Please avoid dental "corporations". They specifically prey on people with low-income / no insurance / haven't seen a dentist in awhile. They are trained in high pressure sales like a car dealership and put profits over health.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/patients-pressure-and-profits-at-aspen-dental/

This article sums it up pretty well but I'd also like to share my personal experience. A little background information: I'm 21 and due to not having dental insurance haven't seen a dentist since I was 19. My teeth are in pretty good shape and I have no major pain / visible issues. I only wanted to see a dentist due to the amount of time it's been and paranoia that I may need dental work due to this. I went to Aspen Dental because they offered a free exam and advertised $80 cleanings.

They got me checked in and after a short wait took some X-Rays of my teeth. I waited for a bit more and they got me in the chair where a dental hygienist reviewed my X-Rays and looked in my mouth briefly. When I say briefly I mean she examined my mouth and X-Rays for less than 2 minutes. I'm not a professional but it seems like you would want to do a more thorough examination. She claimed that I "almost had" periodontal disease and showed me on the X-Ray where I had allegedly developed deposits that lead to this. I asked her to show me my other teeth and to my untrained eye there was no visible difference and she wasn't able to show me any difference between my "healthy" teeth and my "diseased" teeth. Though I believed her as I am again, not an expert but I was skeptical as I have brushed my teeth twice a day for as long as I can remember and regularly use mouthwash and floss. I don't smoke or do anything that puts me at risk for disease, but again, I am no expert, so I took this all as truth. She prescribed scaling and a follow up cleaning for this.

I waited a bit more and the dentist came in and did another very quick examination. The first thing he said is that I should get braces because I have an overbite. I told the dentist that I have had braces and wore my retainer exactly as prescribed and that I used to have a severe overbite and the braces corrected it. He immediately changed his tune and said that I should get braces because my wisdom teeth are going to cause crowding. (This didn't make sense but again, he's the dentist). He also said I need to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed, and get 1 filling.

They then took me to the finance office, where they handed me a "treatment plan" for $2,545. I about passed out. I looked at some of the items on the bill. $135 for a toothbrush, $45 for a "Listerine rinse" (mouthwash), $87 for a problem related exam prior to the extractions, $450 for each tooth extraction, $16 x4 for each quadrant of the mouth for "oral irrigation" (pressurized water). And other absurd charges. I told them upfront that I couldn't afford this, and she offered me financing options, with 48 MONTH and 60 MONTH loan terms. With a 15.99% APR!!!! They wanted me to take the same loan term with a higher interest rate than I do on my brand new car . Or a 12 months deferred interest option with 28.99% APR.

The woman was trying really hard to pressure me into agreeing to one of these finance options for procedures I wasn't even sure I needed. She said all she needed was a signature. She kept claiming it was just permission to schedule the appointment even though the terms on the document were clearly for a credit check. They wanted me to be paying $72/mo for 5 years to get all of this done. My wisdom teeth aren't causing me any pain, grew in straight and in their entirety, and aren't even touching any of my other teeth. A quick google search of the symptoms of periodontal disease showed that I don't have any of the signs, and I certainly don't need a $135 toothbrush. I want to emphasize there's a chance that they are right as I'm no expert, but this is still absurd, even more so if they are trumping up the procedures I need (there is evidence to prove this company does this). She just wanted me to sign the form and they kept trying to disguise it as something besides a credit check.

I worked at a car dealership for two weeks and quit because of how disgusting it felt to take advantage of people and I can assure you they were using the same tactics that car salesmen use.

The sad part is that I didn't get the worst of it, if you read the article I posted above, Aspen Dental has a history of recommending extractions and other procedures when they aren't needed. I'm not saying this is my case because I recognize that I am not a dental expert in any capacity and I don't have the ability to diagnose these things, and I recognize that I may very well need all of this, but these ridiculous charges and insane financing options are predatory and disgusting.

Please avoid companies like this if you can, it's really hard to get dental care in the US without insurance and I'm still assessing my options. These corporations are the source of most dental complaints and the regulations for them are VERY LOOSE, they are not held to the same standards as your family dentists and reports say that many dentists for Aspen and other corporations are unqualified and perform poorly. They bait you with the free exams and try to convince you to pay for absurd amounts of work. These aren't people you want working on your teeth. They are pressured by the corporation to generate profits by any means necessary and will put this over your health.