This is not a direct review of Dr. Shiao but the office she is affiliated with Expert Dental:
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT GO HERE!!!! I have DHMO insurance. Under DHMO there are fixed prices for the different procedures. I went there because I cracked a tooth. After an initial exam by one person. I was told that they wanted a dental surgeon to look at it... and charged me $150. I didn't know at the time that I should NOT have had to pay for that. Then they told me my tooth would have to be extracted, I needed an implant and a crown to fix it. Of course NONE of this was covered by my insurance. Total for this $6400!!! But they said they had a "special" going on and if I pay everything up front that day, they'll discount it $1300 for a total of $5100. I asked if this was the only option. They told me the alternative would be a bridge between the 2 teeth, which would require the extraction, and 2 root canals on the 2 teeth that would support the bridge. That total $2400. I asked for a breakdowns of the procedures and when I questioned why they would use crowns that were not covered by my insurance they said I needed "custom" work. I asked about just having the tooth taken out since it was bothering me, and they told me that would be $150 (I found out later that should have been covered also or at most $50). I called my insurance to see what is and what is not covered and they told me that implants are indeed not covered, but that any consultation should have been covered. Come to find out the Dr. they had look in my mouth for about a 30 seconds works in that office but does not take my insurance. And I'm sure they very well knew that. Anyway, bottom line is, I ended up going to another dentist who never said I needed to extract the tooth, never said anything about implants, bridges, root canals or "custom" crowns. He did expose the tooth a little more and put a temporary crown on and I go back in a couple of weeks to get the permanent crown. Total cost to me $900. So not only was Expert Dental looking to rip me off, they were also willing to perform extensive, totally unnecessary procedures to do so! I've already complained to my insurance carrier but I am considering reporting them to whomever I have to to make sure they don't get away with this.
out of 5 stars
