Get Gephardt helps Orem man fight for a refund after his dentist retires mid-treatment

AMERICAN FORK — American Samoa lies some 2,200 miles southwest of Hawaii. It's packed with tropical scenery: rainforests, beaches, and reefs. And it's where Brandon Peterson tumbled off a beach deck at low tide and landed on lava rock, face first.

"We were all having a good time and playing," Peterson recalled. "It broke my collarbone, broke my nose, stitches all over my face (and) knocked all my front teeth out."

Back in the States, he paid the Affordable Dentures and Implants office in American Fork over $4,100 to help fix his teeth. In turn, it pulled the rest of his teeth and made him a temporary set of dentures.

"That one's supposed to last you through your year of healing," Peterson said of his temporary dentures.

But by the time his mouth healed enough to complete the treatment, the dentist running that Affordable Dentures location in American Fork retired.

'You'll be seen'

"So, he says, 'All patients will be taken to the West Valley location. We're transferring everything up there. You'll be seen,'" Peterson said.

But when he called the West Valley location of Affordable Dentures and Implants, he didn't quite get the welcome he expected.

"They're like, 'Oh, I'm sorry, but we're actually not taking any patients from American Fork,'" Peterson said.

He said when he asked if another location could finish his dentures, he was told no. Figuring the job was only half finished, he contacted the Affordable Dentures and Implants corporate office and asked for a $2,100 refund — about half of what he paid. He said it only offered to wipe away a $700 balance. After that, he's on his own.

Peterson decided it was time to contact the KSL Investigators and see if we could take a bite out of the problem.

"I would just like them to honor and finish it, or return the money," he told us. "I can't afford to go pay somebody else to do this."

Dental support organization

Digging into this one, the KSL Investigators quickly found that Affordable Dentures and Implants is not a centralized, nationwide chain. It's a dental support organization that operates similarly to franchises. Each office is individually owned and operated by dentists who are not bound to another office's treatment plan.

And more bad news: I checked with the Utah state licensing regulators. The State of Utah has no rules that require a licensed dentist to have any sort of bond or money set aside for refunds when they close their office while patients are in mid-treatment for a procedure they've already paid for.

So, does that mean Brandon Peterson simply stuck with his half-finished dentures? Well, we reached out to Affordable Dentures' central public relations office to ask about all of this, and while we did not hear back, Peterson did.

He said the day after the KSL Investigators contacted the company, he received the $2,100 refund he asked for.

Options

You have some options if a denture specialist, dentist or even a doctor's office closes on you mid-treatment.

Contact the Division of Professional Licensing if the office is closed abruptly without warning, or if it refuses to release your medical records to you. If you used your credit card to pay for any part of your treatment, consider filing a dispute. If you used insurance or some sort of financing to pay for the treatment, get it involved. And small claims court is an option if the amount involved is no more than $20,000.

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