Castle Dental in Autsin, Texas: A Review

My family and I rarely visit Castle Dental if we can avoid it but the times that we've had to drop in were the worst experiences we've ever had with any dental office. I first visited Castle Dental on South Lamar in Austin, Texas about four years ago. My mother and I needed some work done and I figured since Castle Dental is a chain that it should be a good place to try out, how can you go wrong with a chain right? I was so wrong. I wish I had done my research and read the reviews before I wasted my money and time at Castle Dental.

We visited their South Lamar location because it was the closest one to our house. We made our appointments and unlike some of their other customers we didn't have to wait. The not having to wait part was the only pleasant thing about this Castle Dental. The receptionist, dental assistant and dentist were not the least bit friendly to us, in fact they came off almost annoyed with us. My mother and I hardly spoke a word to them except to answer any questions they had for us or ask them questions.

My mom and I both went in for a teeth cleaning and I needed a root canal but we never made it to any of those things. In fact we stopped everything, paid and left the moment they were trying to up sell us on things we weren't in there for and they were very pushy about it too. Before I go on I have to point out that my mother and I had both seen a dentist and had work done in another city just months before. We must've spent a few hours in there just getting our x-rays done before a dentist came out and talked to us. I guess I should've known the moment my dentist came out and showed me an x-ray of my teeth saying that I have a tooth that's laid horizontally underneath my bottom row and it needed to be removed. Never mind that it wasn't touching any of my teeth or bothering me. If I've had it for as long as I think I've had it wouldn't I have noticed it by now? He should've at least explained why it needed to be removed. I find it fishy that out of all of the other dentists I've gone to and had a full mouth x-ray, not one of them mentioned that wayward tooth. We don't have insurance and the fact that they're refusing to do any regular cleaning and the amount they were expecting us to pay was just beyond our budget, so we left with nothing. We paid a total of $500 just for x-rays!

Recently my dad went to Castle Dental, the South Lamar location, to get his teeth cleaned. He got his teeth cleaned about three to four months ago and since it was short notice he couldn't make an appointment with his regular dentist. My dad's medical insurance doesn't cover dental so everything is out of pocket. My dad also doesn't get many days off work so the only walk-in dental office close to our home was Castle Dental. I called to ask for an approximate estimate for teeth cleaning and was told that regular teeth cleaning started at $85. My dad was okay with that but I was still skeptical that they'd let him get away with that price for regular cleaning and I was right. My dad spent a few hours there just getting x-rays done and left with nothing. He ended up paying $75 for x-rays but didn't even get done what he wanted. They were trying to up sell him and flat out refused to do a regular teeth cleaning for him. They wanted to charge him for every tooth and expected him to pay $1,500 out of pocket just to get his teeth cleaned.

I've read reviews on Castle Dental and many others have had similar experiences if not worse. There were only a few good reviews and I'm not even sure how legit those are. It could be like apartment reviews where an employee pretends to be a customer to give good reviews. From my personal experiences and other reviewers I would recommend staying away from Castle Dental, especially the South Lamar location in Austin, Texas. Awful place.