Northern Michigan Pediatric: Vanwingen James M DDS

The dentists and hygienists were great! The front office ruined the entire experience. We came in for an emergency visit. The dentist ended up giving us antibiotics and wanted to treat the tooth right away to save it. Apparently, the scheduling staff doesn't care about that and scheduled us a month and a half out. I tried to explain that the dentist told us it needed to happen sooner. I was cut off to hear, "I understand that but the schedule is full." The tone showed me they just wanted to schedule us and get us out the door as soon as possible. They weren't listening, didn't show any compassion or concern for the urgency. They didn't even try to double check with the doctor to see if they need to move their schedule around. After trying to explain the situation repeatedly, all they would offer was to put us on a cancellation list. I had to schedule the appointment, leave the scheduling staff because they were not helping me. I asked for the dentist and he said try to get back in a couple weeks.
Oct 28th, 2023

Nice office, staff was OK, dentist not really personable, transactional. THIS OFFICE will text you ten texts about insurance WILL NOT CALL TO REMIND OR TEXT ABOUT YOUR APPOINTMENTS before sending you away to a new dentist. They sent the letter in the mail to kick you out but can't call you. FYI
Aug 31st, 2023

The most bizarre overall experience I've ever had with a dentist's office spanning over a year. Most recently: about 7 months ago I had three of my children scheduled for back-to-back appointments. Early that morning two of them began vomiting so I called the office as it opened to tell them we would not be in and why. I asked them to "Please cancel everything." They asked if I wanted to reschedule and I said "Not right now, I'll have to call you back." One appointment was a filling in two parts actually so I think my son had an appointment that day and another the following day... Apparently I was "dismissed as a client" because of this incident. I called to schedule new appointments and the woman said, shamingly. That I showed one cancellation of less than 24 hours and 2 no call/no shows. All from that day. She acted shocked that I would even call as they sent a letter in the mail - never got a letter. I asked if I could appeal with the Dr as this was an obvious mistake/miscommunication and I was told it had been the doctors decision and he's not interested in dealing with you further. Dr. Mandeville, this is how your staff speaks for you. I'm certain you were not given complete information. I asked why nobody had called to investigate before sending a letter and she says "that's not our responsibility." I suppose that's true but I should think you'd want to get your facts straight considering all of these poor reviews you seen to be accumulating for the same behavior. Our first interaction was super weird too. We were new and I was treated very rudely. Eyes rolled because I was taking "too long" to fill out information for my four children. I wasn't taking very long and I had all of my stuff there but I was still made to feel like I was being burdensome. They didn't want to accept a passport as ID in lieu of a driver's license that was in the mail as again... We're new. Wouldn't accept my voided out-of-state license or the paper temporary license from the Secretary of state. I made sure all of my insurance info was right but still there were mistakes that took eight months and multiple multiple calls to the office to fix. They admitted the error was on their end but still didn't seem to care or know how to fix any of it. We didn't reschedule for so long because we wanted it to be straightened out. I can't imagine most people have the kind of time to devote to calling for reimbursements. This office put us at risk of having our HSA locked because, without the necessary paperwork we were waiting to be filed by them - it would have looked like fraud. We ended up finally getting it from them in the knick of time but that's a very scary thing to risk for any family and the cavalier attitude about it was very concerning. This level of veiled comments too from support staff about how it was likely a problem with Medicaid (we don't have Medicaid.) But it was interesting that they seemed to want to insist that we did, and then insist that we didn't know we had it?... With tone. My advice to any potential new or current clients... If your child is vomiting don't even bother calling... Just go on in. Let them send you home. Also little to no concern for HIPPA as they'll just talk about everything within earshot of other clients. From the waiting room to the actual exam area to the check-out area... No privacy whatsoever. My family was with our previous dentist for seven years... The entirety of our time in that state and never a complaint or concern. We went to your office for three visits. Super weird overall 0/10
Aug 12th, 2023

Jun 9th, 2023

This is such a great place! They are timely and remember your kiddos and yourself by name despite serving so many families. They truly care, are great with nervous kids, and the work is top notch!
Apr 24th, 2023