I am a dental hygienist in southeast Virginia and the board may want to investigate what’s going on at Aspen Dental. We have had numerous patients that have come to our office after an initial visit at Aspen dental in our town of Gloucester. All patients, at this Aspen office, regardless of their periodontal status are being told that they need to have quadrant scaling and planning. They are being told that this must be the first step in treatment and that no further treatment can occur until the quads are complete. The problem I am seeing is that nine out of 10 of these patients have minimal bone loss and pocketing under 3 mm. They are being told outright that the insurance will not cover it and that it will need to be paid out-of-pocket.  The insurance will not cover the procedure because it is not warranted. They  are  then handed an estimate of their work including over $1000 in quad scales and decide to go elsewhere. It’s outright fraud and it needs to stop. The bigger problem that I see will be them using dental assistance to perform these cleanings as they can’t keep hygienists.  Clearly, there’s no oversight and they have the attorneys to cover their tails. This is where the problem is going to come with Assistant cleaning teeth. There will be no oversight in individual offices, especially at big, corporate offices such as this where the dollar comes before patient welfare.  Don’t believe me perhaps audit them.  It is the patient that will ultimately suffer, and it’s a shame that this assistant cleaning is even being considered