CBS 2 Exclusive: Dental Patients Out Thousands After Offices Suddenly Shut Down
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Dental patients are out thousands of dollars following the sudden shut down of two offices in Washington Heights and the Bronx.
Now, they are calling for an investigation, and begging for their money back.
Kianna Friere, 17, is just months away from a new smile.
Her mother paid $3,500 up front to New York Fashion Braces to fix her daughter's crooked teeth.
Now, the office where Friere was being treated has shut and locked its doors without explanation.
"I've tried calling the numbers that they have posted on the doors; the email addresses -- no one has returned my phone call. So my daughter doesn't have her medical records so we can go to another orthodontist," Kianna's mother, Sydney Freire, told CBS 2's Jessica Schneider.
The people in charge at New York Fashion Braces were not giving any answers.
Signs posted indicated that the head doctor has died, and the phone numbers listed only lead to dead ends.
Calls and emails from CBS 2 did not produce a response.
"I keep calling and calling. I already paid like $3,000, you know? I don't want to lose my money," Charlee Paulino said.
Paulino has come by the office on Fordham Road in the Bronx every week since it shut down in mid-August. He is also out thousands.
"For now they're caught in the middle. They paid the full amount, and they haven't gotten the services, and there's nowhere to go," said state Sen. Senator Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan.)
Espiallat has now called on the state Attorney General's Office to investigate.
"I feel bad, because that was a lot of money invested into something that wasn't completed; wasn't finished properly," Freire said.
Now, Kianna and her mother are looking for a new doctor, and the cash to complete her smile.
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