I Very Well May Be the Biggest Sucker in the World...

But now that I've learned my lesson, I'm going to share it with everyone who reads this blog. If I only deter one other individual from making the same mistake, it will have been well worth my time to so inform you.

Let me clarify right here at the front end, though: This item has nothing to do with fishing. Instead, it involves what, based on my experience, I can only describe as an unscrupulous business. I'm talking about the Dental Studio of Hampton Roads, located in Suite 111, 3809 Princess Anne Rd., Virginia Beach.

My spiraling problem started about six months ago, when I had a tooth filling that needed to be replaced.

After many six-month routine cleaning visits, in which I went in, had the cleaning, and then was escorted out of the office (per their extended pandemic measures), without once being required to stop and make a payment for services rendered, the procedure suddenly changed the day I had the filling replaced. Let me explain here that I had been thinking all along that my dental insurance must have been covering the whole bill for all my cleanings.

Little did I know the surprise that awaited me that day I went in for the filling. When the dentist was through with me, he escorted me...not out the front door...but directly to the counter with the folks who take care of all the administration duties. There, I learned they wanted payment of my share of the bill for the filling, as well as for the many previous cleaning visits. To that point in time, no one in the business even had explained that a bill had been accruing, nor had I received any billings from them or the insurance company to date.

Now fast forward to two days ago, when I paid my first visit to a new dental office...when I was in for yet another rude awakening. Following their X-rays of every area in my mouth, I was greeted by a dose of reality I'm still trying to wrap my head around. Without mixing words here, let's just say that the staff at the old dental office had misled me much farther than I ever would have suspected, given their repeated comments after all those routine cleanings to the effect, "Well, you're good to go for another six months."

Turns out that I really haven't been "good to go" for a long time now...and more to the point, there's no way I can really get back to a "good" point. The truth of the matter is that the old dental-office staff has allowed so much decay to occur in my mouth that I'm now even losing bone mass in my jaw.

So, where do I go from here? That's a question I don't have full answers for at the moment. The folks at my new dental office have offered their recommendations, but I have to decide which ones I can handle financially. As I've already explained to them, I refuse to make a bill for a lot of dental care at this point in my life. I will not leave a dental bill behind for my wife to pay.

In the final analysis, suffice it to say I'm not a happy camper. If I had the monetary where-with-all, I likely would hire a lawyer and sue that old dental office. But since that's out of the picture, I'm doing what I consider the next best thing and alert all my blog readers to beware if they utilize the services of the Dental Studio of Hampton Roads. If you happen to be a current customer, you might want to go elsewhere for a second opinion...just in case.