It dawned on my today while taking my child to the dentist how messed up the whole thing is. Here is this place that charges an arm and a leg to "clean" your teeth several times a year, but they only really make real money if you need fillings, crowns, root canals and all sorts of other shit.
Today we got there and in spite of just having X rays done last week at a different place, this new place wanted their "own" set of x rays... of course at an additional cost of $400 and increased radiation exposure for my child. Then, they came up with a 4 stage plan over $5000 to fix four small cavities she has, including crowns and sedation and the whole 9 yards. Not to mention the manipulation they use on young kids. All their favourite disney shows playing, all the free toys and they even told her they were going to maybe put a "sparkly elsa tooth" in her mouth like WTF....
I declined the extra xrays, which they were shocked about. And left saying I would think about it. But as I left I realized that none of these 20 or 30 staff members at the clinic would have jobs if they weren't bringing in this kind of revenue.
But what a scam the whole thing is! If they were truly cleaning teeth properly they should have worked themselves out of a job long ago. Same thing with doctors and the relationship to pharmaceutical companies. The whole thing is a big scam!
Aspen Dental is a scam. Go to a traditional dentist. Walk away from these hacks. I mean it, they will take your money any way they can. Their is an older Consumer Reports article about dentistry. ( from Around 2010)? In the article they talked about. DO SOMETHING, It was a new teaching in the dentistry school to get PAID. The feeling of the school is once you have the customer in your chair charge them for anything and everything. It's called Do SOMETHING protocol. This way you never let the customer leave without making money. The comments from the investigator was that they were teaching a new way of thinking to the new dentist.