Park Hollow orthodontist ghosts clients, leaving debts and recrimination in her wake

When Jo Trizila’s phone rang in early September, she could not believe Park Hollow Orthodontics was on the other end.

“I’m just calling to see if we can get Kate scheduled for her next visit?” a receptionist asked Trizila.

Her daughter, Kate, had been a patient of Dr. Sarah Pollan, until the orthodontist stopped returning her calls back in July.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Trizila, the founder of a Dallas-based public relations firm, responded. “Where has she been?”

Pollan ran a sparkling orthodontic practice nestled in a Preston Hollow shopping center. As a graduate of Highland Park High School and parent of a current student, Pollan belongs to one of Dallas’ wealthiest enclaves. When it came to medical recommendations, she had a golden stamp of approval.

That’s why when Pollan stopped calling, several clients felt confused and hurt.

At different times over the last two years, patients or their families would call Park Hollow about picking up clear aligners — the clear trays used to straighten a patient’s teeth popularized by Invisalign — or fixing broken brackets pricking the inside of their kid’s lip. The receptionist told them they’d leave a message with Pollan, but follow-up texts and emails went unanswered.

Some later got apologies for lapsed time. Pollan said she had been on a medical mission trip or had maintenance issues at her office, and they should come in as soon as the next day. Often, patients and families heard nothing until they removed their credit cards, or filed for credit card or insurance fraud.

The Dallas Morning News spoke with 10 former patients, most of whom saw Pollan as a standout medical provider — until they couldn’t get a hold of her.

Most of the clients had paid up front for their orthodontic treatment plans and felt like they had been defrauded. Many had been ghosted and grew outraged. A few submitted complaints to the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, and found each other online to commiserate and strategize recourse.

One former patient won a fraud case in a Dallas court against the orthodontist, who has mounting debt from unpaid court judgments after not paying an orthodontic device company, and defaulting on a small business loan for more than $200,000.

In December, Pollan was seeing patients at LVL Orthodontics, a second-floor dental office off Hillcrest Avenue that looks out toward Southern Methodist University, after she was evicted from her practice in March. The Dallas Morning News visited LVL in December to speak with Pollan about the court decision and fraud allegations from numerous former patients after being unable to reach her.

After the receptionist told Pollan a reporter with The News was waiting in the lobby area for her, The News was asked by the receptionist to come back at another time and that Pollan was with a patient.

The News left a note for Pollan with the receptionist about wanting to speak with her about the court decision and allegations from former patients.

Pollan initially told The News she’d like to discuss “the salacious claims by one former patient” in person. She rescheduled an interview three times before no longer responding to follow-up calls and text messages.

On June 1, LVL’s new ownership reached out to The News to clarify that Pollan was never formally employed by the practice, and had been operating independently.

Dr. Diana-Beatrix Velicu Gardner, who took over ownership of LVL in March, told The News that Pollan had once again disappeared on her clients, and LVL was moving to help them complete their treatment plans.

“We understand that many patients have been affected by the sudden departure of Dr. Pollan and the resulting disruptions to their orthodontic care,” Gardner said in an email.

“While Dr. Pollan was operating independently and was not affiliated with LVL Orthodontics, her use of that location has understandably caused confusion.”

Alerting the board

For many of her former clients, Pollan had been an involved character in their lives. She had left their kids with straight smiles and shared as much as she had listened. Her patients knew about Pollan’s personal life — and she knew about their summer travel plans and was on their mailing lists for Christmas cards.

She was lauded by other dentists and oral and cosmetic surgeons and by Dallas moms who swore Park Hollow was where their friends could source the best smile for their kids.

Pollan, 45, charged more than other orthodontists, but clients reckoned it was worth it. Plus, she gave discounts for paying in full up front. Being a patient of hers felt like concierge medicine.

As one of the few orthodontists in Dallas doing lingual braces, or braces that go on the inside of the teeth, she was well-known among adults looking for orthodontic work. She validated them and congratulated them for advocating for themselves.

In July, the medical board that regulates dental licenses began receiving formal complaints from some of Pollan’s former patients. In early September, one petitioner was notified that a formal investigation of the Dallas orthodontist had begun.

Patients who have submitted complaints have received quarterly letters from the board, assuring them Pollan is still under investigation. At the end of September, her license to practice was renewed until 2026 by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners.

“How did she renew it with this huge mess going on? Especially legally?” asked Turkan Bayulken, 51, a former patient of Pollan’s and the parent of a patient. “How is she still practicing? This is madness.”

Valid complaints are reviewed by the state board’s dental director or the director of investigations. The agency investigates complaints claiming quality of care allegations, sanitation violations, professional conduct issues and issues like patient abandonment or failure to comply with the board’s rules and regulations.

The board does not discuss cases under investigation, an agency spokesperson said. When an investigation is underway, the board gathers evidence like patient records and bills, then eventually conducts interviews, according to its listed complaint and investigation process guidelines. Those cases are referred to the legal division, which decides whether there’s enough evidence to pursue disciplinary action.

In the 2024 fiscal year, the board resolved less than 10% of the complaints submitted. It had aimed to sort out 12%, according to a performance measures report.

Getting the runaround

Bayulken, 51, began seeing Pollan at her practice as a patient in August 2021, a few years after Pollan had treated her daughter. There was some spacing between Bayulken’s teeth she wanted to address.

The summer of 2023, ahead of a trip to her home country of Turkey, Bayulken met with Pollan to take X-rays to prepare her aligners so that when she returned to Dallas, the invisible braces would be ready.

When Bayulken got back, the aligners weren’t ready. Pollan told her in August 2023 that she was not happy with the liners and had sent them back to the lab.

“That’s when it started, the runaround,” Bayulken said, who called the office to check in, left a message with the receptionist but heard nothing back. This went on for months.

“Something must be going on, something must be happening,” Bayulken said she remembers thinking. “I almost thought we were friends.”

Bayulken got on Pollan’s calendar in January 2024, prepared to ask the orthodontist what was going on. Why had her treatments been halted for months? She was awaiting the aligners, so she could get a crown replacement performed by her dentist.

At the appointment, Pollan immediately disarmed her with cheeriness, Bayulken said, examining her mouth before she could get a word in about not receiving her aligners. Pollan assured her Park Hollow was working with a new lab, and her office would get back to Bayulken.

A few weeks later, Bayulken called to check on the status, but the receptionist replied the aligners weren’t in yet. In March, the office line texted Bayulken that Pollan wasn’t happy with the clear trays that came in.

Carina Villafana, 34, worked alongside Pollan from 2016 until 2023. When Pollan decided to open her own practice, Villafana left the office she was working at with Pollan and started as a dental assistant for Pollan’s practice.

At first, it was great, Villafana said. Once construction finished for their office space, the firm started getting busy and was booked solid with patients. In 2018, things started getting weird, Villafana said.

Pollan would arrive at work happy, then would snap at staff and seemed restless, Villafana said. The practice eventually lost employees, despite Villafana pleading with them that Pollan was likely having a bad day.

According to Villafana, Pollan often cited troubles within her personal life. Patients would arrive for their appointments and Pollan would be 40 minutes to an hour late, Villafana said.

“I would literally just have to make something up,” Villafana said, blaming traffic or parental responsibilities. “She would not answer me either. So I was like, ‘What do I tell these patients?’”

“She wouldn’t say [anything] to them,” Villafana said. “The patients, they were just too nice.”

Villafana began fielding angry phone calls from clients paying monthly installments for treatment they said they were not receiving, she said, as the patients waited for the next step of their treatment plans to commence.

When Villafana reminded the orthodontist that she had prepared the patients’ plans, including what needed to be ordered from device companies, and that the plans were ready for Pollan’s review and approval to send to the laboratories, Pollan assured the dental assistant she would do it that night — only to leave them languishing in their system, Villafana said.

Villafana offered to stay late to help, but Pollan would kindly decline. After watching treatment tools go unordered for months on end, Villafana concluded she was putting off ordering aligners from a lab to avoid being charged, Villafana said.

“She’s not even putting their treatment in the computer to get done,” Villafana said. “After that, I was like, ‘Man, I need to find me another job.”’

“She left us all out to dry”

Trizila’s 14-year-old daughter had been a patient of Pollan’s in 2018 and 2019. It had gone so well Pollan was added to their Christmas card mailing list.

The mother and daughter drove 30 minutes from Far North Dallas to see Dr. Pollan — she made getting your teeth worked on not scary, Trizila said. She asked about her daughter’s figure skating competitions and understood that certain band colors clashed with her costumes. She had become a friend.

Trizila referred Pollan to a few of her friends because of the positive experience of installing her daughter’s second round of braces.

On July 11, 2024, a bracket on her daughter’s braces broke and she was in pain. Trizila reached out to Pollan dozens of times via phone, text and Facebook, but got no response.

Out of desperation, Trizila drove to a temporary office Pollan had been using; the receptionist said Pollan’s last day seeing patients at that location had been June 24.

According to Trizila, the receptionist explained Pollan had been dealing with personal and medical issues. Trizila questioned why there wasn’t a number of another doctor to call or any guidance from the office.

“She left us all out to dry,” Trizila said.

Her daughter only had two more appointments left; the next one was to get her braces removed, Trizila said. She realized her credit card was charged twice on June 26 and June 27, each time for $271, in addition to the $6,649 she had already paid for her daughter’s second set of braces, she said.

After not hearing back from Pollan, Trizila said she canceled her credit card on file. On the September phone call from Park Hollow, Trizila asked for a refund. She said she was told by the receptionist that they would talk to Pollan and get back to her.

“I can guarantee you I’ll never hear from them again,” Trizila said.

The ghosting

When Natalie Walters, a former reporter with The Dallas Morning News, met with Pollan in January 2022, she was relieved. Pollan had been recommended by an oral surgeon she consulted with about a bimaxillary protrusion, a condition that made her teeth flare forward.

Walters, 32, was unable to close her mouth at rest, making it hard to breathe, talk, eat and sleep. The protrusion also made Walters self-conscious. Pollan assured her she could address it.

On Jan. 15, 2022, Walters and Pollan went under contract to remove four premolars and apply lingual braces (the kind that go behind the teeth). Pollan recommended she use an oral surgeon to do a LeFort surgery to move everything back, instead of solely relying on braces. Her total estimated treatment time was 18 to 24 months.

Walters wrote Pollan a check for $5,976. The former reporter told Pollan how she had worked for years to save enough for the orthodontic work. She was thrilled to get started.

Shortly after the contract was signed, Walters was in braces, and in the fall of 2022, her oral surgeon removed two bottom teeth. They scheduled the extractions of her top teeth, and her LeFort surgery for Oct. 6, 2023.

In August 2023, a bracket popped off Walters’ front tooth. When Walters texted Pollan about it, the orthodontist texted Walters back saying she could fix it.

In September, Walters emailed photos to Pollan of her moving front tooth. Walters visited an orthodontist in Augusta, Ga., where she had moved, to fix the broken bracket but the orthodontist couldn’t.

For legal reasons, the Georgia orthodontist would have to switch over Walters’ treatment from Pollan. Walters followed up with Pollan two days later, asking if she should find a new orthodontist to take over her treatment.

On Nov. 21, 2023, Walters begged Pollan to reply so she could get her treatment in Georgia. Walters said she had trusted Pollan as the best orthodontist to help her, but now she demanded a full refund.

“A dating partner ghosting you is immature,” Walters wrote to Pollan, blasting her disappearing on her patients as “cruel … immature and unprofessional.”

On Jan. 23, 2024, James McCown, a commercial and contract lawyer contracted by Walters, sent a demand letter to Pollan for the return of her funds for treatment that wasn’t completed.

When Walters sued Pollan and her practice, the orthodontist failed to appear and answer, according to court documents.

Walters alleged Pollan breached their contract, violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and committed fraud. A district court ruled Walters was owed the nearly $6,000 she paid, and among other things, that Pollan committed intentional acts of fraud, according to legal documents.

In the final judgment, the judge ruled Pollan owed the former patient nearly $18,000 in additional damages, and another $2,000 in attorney’s fees. Walters has not received anything.

“She has left me in a horrible state. I am left with two missing teeth and an overbite,” Walters wrote in her complaint to the state board. “No orthodontist wants to take over her work, so I am not sure where to go from here.”

Walters paid $750 to get her braces removed and to get a retainer. She hasn’t touched her teeth since. “If I think about it, it will put me into a depression,” Walters said. “So I just try to never take photos and not think about it.”

Unpaid rulings pile up

It’s not the first time a court has ruled that Pollan owes money. In 2018, Ormco Corp., an orthodontic device company headquartered in Orange County, Calif., sued Pollan for breaching their contract by not paying for medical equipment like brackets for braces she ordered.

A default judgment ordered Pollan to pay more than $20,000 in principal debt plus more than $5,700 in fees.

In 2022, she was sued by Titan Bank for not paying the bank more than $228,000 on a $552,000 small business loan first granted in 2017, according to county court documents.

After Pollan or a representative failed to show up for court, a district judge ordered on Oct. 31, 2022, that Pollan and the firm owed the bank more than $255,000, plus nearly $40 per day until it is paid.

On May 11, 2023, a court order regarding the quarter million loan debt instructed Texas sheriffs to seize Pollan or her orthodontic office’s nonexempt properties, or property outside those essential for living or working, like vacation homes or second cars, according to district court records.

An officer took property from either Pollan or Park Hollow that was later bid on by Titan Bank for a credit of $10,000, according to district court records.

A lone defender loses faith

Park Hollow Orthodontics was evicted from its Walnut Hill Lane office space in March 2024.

Someone posted a photo of the eviction notice on a Park Cities Facebook page seeking a recommendation for a new orthodontist. One University Park parent messaged the page’s administrator, urging them to take down the post.

“I just don’t feel like it would be right to disparage her or her business or her son, or bring some unnecessary negative attention to one of the other people in our community,” the University Park mom wrote to the administrator, who agreed to remove the post. Later, someone else posted a photo of the eviction notice.

After the eviction notice was posted, Bayulken decided to cut her losses and find a new orthodontist. Bayulken confronted Pollan in October at LVL Orthodontics, she said, where Pollan has been seeing patients. Bayulken wanted to obtain all of her medical records to share with a new orthodontist and ask why her treatment was delayed.

Bayulken said Pollan strongly disagreed that she had abandoned her patients.