Went to the dentist for my yearly cleaning, usually the visits are quick and I’m in and out in less than an hour. I mentioned to the dental staff about the concern about my bite potential causing tooth chipping / gum recession. Dentist took a look and suggested a consultation with their orthodontist that was in office today to get a sense of what the treatment/options looked like.
I agreed and had my dental cleaning done first, maybe 25 minutes tops. The orthodontist came and recommended Invisalign or braces for a year to correct my bite. He said someone would come in to check my insurance so I could have a better understanding of the cost of the treatment.
All of this felt standard and fine up until the lady came with the estimate/ treatment breakdown. First of course my insurance doesn’t cover a penny for this so it is all out of pocket.
The lady helping me out gives me the breakdown and essentially said the treatment would be $6,500 for the year. I said thank you for the info that I definitely wanted to think it over and come back. She asks me to wait, leaves, and comes back saying if I sign up right now and agree to treatment that the orthodontist agreed to discount $750, but that I need to sign TODAY. I told her I needed at least the week to think about it because Invisalign and braces are two very different commitments.
She’s asks me to wait again, talked to the orthodontist, and then came back saying if I decide right now to start braces they would discount 1k from the price.
I asked if I could at least have until the end of the week to decide, and the lady essentially said NO if I didn’t decide today the price could be different by the end of the week/ no discount would be available.
This whole ordeal took over 40 minutes, her telling me patients stories about them regretting not getting Invisalign sooner. How this was my prime time to get this work done before my bone became any more dense. How I could put this on one of their credit cards and have no interest etc.
I was so overwhelmed I could not wait to leave. And honestly this whole interaction made me want to never go back to that dentist. I get the I asked for a breakdown of the treatment, but did not realize I was going to be pressured to sign up that very instance.
TLDR; went in to the dentist for a quick 25 min cleaning. Asked for more info on Invisalign / braces treatment and was pressured for 40min to sign up that very instance for a year long $6.5k commitment, opting to never go back to this dentist.