Clearstep in Administration

CrazyAngel_3

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Toothsmith

This has been causing quite a stir on dental web forums too.

It would seem there are very serious problems at Clearstep.

I'm not sure about patients being able to get refunds via credit card, as you will have paid the dentist, not Clearstep.

As with anything like this though, your relationship with the dentist is a professional one, so if something like this happens, he can't just shrug his shoulders and abandon you. He has a duty of care to you, and to completing your treatment in a satisfactory way.

The problem with Clearstep, and systems like it, is that the 'thinking' is done by the place that makes the appliances, and it's often ordinary General dentists rather than specialist orthodontists who provide it. (Which is why the advice I've always given when these systems come up in threads is to see an orthodontist who has access to all treatment methods rather than a practitioner who just does one)

Part of Clearstep's troubles have come from taking on cases that are too complex for their system - so it might well be that your future treatment may have to be handled by a specialist orthodontist, depending on what needs to be done.

As I said at the start though, this is really for your dentist to sort out for you, although it will help if you are reasonable and flexible in the negotiations!

chattychappy

For S75 to help, one of the following must apply:

1) pay dentist on CC, dentist contract with you to do the work
2) pay Clearstep on CC, Clearstep contract with you to do the work (albeit subcontracting to your dentist)

If your contract was with the Clearstep, but you paid your dentist, then S75 wouldn't apply. NB 2) could still apply if your dentist collected your CC details onto a form which he sent on.

In the case of 1) you would have a claim on both your dentist and the CC. In the case of 2) you would have a claim on both Clearstep (in administration) and the CC.

dalesrider

CrazyAngel wrote: »

Thanks. I have phoned my credit card company this morning and told them about my section 75 claim. They are sending me out a dispute om to fill in. Fingers crossed I can claim it back.
.

Dispute and S75 are two seperate ways of handling things.

This is why its better when calling your card provider to expain the situation and not simple jump in with S75.
This allows for the correct approch to be taken and not simply result in a complaint, as someone has simple read that S75 is the way forward.

Toothsmith

I would also caution you against just getting your money back from the credit card company without discussing very carefully what your dentist proposes to do.

Just claiming your money back from him would certainly put his back up, destroy the trust between you and he'd be quite likely then to ask you to sort yourself out.

TheCosmeticDentist

Some great advice by Toothsmith, it is important that you appreciate that when providing the treatment, the dentist did have your best interest at heart, and they often have a much larger problem than you, as they have many people affected, and they may well have lost a lot of money invested in clearstep to buy the 'cases' up front.

I personally used to offer this treatment, and have many patients in the middle of treatment, and with this system, you don't often see the improvement until late in the treatment.

I have explained the situation to several clients, and offered an alternative system, which is quicker, and most people have been happy to go ahead and start that treatment. I have also helped out some friends who do not do a lot of orthodontics - the important think to know is there is always a way forward.

Is the dentist insured?

Every dentist does have insurance, however there has not been a definiate response from Clearstep, so the statement that they are out of business is not yet fact (to the best of my knowledge). For this reason, my insurance company has not given a statement on this.

Most dentists will do all they possibly can to help your situation, and many (like myself) will wait to know all the facts, ie. get a statement from Clearstep, and then call each patient to discuss their situation.

BraceYourself

In short I totally agree with ToothSmith

By all means explore how you may reclaim money via your credit card, but this may not be the best resolution to your treatment needs.

I would imagine your dentist, like many others used Clearstep in good faith and will be keen to help resolve your situation either in-house or by a third party (such as an orthodontist).

Contacting the practice is your best option at this time, and please remember it is not your dentist who is the bad guy....it's his supplier (Clearstep) in this case that has let you down.

From a personal perspective we have fielded a number of inquiries from concerned practitioners who are in the same predicament as your dentist, and are very keen to help their patients in the best way possible.

Should you feel you need a second opinion, you may wish to request to see a specialist orthodontist (a dentist who has completed a minimum of 3 years training in brace treatment), and there are a number of ways of finding one (General Dental Council specialist lists / British Orthodontic Society "find a specialist")

TheCosmeticDentist

Today we officially found out that Clearstep have gone into administration, this means you can expect nothing more from them.

As a dental client who has started this treatment, it is not as bad as it sounds, there are other brace systems which can give you as good a result (if not better), and in most cases, in shorter treatment times.

Your options:

Getting a refund
This is reasonable, but maybe not the best in terms of your treatment. Most of my clients who are having this treatment feel that they have started, and done a lot of the groundwork to getting their teeth straight, and do not really want to stop now.

You can talk to your dentist, who may be able to offer you alturnative treatments, or see an orthodontist (who is a specialist in the field). If you see someone else, then they will definitely charge you for this. I am charging clients of other practices £900 (split up over several months) to complete the treatment, this is a huge reduction of several thousand pounds, just to help patients out.

Your dentist should either refund your treatment fees, provide you with another brace, or arrange (and pay) for someone else to do this treatment.

If you paid on Finance
If you still want to get your money back, I know that Hitachi Capital will work with you to get the money back, and reclaim it from the dentist.

What are other clients doing?
I personally have 30+ clients with this treatment, the overwhelming majority have understood that this is not a problem with the dentist, and that we have been let down. As the sums of money we are talking about is large, this is a serious matter for everyone involved.

So far everyone has been happy to start a different course of treatment. At my expense - we have not (and should not) charge anyone extra for changing the treatment agreed- its bad enough that we have to change the treatment!

Can Dentists Get Their Money Back
Dentist will definitely lose more money, and time from this situation. I know if all my clients demanded their money back, we would not be able to sustain this, and that would be bad news not only for our Clearstep clients, but for all our clients.

In many cases, dentists would have bought treatment cases up front, and paid many thousands of pounds for this. It looks like there is no way to recoup this cost - unless it was paid on a credit card.

I would love to hear from other dentists who may have bought these 'Case Stackers' - to see if they have any way that we can get our money back for this.

It is my understanding that if you pay a company for something, they go bust, you lose the money.

ljay101

I have completed my finance payments now for my clearstep treatment
and and have had teeth removed and my teeth spaced ready for the brace.
As a woman in her 40s, I went for the clearstep option and would not have had the procedure if the fixed brace was the only option. I recognise that this is not down to my dentist who has my best interest at heart and wondered if there was an alternative way to claim compensation other than against the dentist?

Choosing an alternative i.e invisalign would not be an option for me as I no longer have the finances available.

I would be grateful for any advice

Toothsmith

For any patients caught up in this, the thing to do is

1. Don't panic

2. Contact your dentist/orthodontist and see how he/she intends to handle it.

The whole point of a professional relationship is that your care is the responsibility of the professional.

Its not like you've bought a holiday, and the holiday company has gone bust, or you've put your reply in for repair and the shop's gone bust. You are a patient who is at some stage of a medical procedure, and the person caring for you has a duty to see that the care is brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

The nature of the Clearstep program is that a dentist with possibly very little knowledge of orthodontics can send of the patient's models and Clearstep planned the treatment and made the series of aligners needed.

It is possible that without Clearstep, the dentist might struggle to plan the completion of the treatment himself. This might mean that some patients might require the transfer of their care to an orthodontist. It might mean that the dentist will finish the treatment off using a different system.

This might mean that there is a bit of inconvienience for patients - having to travel to the orthodontist, or a system that is more visible than Clearstep. I'm afraid that you just will have to put up with inconveniences like that.

But losing your money and having to pay lots more money to complete your treatment is something that no-one should have to do.

This is more of a headache for the dentists caught up in it than it should be for the patients involved.

I would urge people to be a bit patient with their dentists though. Clearstep have behaved incredibly badly over the last few weeks with zero information coming out from them. Dentists will have to find and plan different services for their patients, and that will take time, so don't expect them to know exactly what they are going to be able to do for you tomorrow!

brook2jack

ljay101 wrote: »

I have completed my finance payments now for my clearstep treatment
and and have had teeth removed and my teeth spaced ready for the brace.
As a woman in her 40s, I went for the clearstep option and would not have had the procedure if the fixed brace was the only option. I recognise that this is not down to my dentist who has my best interest at heart and wondered if there was an alternative way to claim compensation other than against the dentist?

Choosing an alternative i.e invisalign would not be an option for me as I no longer have the finances available.

I would be grateful for any advice

Unfortunately Clearstep have gone bust which means if you made a claim against them you would be last in a long line of creditors. So unfortunately you cannot get compensation out of them.

As explained before if you have had the extractions your dentist will have already paid Clearstep for your work and as this will represent a considerable amount of money they will have lost , it may take a little while to sort out alternative treatment for you, unfortunately it may involve compromises for both you and considerable extra expense for them. However bear with your dentist who will be doing their best to resolve your problems, which may have to involve another practitioner.