Center City Dental — Local services in Philadelphia

While everyone is very pleasant, this practice has deteriorated to a zero out of 10, it used to be a 10 out of 10. Every complication with my dental care is my fault. The years long saga involves my bridge this time. (actually again) A few weeks back I was tortured with a root canal where I was literally loudly screaming in pain because Dr. Mehta just stopped giving me any pain medication. Between screams her beside manner was to tell me to bear with her because she was almost done. (I thought Dr. Frankenstein was operating on me). 61 years of dental work and never such an experience. Now I have two caps on my teeth and have been waiting foy my bridge for a few weeks. The caps keep falling off, and despite the glue I was given to re-glue them if they fell out (can you imagine ?) I must re-install my own caps ?),.I can’t get them to stay in. This is very dangerous. On May 1st I had to go in to have them replace one of the caps, which was done, and I was assured it would not fall out again. I was told my upcoming appointment for my bridge replacement had to be canceled because the bridge was not in yet. I was told someone would call me, no one called me, Well last night one of the caps fell out again (the one I was assured would not) and I had not heard about my bridge. I called this morning. At first I was told I would be put on hold so they could call the lab and find out what was going on with my bridge. When the young lady got back on she indicated that they did indeed have my bridge after all (oops) and that I had missed my appointment to put it in. This was the appointment canceled by the dental office on May 1st. I was very annoyed and said so. Record keeping is horrible. It has been over a week since I allegedly "missed" my appointment, and no one has called me ? I was highly annoyed and explained this all to the clerk in a tone commensurate with my annoyance. She kept insisting that the record said I "missed" the appointment, not true (this again is the mantra in this office "it’s always the patient's fault"). With my bare root canal in my mouth with one cap missing I wanted to avoid damage to my unprotected tooth and get the situation remedied today given the danger to my tooth and the delay and screw ups by the dental office. Nope, I cannot be seen until Monday. When I expressed my concern about damaging my unprotected tooth, I was told to "chew on the other side". I replied and said, "I have no teeth on the other side "(really just upper teeth missing). I got no sympathy , no empathy. I was told there was nothing that could be done and they would see me on Monday. No apology for the screw up on the part of the dental office, nothing. I was made to feel as though I am lacking in intelligence and awareness. Very insulting treatment. This is in keeping with the SOP of this place since Dr. Coleman left, which is "no matter what it’s the patient 's fault." So now I get to spend the next 3 ½ days hoping I don’t accidently forget and chew on the wrong side of my mouth and destroy my unprotected tooth (or maybe since apparently I am a dental assistant, I should try and re-glue the cap that fell out AGAIN). This is not to mention the possibility my tooth gets reinfected because it is not properly capped. For all this I have the “pleasure” of paying a $400.00 deductible. Terrible, just terrible. Once they put my bridge in on Monday, I will never go here again. A word to the wise...

AVOID!!! Scammed me out of almost $700 by not telling me she left Aetna and was out of network. She left Aetna in August of 2018, never informed me, had me in for a cleaning (September 20th 2018 - no charge at time of cleaning which didn't surprise me because it should be covered 100% in network) and sealants (September 27th 2018) and then proceeds to tell me after the work is done that she is no longer in my network and I need to pay full price. She left one month before my visits and never notified me!!! Even after I asked about insurance coverage multiple times and even joked with the dentist about how I was waiting for better coverage with my new Job and insurance so I could afford it with my full coverage. She KNEW this was an issue for me and NEVER informed me she went out of my network (Aetna).

I have been going to Dr. Shirazy for 2 years. While I had no major complaints other than feeling pressured into Xrays every visit, things were smooth sailing. She did a good job with cleanings and so I continued to see her. I recently changed jobs and received an increase in my dental coverage (I was with Aetna before and am still with Aetna now, just a new plan). I knew this was coming and the last time I visited she mentioned I should replace my sealants. So I went in for a visit on September 20th for a routine cleaning. At this visit we schedule me to come in on September 27th. I had given the receptionist all my insurance information and asked multiple times (the hygienist, Dr. Shirazy herself, and the receptionist) if I would be covered under my new insurance. I even provided all my insurance information to the receptionist and she said that she would call to confirm. She did not charge me for the cleaning on Sept 20th and I left. I returned September 27th and received sealants/fillings on 8 of my back molars. When I went to the receptionist she informed me I owed her $510 for the sealants and an additional ~$170 for the cleaning. Under my new insurance, cleaning is covered at 100% and the fillings would have been covered and much cheaper. I clearly look confused but she already had my card and charged it. I asked her why I was being charged for this and she starts telling me how the insurance only covers this and that, some long confusing answer. Then I ask her why I'm being charged for the cleaning and she told me it is BECAUSE DR. SHIRAZY LEFT MY NETWORK IN AUGUST. I was never informed and this was one month prior to my visit. I asked MULTIPLE times to confirm my insurance coverage. #1 I was never notified she left the network #2 I was never told at my visit on the 20th she left the network and #3 I was never told on the phone when I called the receptionist to confirm my insurance. Aetna even has it recorded in their system that her office receptionist contacted Aetna but used the patient portal, not the dentist portal. Aetna told me that they were fully aware that they are no longer in my network and this sounds like a terrible business practice that is not unheard of. It isn't like she is a new dentist and I failed to do my due diligence because she has been within network for the past two years and Aetna informed me she recently left in August 2018. I feel ripped off, lied to,...

1/21/2014

What an excellent dental team!! Detailed, thoughtful care; efficient, skilled use of technology; and a calm, clean, and overall pleasant office environment together made me confident that I was receiving the highest level of care.

I was impressed with the detailed, thoughtful care Dr. Shirazy took with me as a new patient. She clearly described (and drew a diagram) to explain what she was seeing in my x-rays, making me feel confident that what another dentist thought might be a cavity was in fact only the structure of my teeth. Also, when the hygienist, Evan, asked me how long it had been since I had last had x-rays taken, I told him a little less than a year. Because they want to make sure not to give patients unnecessary x-rays, Evan asked Dr. Shirazy whether or not to take a complete set. Ultimately she decided that because it had been 11 months, and because my previous dentist had been watching a couple spots on x-rays, it was better to take a full set. Regardless of the end decision, I felt that they took the time to make a thoughtful decision. Too often doctors take x-rays just for kicks and giggles.

I was also impressed that before the appointment the woman at the front desk explained what I would be charged with my insurance for the day's visit. No surprises there.

Re technology: the hygienist used an instrument I've never had a dentist use before during a cleaning. Basically, instead of the regular handheld stainless steel instrument used for scraping off tartar, he used a motorized metal instrument that was vibrating very, very quickly to loosen and remove most of the tartar before going back and removing the remnants with the old-school tool. Anyway--it was a far more efficient and much less agonizing way to clean teeth than the traditional manual cleaning that takes half an hour of scraping.

Also re technology: perhaps a little frivolous, but they use iPads for patients to fill out the initial paperwork. This was nice because it was only necessary to write contact information once (instead of putting the usual name, address, insurance info, SS#, etc. on multiple forms). Not rocket science, but wonderful!

Last, another little luxury--completely beyond the pale of dental expertise, but wonderful nonetheless--the bathroom (which could have just as easily been a lobby bathroom in a 4-star hotel) was stocked with the most wonderful hand cream (from Restoration Hardware--I remember because I plan to buy some...).

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