David Griffin, from US, 29 Oct 08
Were you pleased with the treatment?
Dr. Maite Moreno, of the Implant Dental Center in Tijuana, Mexico made a very good first impression. She was not only friendly and cordial, but offered me the choice between conventional porcelain over metal crowns and superior quality Procera porcelain crowns (for double the price, of course). Since I needed to replace basically every crown and tooth in my mouth, I chose the more expensive option as she promised superior quality.
I was lulled into a false sense of security by the "Procera" name, not properly considering the extreme importance of the quality of the dental work itself. As a result, I spent over $20,000 to Dr. Moreno and am going to have the entire work redone by someone else to make up for her apparently shoddy work.
I should have noticed the first warning sign when Dr. Morena demanded thousands of dollars up paid in advance.
Moreover, I should have paid closer attention to the several other patients that were complaining about problems with her work that Dr. Moreno merely dismissed as "crazy patients." I am certain that now she says the same of me behind my back as well.
Yes, in retrospect, I was crazy...crazy to blindly trust Dr. Moreno and not get her work checked every step of the way by a second dentist!
When Dr. Moreno finally finished the first of the three implants that I paid her in advance for, the finished crown came hanging in mid-air!
This is what caused me to become alarmed enough that I got a second opinion from a second dentist about her completed work. This is when I got the shock of my life. It turns out that Dr. Moreno left me with major problems. First off, the ex-rays of the crowns look more like cheaper porcelain over metal instead of the double the price Procera porcelain crowns. When presented with this information, Dr. Moreno merely proclaimed that the other dentist must be "inept," but has until now completely failed to present with any evidence whatsoever that the crowns she delivered are actually the Procera crowns she promised.
More importantly, even assuming that the delivered crowns actually might be Procera, it turns out that none of the crowns she made have the correct termination lines with the gums and there are even large spaces for food to accumulate between many of them! I am already as a consequence of this shoddy work developing problems with odors and bacteria!
When presented with this information, Dr. Moreno sarcastically replied "This is because you are a pig and do not brush your teeth."
This, of course is nonsense. I am not a dentist, but even so I protested upon delivery of the crowns about the incorrect margins on the crowns in the front as I could easily observe that they were too short. Dr. Moreno told me that this was just because the provisionals had pushed the gums up and that the gums would come down to the margins on their own. Today, Dr. Moreno comes invents the alternative toothbrush excuse because I was silly enough to trust her instead of having her work checked immediately by another dentist.
Dr. Moreno has not shown the slightest inclination to correct any of the problems that she has left me with, let alone to reimburse me anything at all, although still has several thousand dollars she required in advance for services never rendered.
Instead of offering to reimburse me even this money, she instead insists she will additionally "charge me for lost business resulting from this bad review I have published about her."
I therefore recommend avoiding the Implant Dental Center like the plague.
More specifically, I recommend that you:
1. Do not pay Dr. Moreno in advance for anything! and
2. have her work carefully checked by a second dentist every step of the way!
At this point, Dr. Moreno has received over $20,000 in advance from me over the past year and has not offered to reimburse me even one cent or even correct the deficient work.
Since I no longer trust her work, I will not sit down in her chair ever again.
This means that I have likely lost everything that I paid her and will have to pay all over again somewhere else, but at least I can help you from making the same mistakes I did.
Would you recommend the clinic?
No.
Would you return for further treatment?
No.
Treatments
Crown
Dental Implants
Treated By
Treated by Maite in Mexico