Steven Thompson, DDS

I have had bad experiences with ImageCare Dental, and if only things could get worse with Imagecare Dental, they did today. The doctor (also the owner, Dr. Thompson) attempted to make things better from my last visit by looking into my root canal issue and giving me a free CT scan to see if I needed a root canal (which I did).
My appointment for the root canal was today. Dr. Thompson had my complete medical history, including a record that I take a particular medication that would render their «conscious sedation» mediation completely useless. I get severe dental anxiety and have never had a root canal before, so I needed to be asleep for the procedure. Regardless of my tolerance for this medication, I was prescribed the «conscious sedation» medication that did not work at all in reducing my anxiety. They prescribed my 3 pills that I brought to the office, but I was only given 2 (probably because the doctor did not check my electronic medical record and notice that my tolerance for the medication was high). When I asked for the 3^rd, the doctor refused. I was given minimal nitrous and was so anxious that I could not stop crying. The doctor kept coming in asking, «are we ready yet?», to which the answer was always no. I was sedated in no way; in fact, I could easily drive or work. I refused to have a root canal under those conditions, as the doctor promised that I would not remember the procedure (or care that my teeth were being drilled) during the consultation. Today, the nurse kept telling me that she could numb me with gel, but that doesn’t help resolve my fear of needles. Her approach was not very calming and I wasn’t clear about how gel would help reduce my panic attack.
The doctor finally realized that the root canal was not going to happen, and I was taken to another room and offered intravenous sedation by an anesthesiologist at the cost of $ 1,200. When I said that this was absolutely out of my price range, the scheduler «went to the back» (like a used car dealer) and said that she may be able to find a cheaper anesthesiologist to do the procedure and told me that she would call me the next day. I asked for a refund (for the root canal that I didn’t receive) and left. I will NEVER return — I have learned my lesson.
My husband took the entire day off to provide transportation for the 2.5 hours that this procedure would take (as they told me that I wouldn’t be able to drive under the influence of their medication that ended up being useless), and I lost half of a day of work because of this screw up. There is no point in a doctor asking about medications that a patient is taking if that information is never used in the future in a patient’s treatment plan. A higher dose of the medication would have completely resolved this problem. Because Dr. Thompson and/​or the tech did not pay attention to my medical history, this «procedure» resulted in a major waste of time, money and energy (not considering the stress and anxiety that I associated with the procedure that never happened).

The doc is stilla flossing and I’m stilla grinning. Great service, great people (they are part of ImageCare) and no cavities!