Clearstep in Administration

ummlay

I have only just found out that clear step have gone bust. I bought a groupon deal last May and have been with the dental practice Aesthetic and Dental clinic in Shrewsbury.

They have been very slow in sending out the aligners. I was told when starting the proceedure i would have an aligner sent out two days after impressions were taken. In some instances i waited nearly two months.

On my last visit on 27 Feb I was told there is some delay at the lab, so my aligners would be with me in a few weeks. I was constantly ringing my dentist after that date to see where the aligners were. Finally yesterday there was a automated message to ring another number. When I rang I was told the dental practice had gone into liquidation, and that she was the liquidator.

I was told to seek treatment elsewhere and no further treatment would be arranged and unlikely to get compensation, but I could try. She told me she would send me out the insolvency pack which would explain more.

After hearing this I rang a local dentist who then explained that clear step had also gone into liquidation about two months ago. I am so annoyed that no one at Aesthetic and Dental clinic informed me of this. I am so worried and concerned and really don't know where I stand.

I have contacted another dentist who has quoted me 3,500 to carry on the treatment. Which is just too expensive, seeming as I've lost so much already.

Can anyone help? what do you recommend I should do?

brook2jack

How did you pay for treatment? If in credit card or independant finance you may be able to claim money back from them.

However it is unlikely you will get any money back from the insolvent dentist or clearstep.

Unfortunately I always have doubts about dentistry sold on groupon. dentistry is not a consumable it has to be appropriate for a patient. Also there is not alot of give in dental pricing so seeing offers for eg clear braces where the price is not much more than the laboratory costs alone makes me wonder what the business model is.

Clearstep is unlike other systems so any dentist taking your case on has to start afresh hence the costs. The lab bills on most invisible allugner systems are very expensive which makes them an expensive treatment. Metal train racks may be cheaper but start at around 1400 for a course of treatment.

Toothsmith

If the practice has gone bust too, then it is as bit of a double blow.

Did you pay any of the bill with a credit card? Can Groupon help?

You could look up the name of the dentist who treated you on the General Dental Council's website and see if you could locate where they are working now. Not sure if that will help though.

This is one of the problems of paying for a professional service via discount vouchers. It's not like buying a washing machine where if something goes wrong, it's only money you've lost.

If you abandon orthodontic treatment before it is completed, then its easily possible you could end up worse off than if you'd not had anything done in the first place.

It is important that you find someone to take you on and at least get them to a stable position. This should be more of a priority than trying to get you money back at the moment.

vitaliteeth

From the view of a cosmetic dentist, I can confirm that Clearstep went bust with good reason, the quality of their orthodontic devices, and their customer service, was poor.
Our Clearstep cases / patients are being finished at our cost :mad:( Vitaliteeth dental spa Edinburgh ) because they paid for their treatment, so they deserve to have it finished properly. The 2 systems we use, Invisalign (USA) and InLine (Germany) are both a lot better in terms of treatment quality and customer service.
I think everyone involved should trust their dentists to complete the treatment. Clearstep contracted with dentists, not patients. It is the dentist's duty to complete treatment, and the dentist's problem to claim back money from Clearstep. Patients should not be affected.
Dr Martin Hopf Edinburgh:cool:

iz007

I too was a Clearstep patient and had been since January 2010. When the news of the Clearstep administration broke I was about 80/90% of the way through my treatment plan (top and bottom arches).

Not an easy situation to resolve or be in for anyone but I took the advice on this forum and followed up with my dentist. They were very good about it and have arranged for me to complete my treatment with a cosmetic dentist within the local area. I have had to have fixed braces aka 'train tracks' but they are clear so not so noticeable. To be honest, whilst the visibility is a slight downside, I felt I had come this far with the treatment that 6 months of wearing fixed braces wasn't the end of the world. I've had them in 12 days so far and to date only 2 people have commented on them so either I've got really polite work colleagues or no one has really noticed

With regards to costs, I have paid a further £400 to complete the treatment which isn't ideal but as I said I'd come this far with my treatment and it wasn't the dentist's fault that Clearstep went under so I wanted to work with them to resolve the situation. The real cost to complete my treatment with the new dentist is £2200 but this has been reduced to £900 and my previous dentist paid £500 towards this and I paid the balance.

Hopefully this may help others in a similar situation to complete their treatment.

Essex1974

I have just been to see my dentis to be told that because it has taken too long to do my treatment clearstep will no longer provide anymore retainers. My dentist told me that there was a contract and a treatment time but it has taken too long and I now need to start another treatment which the dentist will charge me cost price for. After googling clearstep to look at their terms and conditions I find out that they have in fact gone into administartion. My dentist made no mention of this.
What should I do. Does my dentist have to provide another treatment at their own cost. I paid up front for the complete treatment and only have about 8 months to go.
My dentist told me that because I had a long break between boxes of braces, at whichi time I never did not wear a brace, that my teeth may not be moving as well so would need to start again.

What do I do?

Toothsmith

Essex1974 wrote: »

My dentist told me that because I had a long break between boxes of braces, at whichi time I never did not wear a brace, that my teeth may not be moving as well so would need to start again.

What do I do?

Can you just clarify that the bold bit in the quote means that you were still wearing the appliance?

How long was the break?

Did you tell the dentist there would be a while before you could get in again?

I think if you just disappeared, then appear again out of the blue several months later with no word in between, maybe even having failed an appointment, and not responding to any attempt to contact you, it would be a completely different situation to you telling the dentist that you had got a job abroad for a few months. He would then have told you to make sure you kept wearing the appliance you had, and he would pick up where he left off when you got back.

Which situation would you say was the closest to what happened?

If you just disappeared with no word, I would say the dentist has every right to charge you for continuation of treatment.

If he knew that you were going away, or couldn't get in for a while, then I think it would be fairer to come to some sort of arrangement between you. After all, it wasn't his fault you went away, and if you hadn't, chances were your treatment could have been a lot closer to completion if not completed. So I would still expect to have to pay something, but not necessarily the full cost.

zarak

I was going to get this!!!

Invislign is sooooo expensive but maybe the i7 version would be a good idea?

Dentists opinions on the i7? Anyone actually had it?
Opinions on the simpli5?

It litterally is just one tooth that comes forward a tiny bit and is very slightly rotated upwards. I asked the ortho at my implant place but she really got over excited about making my smile bigger and moving teeth outwards saying I can pull off a bigger smile. I did like her and will be speaking to her again soon, but I think they only do invisilign only I do have another appointment with her in 2 weeks she's away for a while so in that time wanted anyone to tell me if they have had experiences with minor movement braces. Oh and because of the implant process at the same time I will have to get the removable clear ones only.

Thanks

Toothsmith

If it's an orthodontist specialist, she should have all systems in her toolbox - including the less sexy, but much more reliable and predictable 'train track' systems.

If it's just a dentist who 'does' invisalign, then it's the same problems as with Clearstep in that the practitioner really doesn't know what they are doing, they just rely on the lab to treatment plan for them.

If you search Invisalign, you can read what me and other dentists on here have written about the pros and cons of these systems.

zarak

Toothsmith wrote: »

If it's an orthodontist specialist, she should have all systems in her toolbox - including the less sexy, but much more reliable and predictable 'train track' systems.

If it's just a dentist who 'does' invisalign, then it's the same problems as with Clearstep in that the practitioner really doesn't know what they are doing, they just rely on the lab to treatment plan for them.

If you search Invisalign, you can read what me and other dentists on here have written about the pros and cons of these systems.

I'll do a search on it again but I didn't find any pros and cons just some advice on different aspects. I'll look again though thank you
I don't mind getting normal braces but my implant dentis said it's just extra hassle for checkup and bone grafts and healing times.