Dental offices a constant on BBB complaint roster

In May, the worst offenders were Sahuarita Dental Care, with four unanswered complaints, and Western Dental, which had two unanswered and one unresolved.

Western Dental has two Tucson locations — 3922 N. Oracle Road and 7701 E. Broadway.

The remaining three dentist complaints last month were spread between two dentists, and all three were resolved, according to Better Business Bureau records.

The bureau doesn't accept or process malpractice complaints in medical professions, said Kim States, spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona. Those complaints are referred to the appropriate medical board, she said.

So, any dental complaints on record with the bureau are in billing or customer service, she said.

In the case of Western Dental — which has had 14 complaints in the past 12 months — sometimes the bureau receives a response indicating the dental group needs to get a waiver from the customer before it can respond to the BBB complaint, States said. Sometimes, the BBB receives no response at all.

And even when the customer signs the waiver, there have been times when no further action has been taken by Western Dental, States said.

Western Dental referred inquiries to its corporate office in California. The corporate legal counsel was unavailable to answer an inquiry Monday afternoon.

Sahuarita Dental Care closed its doors this spring after the owner, Brad Alan Bowsher, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated identity theft, theft and fraud.

Dentists rank 12th on the BBB list of most-complained-about industries for the last 12 months, with 58 total complaints and a 60.34 percent resolution rate.

rankings this year

Where the dental industry has ranked on the Tucson BBB's top complaints list, by month:

November 2006 7

December 2006 10

January 2007 (no ranking)

February 2007 9

March 2007 3

April 2007 8

May 2007 4