Children's Dental FunZone, Eagle Rock

Sorry. I really can't give it more than one star. My son's medical insurance directed me to the Children's Dental Funzone. The office is clean. Appointments are usually 30-45 minutes late but usually not more than 1 hour. Dentists seem professional and good with children. So why only 1 star? I really want to like this place but I can't. Front desk staff are SO frustrating to deal with. Junior staff are condescending and passive aggressive. Office manager (Anna) is friendly but talking to her is like going around in circles. They wanted approx $3,000 for a course of treatment with my child. When I asked for details I was told that he would need to come in every 6-8 weeks. I asked if we could book those appointments in advance. They said no, but rather than give a straight answer, I got 5000 different (contradictory) reasons why this would be bad for me to do and result in worse care for my son. (See end of this message for examples) The staff person even tried to tell me that the clinic had never (!) had a case where someone was trying to make an appointment within the stated time from by couldn't. This was pretty shocking because it has happened to me a few times already -- virtually every! I had to wait 4 months once for the next check up time for my son (in addition to the standard 6 months in between checkups). I asked what happens in a scenario where I pay all this money, the clinic takes my money, the clinic puts all of this equipment in my little boy's mouth that needs to be maintained and serviced on a regular basis (6-8 weeks) but their next available appointment is in their usual 4-5 months. She didn't have any answer for that. I really don't think a clinic should be marketing medical services for children if they can't be sure that they will be able to perform those services according to their own safety guidelines. I am really bothered by the fact that this doesn't seem to bother anyone at Children's Dental Funzone and that, after having laid this out, they were still trying to market these $ervices to my family. ---- EXAMPLES OF THE DIFFERENT BS REASONS WHY THEY WON'T MAKE APPOINTMENTS IN ADVANCE CDFZ Staff: "We don't make appointments in advance because even though almost all of them are scheduled for the same length of time every once in a while like if your son breaks the equipment, we'd need to schedule a longer appointment and then your son would fall behind?" Me: "Why would he fall behind? In the remote possibility that he breaks the equipment, I would have to call on that day and make a longer appointment anyway and be at the mercy of whatever is available. That's no different than if I didn't have any appointments set up. So in the extreme case, I'm no worse than when we started but in 99% of situations we'd be ahead" CDFZ Staff: "Ummmm.... well we don't like to do that because it makes scheduling complicated" Me: "What is complicated about booking in advance? If he needs 4 sessions every 6-8 weeks why not book them now? What is complicated about that?" CDFZ Staff: "It's because of patient care" Me: "What is better about patient care if you put a ton of medical equipment in my son's mouth, cash my check, and then are too busy to see him again?" CDFZ Staff: "But if you son breaks the equipment then he would need a longer appointment" Me: "Yes, we just covered that at the beginning of this conversation..." [and we cycle through various 'reasons' again]