District Smiles

Kelly Stegman _{on Google}

Feb 22nd, 2023

Mint Dental took over District Smiles in Tenleytown NW and poorly handled a simple situation. I accidentally melted my invisalign retainer while cleaning it. Instead of explaining to me that I'd have to go through the former management/ownership to simply order a new set of retainers, they had me come in and redo the fitting. They lacked transparency and wasted my time when they informed me they didn't get what they needed and said I'd have to go to their Rhode Island Ave. office for additional scans. The story goes on from here, but in short: the new management/ownership is greedy, irresponsible and owes me a refund.

MJ R. _{on Yelp}

Jan 22nd, 2023

I'm going to post this review for both District Smiles and Mint Dental, since they're two locations of the same business and dentists work at both locations. First, the people who work here are really, really nice which is why I had been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But their scheduling, business, and billing practices have made it so I never ever want to go back.In  July, I went in for a checkup and was told that I needed a crown replacement. The crown didn't hurt and I was preparing for an extended trip and super busy but they assured me that they had a new procedure in which they take off the old crown, scan the tooth, and then 3-D print the permanent crown and install it *all in the same day*. Cool, right? EXCEPT, day of, they....couldn't work the scanner. Not that the scanner was broken (had them confirm this in the aftermath, while trying to figure out what went wrong and who was at fault)--The people that the practice had scheduled to work the procedure could not figure out how to use it--they spent what seemed like hours trying to scan my mouth (this sucked, by the way, and hurt) and produced such a giant file that it wouldn't upload to the 3-D printer. So, after hours of waiting, they slapped on a (badly placed) temp crown, and sent me on my way to come back and do they whole thing again a week later--this time with Dr. Kassem, who might be the only person in the practice who knows how to work the machine.But you know what? Even after all of that, I went back and had a filling done a  week later--they were that nice! The filling, and the crown, once it was in, have been fine: this is not a review of the actual dentistry, only how they run the business.I've been burned--badly--by dentist/insurance stuff before, so I made sure that they preauthorized the procedure with my insurance and asked for a guarantee that the quoted and billed price would be the final. I was assured that it was, and assumed my balance was zero.This week, *six months later*, I got--via email, totally without explanation---a random link to a bill for $34. I couldn't even log in to see what it was for (their billing software is pretty janky and doesn't look secure--I thought it was spam at first) so I called them and, very nicely, they told me that insurance had not covered one part of the procedure (which may have been their fault, actually) and very nicely asked me to pay the balance.After all of that, and over $34, I lost it. It may be petty of me, but it's also petty (and possibly unethical) of them, especially since the procedure itself was a nightmare. Why would they wait so long to bill me, without any explanation, over a botched procedure, and renegging on their guarantee of up-front pricing? And then, even after I questioned them about this, why would they double down, especially given that they had been at fault?It felt like a shakedown, honestly. I paid it, but i will never, ever, ever go back again, no matter how nice--$34 this time could be $340 (or hell, $3400) next time, and I'm not taking any chances. So, the actual dentistry is fine (ultimately), the people are great, but practices--in multiple ways--are sloppy enough to give me pause. I need a dental practice I can trust, and this ain't it.

Grant Saki _{on Google}

Dec 13th, 2022

Use them at your own risk!
Never had an insurer battle so much just to contact a company in my life!
Went for a treatment 8 months ago which was an emergency consultation, I specifically requested that they check that it was in network and pre approved before visiting and was told it was all covered.
I have now nearly 8 months later, received an outstanding bill from them. They have been incredibly unprofessional and are claiming for a charge that was not consistent with the visit. I had an emergency issue and did not go for a general consultation.
They have been paid by MetLife for the consultation and are requesting additional funds.
Please see the last communication whereby Metlife could not contact their offices for weeks. Not by phone, text or email, absolutely pathetic.
I did not go there for a general consultation and would never have accepted to go there had they not lied to me and told me it was pre approved and in network.
For them to now claim otherwise is fraud.
They act without impunity, as they feel the patient has no rights and they operate as such.

Daisy Brumby _{on Google}

Oct 24th, 2022

I've had several bad experiences here and have chosen to leave and find a new dentist. I have had three different dentists in the span of about one year and their turnover rate is unacceptable.

Kate B. _{on Yelp}

Aug 28th, 2022

I've been to District Smiles 3 times, but just once since Mint Dental got involved. I will never go again--the dental services were fine, thus the second star, but the management of the place is the worst. No one answers phones, you have to text to get an appointment. You may miss the callback, so expect setting up an appointment to take at least a week unless you do it in person. I imagine that no emergencies are accommodated?  Then, the estimates. My estimate was $137. I left having paid over $570. I did expect to pay extra for a patched tooth, but that was $150. No apology, itemized bill or warning that they were doing an extra ~$285 in work. Deceitful at best.