Dr Altenberg was listed as a provider for my HMO but was resistant to accepting me as a patient. Finally they agreed to take me on as a patient because she had already seen my wife months before. Every visit I had with her she found some major problem that needed to be fixed. According to her my mouth was full of "ticking timebombs". She even crowned one tooth for me which ended up being infected and I needed a root canal in the tooth - resulting in a ruined crown. Every time she worked on me she was very rough and every experience I had in her chair was painful and uncomfortable. However, I tolerated her rough handling because she was one of only a few dentists that worked with my HMO. Finally her business office found a way to avoid the low reimbursement rates that my HMO provided and started charging me and my insurance much higher rates. The result was going to be a much higher out of pocket expense for me. I decided that it was going to be worth it to move to a different dentist even if it meant a long drive across town.
out of 5 stars
