Dr Larry Wolford - Dallas TX

[amyg]

I have read a lot of negative reviews about Dr Wolford. I also know that people who have had negative outcomes tend to write more reviews. Yes I know he is expensive. Yes I know his wife runs his front office. Yes I know he performs a lot of aggressive surgeries. What I really would like is to hear from some of his actual patients about their experiences good, bad or otherwise. I have been to many doctors and received mixed opinions on my TMJ diagnosis. All I know is my condition has me almost completely debilitated and I can’t go on like this much longer. I have to make a decision. If anyone could share their experiences with him I would be most grateful.

[GJ]

I've never come across a patient of his in 9 years of running the site. I know one guy who consulted with him and felt he was being sold on TMJ replacement that he didn't need. For whatever reason, his patients are very rare on the site.

[amyg]

Thank you for letting me know.

[kavan]

Would be worth a consult if you had any reason to think you might need a joint replacement given he's known for that.
He's also known for doing posterior downgraft CCW, perhaps as one of the early 'movers and shakers' (pioneers) for that.

I've heard he gives plenty of time during consults. Perhaps he could shed some light on your prior 'mixed opinions' on your TMJ diagnosis.

[DubShark]

Currently, a patient awaiting surgery with him. The front office is a little disjointed. But they do get the process moving quickly which is what I needed. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[amyg]

I have met with him twice. He is a very nice man. In all likelihood I will move forward with him. Let me know how you progress. Thanks.

[PloskoPlus]

I've never come across a patient of his in 9 years of running the site. I know one guy who consulted with him and felt he was being sold on TMJ replacement that he didn't need. For whatever reason, his patients are very rare on the site.

I know of 2 members here, who have had surgery with him. Neither had TJR.

[amyg]

I wanted to write a follow up on my experiences so far with Dr Wolford. First, the statements I had read about his office administrator (his wife) seem to be true. She is primarily focused on whatever angle nets them the most profit. Dr Wolford does not accept insurance. His surgical fees which in my case are approximately 65K have to be paid upfront. However his wife insisted I obtain a referral (I am on an HMO) from another in network surgeon to Dr Wolford so they could bill the insurance out of network. This makes no sense. Technically she would have to turn whatever payment she received from my insurance company over to me as I would have already paid the entire bill out of pocket. She has a reputation for refusing to do that and many people claim they never recover these out of network payments from their insurance carrier. This is fraud. My surgery was supposed to be in September 2021 but with all of the delays in getting this referral, which I still don't have, my surgery date is anybody's guess. Mrs Wolford refuses to tell TMJ Concepts, the manufacturer of the joints, to begin work on mine since she doesn't have the referral she wants. Honestly I don't know where this is all going and I am ready to request my 12K deposit be returned. Dr Wolford has a reputation for taking out patient's jaw joints whether they need it or not. I have tried unsuccessfully to obtain an opinion from another highly qualified surgeon that concurs with Dr Wolford’s diagnosis. This is very troubling. I am not sure if I am going to go through with the operation given the uncertainty of his diagnosis and the seemingly endless hoops his wife has me jumping through to even get the surgery at all. The whole vibe they give off is wrong. You walk away from speaking with them scratching your head because it all just does not add up.

[Post bimax]

I wanted to write a follow up on my experiences so far with Dr Wolford. First, the statements I had read about his office administrator (his wife) seem to be true. She is primarily focused on whatever angle nets them the most profit. Dr Wolford does not accept insurance. His surgical fees which in my case are approximately 65K have to be paid upfront. However his wife insisted I obtain a referral (I am on an HMO) from another in network surgeon to Dr Wolford so they could bill the insurance out of network. This makes no sense. Technically she would have to turn whatever payment she received from my insurance company over to me as I would have already paid the entire bill out of pocket. She has a reputation for refusing to do that and many people claim they never recover these out of network payments from their insurance carrier. This is fraud. My surgery was supposed to be in September 2021 but with all of the delays in getting this referral, which I still don't have, my surgery date is anybody's guess. Mrs Wolford refuses to tell TMJ Concepts, the manufacturer of the joints, to begin work on mine since she doesn't have the referral she wants. Honestly I don't know where this is all going and I am ready to request my 12K deposit be returned. Dr Wolford has a reputation for taking out patient's jaw joints whether they need it or not. I have tried unsuccessfully to obtain an opinion from another highly qualified surgeon that concurs with Dr Wolford’s diagnosis. This is very troubling. I am not sure if I am going to go through with the operation given the uncertainty of his diagnosis and the seemingly endless hoops his wife has me jumping through to even get the surgery at all. The whole vibe they give off is wrong. You walk away from speaking with them scratching your head because it all just does not add up.

If it's this bad prior to your surgery, imagine the situation if something goes wrong.

Have you consulted with Gunson?  He'd be able to give you an opinion on your jaws and TMJs

[kavan]

Wow. He sounds like the practice wants to do double billing and/or only treats problems of the rich.

His reputation is built on being one of the original 'movers and shakers' of CCW posterior downgrafing and of course, joint replacement. But since then there are other doctors who do similar and it's not as if he's the only go to guy.

It sounds like you might need a joint replacement. Have you consulted with Dr. Sullivan from Oklahoma? He also does the joint replacements.

[amyg]

Thank you for all of the input everyone. I appreciate it very much. I have been trying to get correctly diagnosed for many years. I was very hopeful after my initial meeting with Dr Wolford because I do believe that I need joint replacement. However, since the initial meeting it's been nothing but problems that stem primarily from his wife and her bizarre handling of the financial aspect of the procedure. I am self employed so I have to purchase my insurance through the marketplace. She knew from the beginning that my HMO was not going to pay her. There was no mystery about it. She even suggested I look for different health insurance which is completely out of line and impossible for anyone who is self employed in the US. So this scenario she has cooked up is her way of going around my HMO to get the money anyway. I feel like a complete pawn in her game. I have no idea if she would even agree to refund my deposit and I am willing to bet she will not. I am going to look into the doctors that you all have suggested. I have opinions from other qualified surgeons in North TX but they do not agree that joint replacement is the appropriate procedure for me. I'll let you all know how things progress. Thanks again.

[kavan]

I've heard of this type of thing MANY times before (with other doctors too) when the doctor's wife is the office manager. It's not an uncommon problem in the field of aesthetic types of surgeries which are usually self pay but sometimes can bill insurance. The wives often want BIGGER houses, Birken bags (at 100 grand) and other conspicuous consumption status symbols. Furthermore, these wife office managers are going to be overly protective of their husbands if the patient has a complaint.
They often know the ins and outs of insurance too but not to the patient's benefit, more to the benefit of DOUBLE BILLING. Like some practices that double bill-- and get away with it-- set up 2 types of business entities where the corporate entity that bills insurance is a SEPARATE one than the entity the self pay goes to. The only thing that makes sense to me when you say Wolford 'DOES NOT ACCEPT INSURANCE', yet his WIFE wants to GET (other) insurance is that they have 2 separate corporate entities set up; one that does not accept insurance (self pay only) and another that can bill insurance. But it might be hard for you to get your self pay back if the the entity that charges insurance gets the money.

[amyg]

Well this is all very enlightening. Thank you for explaining all of that to me. We have unfortunately taken the bait. Now the only question is what to do next.

[amyg]

I wanted to post an update on my progress with Dr Wolford. To be fair I did make some assumptions about certain things without having all the facts. So I want to be clear about that. In the state of Texas (where I am) the hospital and the anesthesiologist cannot be processed on my insurance as in network if the provider (Dr Wolford) is out of network. So that being said my HMO requires a valid referral to the provider. So this explains why Mrs Wolford was insistent on getting a referral even though I was paying them out of pocket in full. The method of getting the referral was rather convoluted and that combined with the amount of time, money and effort we wasted still does not sit well with me. All that is actually required is a letter and documentation from Dr Wolford submitted to my HMO explaining the medical necessity of the procedure. All this information could have been obtained by Mrs Wolford by making a simple phone call months ago. I blame myself for not getting more information from my insurance company on the front end. This all speaks to the fact that there is no one dedicated person who works on insurance in Wolford’s office. So, now we are getting all this documentation together to submit for review. Fingers crossed we will get the approval.

[amyg]

Update: I had my total TMJ replacement and jaw surgery in November 2021 done by Dr Larry Wolford. My observations are as follows. If a person actually needs this surgery Dr Wolford is definitely the person to do it. I however don't actually know if I needed it or not. If you review the previous posts you will read that I had seen many TMJ experts and had no consensus on diagnosis or treatment. After 15 years of suffering and debilitation I decided to move forward with the operation. My hope was that I would be left with a stable jaw. I repeatedly told Dr Wolford this was my primary concern. As of the day I am writing this I do not have a stable jaw. According to Dr Wolford everything is healing fine and there are no problems. I however do not concur. It may be that I have undiagnosed soft tissue problems. If that is the case this should have been identified prior to surgery to better gage and convey possible outcomes. Dr Wolford assured me after surgery my jaw would be stable. It is not. A pattern of behavior I have observed in Mrs Wolford is the introduction of my husband and I to potential would be patients in their waiting room. She asks me to tell these other would be patients about my experiences. She assumes they will receive a glowing report. Being put on the spot like this is very disconcerting. The total TMJ replacement is what they are selling and I think they try to sell it to everyone. The young man I met may be a candidate for corrective jaw surgery but at his age I cannot fathom why he would require a total TMJ replacement. As for myself I am waiting to see if anything improves. I am not optimistic. I still have undiagnosed issues and Dr Wolford has made it very clear he is not going to do anything to help me obtain further treatment with other specialists. My advice is to be very wary of the Wolfords. Yes he is a talented surgeon but his ethics may be in question. I am better in some small respects but the initial problem for which I sought treatment is still there. 65K is a lot of money for a less than adequate outcome. I will continue to update this thread as information becomes available.