Dr. Vitalie is a dentist-salesman. Â He is a much better salesman than dentist. Â As a dentist, he is rough as he works around your mouth, and no amount of protest will garner you any sympathy. Â He is merely a technician, wanting to get through the procedure as quickly as possible. Â As a salesman, he can't be beat. Â I made a new patient appointment for your standard check-up and cleaning. Â During my check-up, Vitalie looked in my mouth, and then with his hands touched the base of my head and neck and shoulders. Â He smushed around there for a second. Â He asked me if I ever got headaches. Â Well, yes, sometimes, I said. Â He said he had received advanced dental training from some place in Las Vegas, and that my cross bite was the reason I was having headaches. Â Headaches and a cross bite were nowhere on my list of concerns when I made this new patient appointment. Â Later, after doing research on the place Dr. Vitalie said he had done his special training (The Las Vegas Institute… for Advanced Dental Studies), I learned that it's a for-profit business where dentists pay to take continuing education classes there and then pay to market themselves on their website as neuromuscular-trained dentists who can help resolve your TMJ / TMD symptoms. Â No wonder he was so keen on selling me this bogus crap. Â His sales tactics all made sense now. Â I mean, he markets TMJ/TMD problems to as many poor, unsuspecting souls as he can, to people like me who don't have TMJ/TMD problems in the first place. Â I need to address my cross bite to fix my headaches? Â If I went in specifically inquiring about these things or specifically stated I was unhappy with my cross bite or was trying to find a solution for my headaches, it would be one thing. Â But for me to be an unsuspecting patient, where there already is an imbalance of power due to the fact that he is a "medical doctor" of sorts and I have no training in his field, it was highly unethical of him to create "problems" that I did not need to address. Â After asking if I ever got headaches, Vitalie asked if I had had much success in treating those headaches. Â since I still had headaches, he suggested I hadn't had any success in treating them at all. Â He said the problem was in my cross bite, and he could help me fix my headaches. Â He said this could be achieved by running little electrical pulses through my face to relax my jaw into its natural position. How much for this procedure, I asked. Â Vitalie said $130. Â If it's $130, then we can try it, I said. Â He glued electrodes to my face and said the stimulating pulse would relax my jaw into its natural position. Â I sat in a chair for an hour with electrodes stuck to my face as if I were right out of a bad science fiction movie. Â Well, when it came time to pay, Vitalie was nowhere to be found, as he had left for the day. Â I soon come to learn from his friendly-as-a-shark receptionist that Vitalie was charging me $500. Â I told the girl that was NOT what Vitalie said the cost was. I know what $130 sounds like - it doesn't sound like $500. Â Say the two numbers out loud for yourself - they sound nothing alike, you wouldn't confuse the two. The girl said I could not leave without paying the $500 because I signed their paperwork saying I was legally responsible for payment at time of service. Â Bewildered, I paid $500 that day. Â The weeks that ensued trying to take care of this load of crap involved me having to call and call and call and tell them that I was of course happy to pay the $130 quoted to me since that was what I agreed to (despite the fact that the procedure, unsurprisingly, resulted in nothing) but to take an extra $370 from me for accomplishing absolutely nothing was unjust and unethical. Â The fact that I walked in there for a check-up/cleaning and ended up being sold Vitalie's TMJ/TMD marketing ploy shows you what a snake oil salesman Vitalie is. Â on top of that, he blatantly charged me a price nearly $400 above what he quoted me, and did so without blinking. Â You can imagine having to talk to his guard dog staff and arrogant Vitalie over the phone - talk about extremely uncomfortable. Â I eventually got a check in the mail, but between the watchdog staff, snake oil salesman who passes himself off as a dentist, dishonest business practices, and my time and money wasted, I can say this: Vitalie is not a kind dentist, nor an honorable one. If you enjoy being treated badly, go to this guy. Otherwise, go to a dentist who will treat you with dignity.
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