nice Thanksgiving and please do not contact any of us again. Dr. Jeff R*******l" I realize this sounds bizarre, but it's true. I am a 58-year-old, professional woman who wanted to make the owner of this dental practice aware of a potential problem, and he "dismissed" me. This type of unethical behavior deserves to be recognized.

Thanks for your BBB review, Tracy. We appreciated your 1 star review you left for us as well thru Google. Race is never an issue in our office and I am not sure why you chose to bring it up at this time. I do recall your disappointment with one of our assistants as well when you emailed me, initially. That assistant was a white female. Dr. L****** *s a white male as well and we have another assistant that is a black female too. Why is race a concern for you as a patient? The decision to refer you to another office is due to clinical expertise in evaluating your individual Invisalign case. It is a challenging orthodontic case and our Dentists are trained to handle a certain degree of case and then appropriately refer it to a specialist for quality care when it is necessary. We did this professionally and quite personally as well when Dr. L****** spoke to you. We do not appreciate the comments that were made by you as patient in our office relating to racial discrimination as part of a diagnosis and it is well within our rights to dismiss you as a result of your racial comments and your racial actions towards our team members. We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior. Best of luck to you and in the future I hope you make personal changes towards other individuals on the level of their care from a dental position and not from a racial profiling position when yo choose to have Invisalign performed by another office. You are not welcome to have care delivered at Dental Group of Mentor. We have notified your insurance company as well regarding this issue. I am sure someone at the insurance company can provide you with another office that can happily take care of your dental needs. If you would like your records sent to another office we can provide this for you. We need a signed letter indicating where you would like us to send them. Your signature is required due to current HIPPA laws. Respectfully and professionally. Dr. Jeff R********

If you’ve read my review & the business owner’s (Dr. Jeff *********) response, yet feel confused, it’s not you. This is a strange situation, & his continued attempts to change the narrative is disturbing. The facts: I was scheduled for an Invisalign consultation, and the dentist, Dr. *******, provided me with 2 orthodontist referrals instead. He told me it was because his colleague, Dr. G**** is inexperienced and lacks the expertise to do Invisalign. It wasn’t because I have a “challenging orthodontics case”. I have one small space between 2 of my bottom teeth. That’s it. And Dr. R******** initially recommended that I reschedule & reassured me that Dr. G*** “would be great to handle this”. And now, he is offering a completely different story. Why? And for heavens sakes, I didn’t make racial comments in the dental office or take “racial actions” against anyone. This isn’t how I behave, and those who know me both personally & professionally, know this. This is blatant gaslighting. Instead, I sent him a discreet email because the situation seemed odd, & I thought he should be aware of it. It wasn’t an accusation, just a concern. And why would I bring up racism & sexism? Because these issues are real & are a part of our culture. One might think the business owner might appreciate this. His response instead? He states that he has “zero tolerance” for a patient sharing her concern about possible discrimination with him, rather than having zero tolerance for the discrimination itself. What an odd thing to admit publicly. He also tried to posture by “dismissing” me from his practice that I already told him I wasn’t returning to, telling me not to talk to his staff as if he was my boss, and notifying my insurance company. Seriously, like why would my insurance company care? Although he has no power over me, this business owner’s extreme reaction, avoidance, & attempts to marginalize me is so suspect and peculiar that I want to alert prospective patients of his nonsense.