Dental Bridge Refund?

AmigaBloke

After 2 years of saving we finally got the money together for a dental bridge for my wife. She was advised not to have the type that caps both teeth either side of the gap but one that has metal lugs that cement the new tooth in place.
However, on having the bridge fitted my wife was surprised at just how much metal was involved. This wasn't explained to her and she found it extremely uncomfortable. After a day of the dentist filing the lower teeth to stop the metal knocking and severe pain in my wife's jaw she, very reluctantly, has asked for the bridge to be removed.
The dentist has already said that we won't get our £800 back.
My question obviously is...can they legally do this? The service wasn't satisfactory for my wife so surely there should be some right to a refund?

jimbms

I am afraid you had options and it appears you selected one of them that wasn't right for you but is quite possibly fine for the majority of people, unless the dentist did not explain fully what the process was I can see no reason for a claim unless there was actual negligence or the work was substandard.

Toothsmith

Tricky one!

I assume that up until this point she's had a denture to fill the gap?

USUALLY - when you replace a denture with any type of bridge, all the patient feels is a profound relief that all the plastic/metalwork of the denture is gone, and it's replaced with a nice neat bridge that doesn't have to be taken out and washed after every meal.

There is, like when someone first has a denture, a period where it does feel a bit strange, but usually people very soon get used to that.

How ong had your wife had it before the adjustment was done? How long did she then try it out before giving up on it?

It is quite possible that the bridge was OK, but your wife has a very low tolerance threshold. This couldn't really be predicted by the dentist until he actually did it - and by then it's too late. If that's the case I would say the dentist wasn't liable to refund you.

If the dentist ha missed something in planning the bridge - maybe that the bite was so close that there wasn't really room for it - then the fact it failed probably is his fault, and you should be refunded.

I think the only way to find out would be to see another dentist, explain the problem, and see if he thinks a Maryland Bridge (for that's what it was) in that space is a reasonable treatment option.

AmigaBloke

Thanks both for the very fast and useful replies.
My wife says that if she'd have been told there'd be a strip of metal covering the back of three teeth then she wouldn't have agreed to the bridge. So I don't think it was fully explained to her. I understood the metal 'legs' were pinned into the adjacent teeth so I misunderstood too.
Yes, she had a denture before but only wore it when answering the door or going out. I agree, she does have extremely low tolerance threshold and the dentist should know this.

However, we recently came back from the dentist (we thought to have it removed but apparently was just for a chat) and they are looking into refunding the cost minus the 'lab fee's'. I think this is fair if they do confirm this to be the case tomorrow.

I will let you know.

Thanks again.

AmigaBloke

Hi there,

We are no further forward with getting our refund. I thought I'd add more information and also ask a dental expert here some advice.
Despite the dentiost and receptionist at the practice stating we would get a refund the practice manager seems to be saying otherwise. Anyway, as requested we have put everything in writing to them so they can hold on to our money for even longer I guess.
Firstly, the bridge wasn't described correctly. No diagrams or photo's of the bridge were shown and we didn't even know what the bridge was called until we were told here. My wife complained it wasn't what she expected as soon as it was fitted. She asked for a "normal feeling tooth". It caused so much jaw pain and her lower teeth were knocking that she went back immediately. The dentist, rather than adjusting the bridge filed down my wife's lower teet!. Is this normal practice?? She now has pain in the teeth next to these lower teeth also!

She had the bridge removed a few days later and the dentist that removed it (the original dentist was on holiday) said it hadn't been fitted correctly as the bite was "way out". He tried to persuade my wife to keep it but she became so upset he removed it.

Obviously this dental practice appears to have no concern for customer satisfaction but just seeks to keep customers money at all costs. Have any of the experts here got any suggestions on what the normal procedure would be in situations like this please?

Toothsmith

I think your best bet is to let the practices own 'in house' complaints proceedure work through. It really shouldn't take long though.

If you feel you're being fobbed off a bit, then the General Dental Council's complaint proceedure is quite a good next step (I'm assuming this bridge was provided privately?)

Details can be found here:-

http://www.gdc-uk.org/General+public/Reporting+unfitness+to+practise/Dental+Complaints+Service.htm