Dentist claiming pay for services not requested?

Last year I made an appointement for a dental check up and for a regular cleaning.
When I received the invoice, instead of a regular cleaning the dentist chaged me $100 for a "full mouth debridement" that I did not request and my insurance does not cover (it does cover regular cleanings).
I complained with no results to my insurance and to the dental office. I did not pay the invoice and now they sent a Colection Lawyer after me.
Can they force me to pay for a service I DID NOT request nor approve?
I feel like leaving my car for an oil change but getting the engine replaced "because I did not change the oil every six months" and then the mechanic wanting me to pay for it.

Report the dentist to the state board of dentistry...........the dentist could lose his license for this.........he'll be glad to cancel the collection!

Contact State Insurance Commish!

Yes they can. You should of taken care of it the day you got the inovoice.

Can you prove that you did not request it?

!!It's ALL about proving your case.!!

Talk to nurses, patients there if you knew them, etc.

The hard part will be tracking these people down or getting a happy employee to rat.

My sister had asimilar sitution and i think she went to an attorney and had them sent a threat letter or else she just told them she wanst going to pay not sure which but anyway she didnt pay. Because they did a bunch of other things to her daughters teeth without asking first(she wasn't there) then tried to charge her for it.

You can "dispute and deny" the charges claiming that you only agreed to a routine cleaning. If you haven't had a cleaning in a year or more, this will be hard to prove.

I think maybe the reason you are confused about the billing is that the word "debridement" medically actually pertains to cleaning/removing. I am not sure about the billing aspect of this, but maybe the insurance company requires a specific name for the service provided. You should ask the dentist to explain the difference between "full mouth debridement" and "regular cleaning". Once you have that information you may be better equipped to fight this battle.

Well, of course they can't "force" you to pay. But they can cause you a lot of trouble. The service provider has most of the rules on his side.

If they won't be reasonable about this, and you feel strongly enough about the "principle" of the matter, then hire yourself a lawyer. Will cost a lot of money tho even if you win, as the dentist won't have to pay for your lawyer, only his.

There is a possibility that he does this routinely. If so, somebody needs to stop him.

I never heard of such a procedure. Maybe it's just some sort of rip off he's running to scam ppl out of money.

Good luck.

edit:

Check this link for an interesting discussion about the "full mouth debridement issues." Interesting!