Tend Dental Park Slope — Local services in New York

Editing to add: I called the number they responded with and it went to a call center. The person was confused as to what to do, reached out to the Park Slope location and said they'd call me back. They did not call me back.

tldr: tend messed up my tooth and cost me $1000. Don't go here.

At a regular cleaning the dentist mentioned that I take great care of my teeth but have a stain on my front tooth likely from braces as a child. She said she could fix it by just covering it with some bonding so I didn't have to deal with it any longer. I asked how much that would cost and if it were covered by insurance and she said it would be and would be $18. I figured why not and scheduled a follow up visit.

When I arrived at my visit the front desk asked if I was aware of the copay. I said "$18 right?", they said "No, it will be $64". I figured I was already there and I'd treat myself to a whiter smile. That was a mistake.

When I was brought back I realized I was in a more intense space than the one I'd had my cleaning in. I asked if there was drilling involved. The dental assistant said yes. I said I'd need nitrous as I'm not great with drilling. That was another $145. The dentist then came in and asked why I wanted nitrous since "it's only 1 filling". I said I get really anxious with drills and needed it. She seemed annoyed but walked away to wait for it to kick in.

She came back and did the procedure, but as she was wrapping up said "I know you wanted to get this stain covered but these stains are quite deep and it's unethical to drill into a healthy tooth" (which she had just done...) so the stain wasn't fully covered. She showed me my new smile in a small mirror. I said the stain looked the same, because it did to me. I also said my tooth felt very rough and thick now. She said that's because she'd added 3 layers of bonding. I said it was extremely rough and had her try several times to smooth it out to no avail. Finally she said I could come back in a few days if I wasn't used to it and she'd fix it.

I had to run to work but was distracted all day by the feeling that my tooth was rough and longer (inexplicably since the stain wasn't on the bottom of my tooth). When I finally got home, I tried on my retainer to learn that it no longer fit at all. I called the office number and was sent to a call center. I said I needed to come in ASAP to get my tooth fixed. They said the soonest they could get me in would be in 3 days. I said I didn't want to see the same dentist, but a different one to fix it. They said they were not allowed to schedule me with a different dentist without confirmation from the studio which they could initiate. I asked them to do so and they said I would hear back within 24 hours. It's been over 3 days and I've heard nothing.

Meanwhile, I was able to get into a brand new dentist office the next morning that a friend recommended. They were so kind and able to fix my tooth, but the fix to the bonding was another $70 and my retainer had to be replaced, costing another $650. If I had continued to use the same retainer the pressure from the new bonding could've chipped my tooth.

In the end, I spent ~$1000 dollars to have my front tooth slightly worse than it was before. I said all this to the customer service rep at tend and.... all I've been offered is the ability to come back and pay for a new appointment with the same dentist I no...

This place has gone downhill in the last couple of years. Tend went from working with the customer and promoting their bill transparency policies, to gaslighting and sending me multiple bills 5 months after my procedure.

I went to the Park Slope location back in May on an emergency visit after my 15-year-old root canal crown fell off. I was told by the front staff that my insurance benefits were exhausted at the time of the appointment, and that I would have to pay for everything out of pocket. They were even apologetic about the high cost ($1,500, according to the pre-procedure document I received) and suggested I return later in November when my dental insurance could cover more of the procedure. By this point, I already waited a week and a half to get an appointment, and I was frustrated and uncomfortable because I literally had an open hole on my tooth from the crown falling off, so I agreed to move forward with Tend. Because this was a root canal procedure, I had to make an appointment at the Flatiron location where the root canal specialist is located.

In the next couple of visits, I paid a total of $1,564 out of pocket to Tend (as expected). Five months later, I received a total of 7 separate bills, all with different Bill IDs and various costs from my appointments earlier in the year.

I’ve been going to Tend (Williamsburg, Park Slope, and now Flatiron) since 2020, and I always make it a point to check with the front desk to confirm that I've paid for everything after every visit. This is the first time I've ever been billed by not just Tend, but any dentist, five months after a procedure. I started going to Tend because they stressed their bill transparency (as per Tend, "We have reimagined the entire dental experience with transparent pricing”). If you're so transparent about your billing, why am I being charged an additional $601 five months after my last visit?

In the past month, I've had multiple calls with Tend billing, my insurance company, a three-way call with Tend and insurance, and no one can give me a clear answer as to (1) why the Park Slope location gave me the wrong information regarding the total cost, (2) why they said insurance wasn’t covering anything when Cigna was, in fact, covering a portion of the procedure (found this out last month), (3) why they sent me to an out-of-network root canal specialist without informing me that the specialist was out-of-network, and (4) why am I being billed five months after I stepped foot at a Tend location?

I started going to Tend in 2020 after a bad experience at The Smiliest in Greenpoint (who actually went out of their way to adjust my bill ledger to $0 as an apology for poor service I received). Now, after four years of recommending Tend to all my friends and colleagues, I have to look for a new dentist and I recommend that anyone reading this does the same.

Super unfortunate because the actual dentists and hygienists have been amazing, but dealing with billing, lack of transparency, alleged platform issues with their billing website, and inconsistencies from every single Tend employee I've spoken to, I would...

Working with tend has been the worst experience of my life with any customer service. No exaggeration. It all started when I came in for an invisalign consultation. It was VERY rushed but I trusted they knew what they were doing. I was trying to sign up before the end of March to get the discount, but I was told I needed pre-authorization from my insurance. I insisted that I did not as I knew I didn’t but they said I did and that it would be a few weeks so I may not get the discount. Two weeks later I called my insurance to see if they got the request for authorization from tend yet, and they said they never requested it!!!! On top of that, they confirmed I didn’t even need it!!!!! SO frustrating. I spent days calling back and FINALLY got them to approve the insurance and start treatment. When I went back to get my trays I realized my provider was just a dentist and NOT an orthodontist. The more I asked questions the more I realized she is NOT experienced. One example is she told me before treatment that the filing that would have to be done to my reduce my teeth wouldn’t be visible to the eye. She later admits it would be VERY visible and when I said I wasn’t comfortable with that she told me I already agreed to the treatment (based on her lies) and the only option was to stop if I wasn’t happy. I also had asked to widen my smile. She said that wasn’t ever possible with invisalign. When I later showed her examples I found of that service online she said she was “just as baffled as I was” — not encouraging to hear that my provider has no idea what she’s talking about. Based on all this I requested Tend move me to an experienced orthodontist who can take over my case. That was over a month ago and they told me that I could move to cobble hill in July but needed to determine when exactly. I just followed up to ask when and they said “Per our clinical team and looking at your case, they determined that you should stay with your treating provider. Our ortho team does not agree with the treatment and would not be able to take on the case. Sorry about that!” Ummm is this a joke? The orthodontist doesn’t agree with treatment so I should just keep doing this horrible treatment and mess up my teeth? I have requested to speak with a manager so many times and no one will contact me. I pray this gets resolved eventually. DO NOT EVER GO HERE I AM SO UPSET THAT I CHOSE TEND. WORST EXPERIENCE. Check my account, I never leave bad reviews, but this was necessary to help someone...