Parent Wishes She Had Googled Dr. Robert Andrus Before Going To Giggles Dental In Colorado

A parent posted this comment on the Giggles Dental post, I thought it was worth posting here so everyone realizes Dr. Robert Adrus is using his skills, learned by the DeRose bunch and Forba training sessions, to good work.   I am amazed he was fired for credentialing fraud, when their whole business plan is based around fraudulent behavior and abusing children.

Dr. Robert (Bob) Andrus

I hope this mom first heads to Giggles and obtains her children's records, asap or quicker.  Second, files a complaint with the dental board so they will investigate, they know Dr. Adrus.  Third takes the records and the x-rays from Giggles Dental back to her dentist at "A Wild Smile" for comparison.  Forth, files a complaint with her dental underwriter, whether it is a private insurance carrier or Colorado's Medicaid program.  Don't forget each state has a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. 
The quicker this mom makes the complaint, the quicker the next child isn't overtreated.   Everyday, all day long,this is happening to children visiting Giggles Dental.  This crap has got to stop! 

I used to drive 25 minutes to A Wild Smile, and I was always very pleased with their work. I switched to Giggles because it is only 5 minutes from my house, but it has been nothing but trouble. None of my kids (ages almost 7, 8, and 9) had ever had a cavity before. On our first visit Dr. Andrus said my youngest had 1 small cavity - not unbelievable considering her age. We came back and got it filled, no problem. On our second cleaning visit, I was told my oldest daughter, who'd had her molars sealed at Wild Smile, needed to have her teeth resealed. I didn't realize sealant didn't last, so he resealed them. He also told me my youngest had 1 very small cavity and two naturally occurring pits in her back teeth that he felt should be filled even though they weren't cavities. Fine. I took her back and had the pits filled, she didn't need anesthetic. My husband took her in for her the actual filling a month later. She came home with three fillings! Or so the bill said. In addition to that, within minutes of leaving his office, my daughter's lip developed an enormous and disgusting canker sore. He said she bit her lip, but that is what the cotton roll is supposed to prevent, right? I think he clipped her with some dental tools, but I can't prove anything, so I just treated it with peroxide. I didn't bother to fill the prescription he gave me for Children's Tylenol with Codeine - it seemed like a ridiculous prescription for a canker sore. Anyway, I reminded him that he told me my daughter had one cavity and two pits - he said she had 3 cavities and 2 pits. If I had been told that my daughter who'd had the only cavity out of all my kids now had three cavities six months after her last cleaning, I would have remembered that and had a fit on my kid!
I wish I had Googled this guy before I left a perfectly good dentist merely for a convenient drive from my house. I'm just lucky it wasn't worse.

It worked out perfect for the dentist in this case since the same parent who came the first time, was not the one who brought the child back for treatment. 
This is just a small example why it's so important to track these dentists who have been employed by FORBA Small Smiles, Kool Smiles, Dental Dreams and all the other mills.

Dr. Robert Andrus Back In Business, Giggles

Dr. Robert (Bob) Andrus

It appears they are letting Dr. Robert (Bob) Andrus practice dentistry in Colorado.  Since his departure with FORBA’s Small Smiles as regional manager he’s opened his own clinic.  He has given it the cutest little name-Giggles.  Anyone want to guess whether he accepts children on Medicaid or not?  Of Course!

---

ID Number:

20091343076

Trade Name:

Giggles

True Name of Registrant:

DR. ROBERT ANDRUS D.D.S., LLC

Formation Date: 6-25-2009

---

Dr. Bob, remember is one of the many dentists who lent his name and license number to be added to business registration required in most states, along with Dr. Kenneth Knot (Ken Knott) also known as Dr. Can Not.

Kallene West, Dr. Robert Andrus and Dr. Ken Knott were fired from FORBA in late summer of 2008.  There were some discrepancies in how Dr. Bob and Dr. Ken were able to renew their dental license and it is said Kallene took online Continuing Education courses or forged the credentialing documents, maybe both.  I do not know.  


I am also told Kallene did the same for Dr. Bridget Merritt-Brooks, yet Dr. Bridget was not fired.  She is one of the top producers for FORBA and their string of Small Smiles Clinics.


Dr. Bob is also the dentist who is known for fits of anger and rage in the operatories.  Throwing instruments and even one report from a dental assistant who told me he was treating a small 3 year old in an Ohio clinic and the child was not being very cooperative.  Dr. Bob proceed to poke the examination mirror down the child's throat and cause the child to gag.  He then leaned down in whispered in the child's ear, "if you do not cooperate, I will do it again." 

Dr. Robert Andrus Does NOT Really Own Any Small Smiles Clinics In The Sense They Want To Project

This article had been reprinted here before but I felt it was worth reprinting it again along with the link to the original article.

Click here for original.

Anyway, it's important because it's talking about the Small Smiles opening in Roanoke, VA and how it's owned by Robert Andrus and FORBA only manages it for him.

Well, that simply isn't true. Robert Andrus works (or should I say worked, he's no longer with them according to recent reports). On an document that was sent to me listing all employees at FORBA, their phone numbers, email address and their job title Robert Andrus is listed as Senior VP West Region.

In fact he and Kenneth (Ken) Knott, SVP Central Region are listed as being owners as several Small Smiles clinics, especially in states where dental clinics have to be doctor owned. (I guess being doctor owned is subjective as to what percent of ownership isn't it, 1% or 100%?)

If you check phone books of various cities where Small Smiles is located you will see Dr. Robert (Bob) Andrus' name listed on several of them as being the owner and providing services to clients. He is (was) nothing more than a FORBA employee, it's just that simple.

Small Smiles defies traditional system - Low-income children haven't been welcome at most dental practices in the region, at least not without tight restrictions

Dentists suffer with a toothache of sorts over treating patients on government programs. The reimbursement is low, and the hassle is often high. Dentists prefer patients with private insurance or cash, on whom a stable, profitable practice can be built.

But a new Roanoke dental clinic has turned the standard business model on its head.

Four dentists courting the business of low-income children in Western Virginia have opened a practice at Crossroads Mall. Small Smiles caters to children age 20 and younger enrolled in any of the state's health insurance programs: Medicaid, FAMIS and FAMIS Plus. Low-income means people at or below 200 percent of the poverty level, which is $40,000 for a family of four.

It has drawn a huge response, with 2,100 patients booked for appointments before it opened July 31, drawn only by TV commercials and a postcard mailing.

"I think it's going to be successful," said dentist David Jones, who closed his private Roanoke practice to work at Small Smiles. There's so much work, "we could probably keep another clinic like this one afloat."

If the niche sounds unusual, it is: Low-income children haven't been welcome at most dental practices across the region -- at least not without restrictions that close access to new patients when the dentist feels he or she can no longer afford to treat any more.

But last year, Virginia lawmakers intervened. They increased reimbursement for dentists who treat Medicaid-insured children and chopped away red tape for both patient and dentist. Attention was directed at reducing missed appointments; people on Medicaid and related programs miss up to 50 percent of scheduled dental appointments.

National companies that cater to those on government programs have been setting up shop in Virginia. The Small Smiles group, from Pueblo, Colo., has opened 46 practices across the country, including in Roanoke and Richmond. A similar enterprise, Kool Smiles, based in Decatur, Ga., has 17 sites nationwide, including four in Virginia, its Web site said.

"We have a business model that works because this is all we do five days a week, 12 months of the year," said Todd Cruse, speaking for Small Smiles in Roanoke. "We typically average somewhere around 72 to 75 patients a day."

Cruse is chief development officer at FORBA LLC, a dental practice management company in Pueblo, Colorado.

FORBA manages the Roanoke practice for its owner, Colorado dentist Robert Andrus.

Terry Dickinson, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association, was wary when he first heard that a for-proft, corporate dental practice focused on the poor was preparing to operate in Richmond this past spring.

It appeared to be a low-margin business dependent on moving a high volume of patients through, Dickinson said. Might Small Smiles be a "mill" providing the least acceptable care, Dickinson wondered.

So he met with Small Smiles officials. "We made it clear if they chose to come into the state that we would have our eyes on their operation," Dickinson said. Company officials pledged to give quality care and invited state dental industry leaders to drop by unannounced.

Now that the Richmond practice has been up and running for several months, Dickinson is satisfied that Small Smiles is meeting the needs of Virginians, he said, adding there haven't been any patient complaints to his association.

"We are very pleased with what they're doing," Dickinson said.

Dr. Kenneth Knott: Owner or Front Man?

Recently I checked out a Small Smiles yellow page ad in a city to be named later.

They ad read in part:

Care Provided by OH Licensed General Dentists
-Dr. Kenneth E. Knott & Dr. Robert Andrus, Owners

I just don't believe that is true.

They do not provide the care as it would lead you to believe and they don't 'own' the clinic either. Neither of these dentists have touched a mouth full of teeth in years.

Dr. Kenneth Knott is listed as FORBA's Senior Vice President-Central Region according to their internal employee list.

Dr. Knott has licenses in Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and others. Dr. Robert Andrus is licensed in all these states as well.

So is being a 'senior vp for FORBA really mean, you go from state to state in your region, take some tests if any, hopefully pass them, apply for and obtain licenses so that we can hang them in the rogue clinics. So I guess that makes one a "professional licenses obtainer", right?

Dr. Robert F. Andrus-Still Small Smiles Front Man?

According to Beta Health Association Complete Specialists Directory (not dated so I don't know how "updated" this actually is) Dr. Robert F. Andrus's specialty is Pedodontics (children's dentistry). Of course as with anything to do with Small Smiles, this simply isn't the case. His current Colorado licenses lists him as a General Dentist.

Of course I knew this was probably BS since this same list has Michael DeRose's Specialty as Pedodontics as well and we know that simply 'ain't so'.

Why do I mention Dr. Robert F. Andrus, DDS you might be asking yourself? Well, on this same list it says that Dr. Andrus works in the Michael DeRose office located at 1022 Liberty Lane, Pueblo, Colorado along with Drs. Ed DeRose, Michael DeRose, Jim Mobley, Randy Ellis, Hate Haerr.

Of course there are hundreds of dentist associated with Small Smiles/FORBA and Michael DeRose but this guy seems to stand out a bit since he's applied for and received dental licenses in Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia and Kansas just to name a few.

So how does this associate him with Small Smiles? Well, there is an article on glsennca.org called "Small Smiles defies traditional system". In this article it says that Terry Dickinson was wary of corporate dentistry coming to the state of Virginia and would be keeping an eye on Small Smiles.

It also says that Todd Cruse, chief development officer for FORBA would be managing a Small Smiles clinic owned by a Colorado dentist, Dr. Robert Andrus. This same article says a Dr. David Jones, DDS (not of the Monkees fame) closed his private practice to come to work for Small Smiles in Roanoke (bet he regrets this move by now).

Anyway I don't know if Dr. Andrus still is fronting for Small Smiles, using his name on licenses and such but he sure did at one time and he's all but held hands with Micheal DeRose and I'm not sure they've not done that as well.