Braces By Garcia — Local services in Menifee

After experiencing Dr Garcia for three years, we are not fans. Here's why, several reasons: 1) My son has an exceptionally small mouth, so taking the mold to send to his insurance for approval was a challenge because the mouthpiece is so large. Especially at this time when he had the overbite, it was impossible for him to open as wide as they were demanding. His lips literally don't open that wide. Staff told my son repeatedly that he wasn't trying hard enough and if he couldn't open big enough they'd keep having to do it again (as if that helps). After repeatedly trying to shove something that didn't fit and making him cry, I learned that all they had to do was cut the plastic device down the middle to make it smaller. They finally did that and were able to do the mold. 2) Dr Garcia initially quoted pulling two teeth and getting braces for 3 years the proper solution when we had expensive insurance. Before getting the braces, his insurance changed to IEHP. When we went back to sign up for braces, suddenly Dr Garcia's solution changed to braces and jaw surgery. I was shocked. Surgery?! I reiterated that he'd previously said just pulling two teeth and braces was the plan. He looked flustered and backtracked to that original plan. My son never needed surgery. 3) When I'd sit and observe techs while my son would get his bands changed, I watched staff working on other kids use the dental instruments they were using to also open the drawers the rubber bands etc were in and then put the tools back into the kids' mouths. Gross! 4) Staff repeatedly misgendered him, we had to freq correct them on pronouns. No one is so daft they constantly forget your proper pronouns in one conversation, it felt purposeful. 5) When it was finally time to get my son's braces off, Dr Garcia did it. He was anxious to get it done fast because they were behind and everyone was going to go to lunch. So he took over the task of taking the glue off of my son's teeth and began really rushing the job. He told my son to raise his hand if he was causing him pain and he would stop. Because he was rushing, he was sanding my son's teeth for way too long/hard without lifting the tool, which causes the tooth to become hot and hurt really badly. So my son raised his hand and jerked in his seat, I could tell he was in pain. But whenever he raised his hand, Dr Garcia kept going anyway, saying he knows it hurts. So then my son is in tears and holding onto the seat with white knuckles. I stopped the doctor said, "he's raising his hand!" and my son said, "Why did you say to raise my hand if you weren't going to stop!?" Dr replied he knows it hurts he just had to keep going anyway so he could get it done. All this so he could get to his lunch break. I'm so glad we never have to go back there again. They present in the lobby as a great office but when it comes down to treating the kids well and operating ethically, that was not the priority from...

Save yourself the stress and go elsewhere.

This place is a disaster. Their customer service is terrible, their accounting and finance team are a mess, and when you cancel your service to go elsewhere they come after you for fees totaling thousands of dollars. They have complete confidence in their team however they contract overseas call centers and their office staff doesn't take notes or tell anyone what is going on, they claim to have excellent customer service but they do not keep notes in their files, the list goes on and on.

For the last three months we have been calling there to figure out how to transfer services. We left there in July. We informed the front desk employee that we were moving and not coming back, she stated no problem, and she would let the staff know. Since then, they have called us for appointments multiple times, they stopped charging our account on that last visit and now they are saying that its our fault even thought they have not attempted the transactions.

Now here it is the end of October and someone named Michelle finally called me back after months of trying to get care transferred for my daughter who was in pain and getting stressed out, and stated that we owe them over $2000 or they wont send the paperwork, and that they are going to start charging the card on file again. After informing her that they had not been charging me for months and that I withdraw my consent, she basically said, tough luck you signed a contract, we don't need your consent.

By the way we found a different ortho where we moved to and got started with them since we could not wait any longer.

Shady, shady, shady. Needless to say this...

Rude for no reason?? Today was the day my daughter got her braces and it was supposed to be a exciting day but I came back home feeling regrets and afraid this was a bad deal, they made us wait for a long time we were there today for two hours, but that's normal on a dentist or medical appointment, what I never heard of was giving up my full detailed information on a paper like my social security number, after paying and after they wrote down my debit card information to withdraw monthly they installed my daughters braces, when it was time to book her second appointment the lady at the front desk handed me a sticky notes pad while booking the appointment she said for December 4th, that's more than 2 months so I was wondering why, because I will get billed those two months she doesn't get seen, when I asked why is that the lady at the front desk didn't even paid attention and Ina very defensive way she just replied: " is for the insurance" I said that's not what am asking, I'm asking why is it going to take so long til she's seen again? Then she paid attention to what I asked and replied Is what the Dr. Wants, then I asked what she wants writen dowm in this pink tiny sticky pad, she said: your social, I said I'm not writing down my social, the way she was talking to me was as if I wasn't supposed to ask why, because she was clearly upset and rude about it, I will not give up my social security in such an unprofessional way, if I knew I was going to leave the dentist today feeling like this I would've taken my business else where, she said someone will be calling me...