Celia Octoman, DDS – Central Dental Care

If I could give no stars I would! I went to Dr. Octoman in Covina about a year ago as my son had an emergency and his regular dentist was not open. I found them on the insurance site and so I figured they were a legitimate dental office. Well, let me tell you that they tried to get me to pay out of my pocket for a procedure that my insurance covered, billed my insurance for a different code and lied to me and my insurance about it.
I asked how much my insurance would cover and I was told they were closed and that I would have to wait until Monday being that it was a Saturday morning. I agreed to have the procedure done as my son had a broken tooth and was in pain. I gave a cash deposit and was told they would let me know what my insurance would cover. I called on Monday and they told me it would take 6 – 8 weeks to find out what my insurance would cover because they had to submit a claim. I knew this did not sound right and after multiple calls back and forth between my insurance and this dental office I discovered that when a dentist is part of the network they have contracted amounts and know exactly what they are and in case they «lost» their contract and they can call the insurance company who happens to be open on Saturdays and obtain the contracted amount in 5 minutes!
To make a long story short and my nightmare experience quick, i have been dealing with them for a year! They submitted the wrong code to my insurance although they performed a procedure that was covered by my insurance and they were telling me it was not and that if I wanted the «upgrade» I had to pay out of my pocket. My insurance explained to me several times that there was no such thing as an upgrade and that the procedure was covered and that I should not pay a penny more to them.
When my insurance three-​way called the dentist they told the insurance that it was a mistake they made and that they were correct and I did not have to pay anything else and that it was covered. They were also requested by the insurance to resubmit the claim with the actual procedure that was performed. They did and I thought it was all corrected. Next thing I knew they were calling and sending bills for over $ 400 for the «upgrade»!!!
The ladies in the office are really nice but acted confused when I would questioned them each time and they straight out lie! Even after the three-​way call with the insurance they were back to their same story of the «upgrade»!! It was a nightmare.
I filed a complaint with the dental insurance and with the BBB!
Lesson learned from all of this is that you should ALWAYS ask for a printed Pre-​Estimate Treatment that spells out the procedure, codes, what your insurance will cover and what you are responsible for. Do not agree to any treatment until you have verified everything with your insurance. Also, READ and become familiar with your insurance coverage summary and if you are not sure about something communicate with your insurance first! If you do all this, there will be very little wiggle room for them to mislead you.
I gave this advice to some co-​workers and it was amazing to see 2 of them avoid my same mistake. They were being told similar stories and when they asked for the pre-​treatment estimate and sounded educated about their plan and called their insurance to verify the dentist story and found it was not correct, they both were told by the dental office «We are so sorry we made a mistake, you are correct». I guess all dentist will try and if they can get away with it they will.

Been with this dentist for a while. The main dentist «Octoman» is never there and you get a different person right out of dental school each time. They try to sell you procedures you don’t need each time. Then when I had an actual broken tooth and wanted to see Octoman they made me an appointment but she didn’t show up. Instead the wanted me to see some other young dentist or drive to the west side on Beverly! Please…