Sunrise Intracoastal Dental Center

Does poor dental work, overcharges, and lies:

Two and one half years ago, Dr. Petrisko diagnosed one of my upper teeth as needing a root canal, a buildup and the addition of a post to stabilize and anchor the existing crown which he would remove and replace in order to "save" the tooth. The total cost billed was $760.

Six months later Dr. Petrisko diagnosed the same situation on another of my upper teeth and billed me $2425 which include cutting off and replacing two connected crowns with individual ones, a root canal, a post, and two buildups.

A check of my dental plan prices later revealed I should have been charged $575 for the first procedure and $1808 for the second. I wonder if he routinely makes these "mistakes". I also wonder if replacing the connected crown was necessary.

To make matters worse, the post in one tooth broke three times at about 6 month intervals after the work was done. Instead of standing behind his work, I was charged each time for a replacement with a stronger and thicker post, the total additional charges adding up to $658. Shortly after the third post broke, the post in the other tooth also broke. I then decided to get several other opinions.

Other dentists agreed that the two teeth that Dr. Petrisko had "saved" for me, at a total cost of more than $3000, had instead fractured and had to be extracted. I wonder if Dr. Petrisko's work is always this bad.

In addition, after the post broke in the second tooth, Dr. Petrisko proposed a treatment plan involving a three tooth bridge including a replacement of the broken post as a solution. Under pressure, I hastily accepted and left a $500 deposit. I reconsidered a few hours later, called the office and cancelled the treatment, not wanting to chance a repeat of the same post replacements scenario. Afterwards, the office personnel and Doctor Petrisko then proceeded to pretend that lab work had already been done and refused to refund the deposit. Later, I recorded Doctor Petrisko telling me that the lab work was actually done the next day, but he still refused to refund my deposit. I wonder if Dr. Petrisko is in the habit of lying to all his patients.

In addition to the office not even having a computer or any modern dental equipment, other reviewers on various websites have noted that the office is run down and dumpy with old and stained equipment, complained of unnecessary procedures being proposed, dental work that doesn't last, overcharging, and having found proof that this practice is on the edge of committing fraud.