Can a NHS dentist just remove me from their list!?

brook2jack

X rays are only one of the methods a highly trained and skilled professional uses to reach a diagnosis and treatment plan. Medicine/ dentistry is very rarely black and white and the usefullness of images such as an x Ray, mri , ct scan etc lies not so much in the image but in the skill and experience of the person who interprets it alongside other clinical findings.

FBaby

I would question why a hospital consultant would ask you to go back to your dentist to get a x-ray done. Surely that would be part of your consultation and what they are paid for.

Also surely if you gave the consultant your own copy of an x-ray, you should be able to get it back from them and if this is not happening, the complaint is more about the hospital than the dentist.

Why did you see two consultants? I am guessing from your posts that you are suspecting there are some surgical pieces left in your jaw and you want this acknowledged. Are the two consultants confirmed that this is not the case and you are questioning their medical judgement? Is that also the case with the dentist, so 3 clinicians agreeing against your judgement? Or are those clinicians refusing to pronounce one way or the other?

JasonBat

brook2jack wrote: »

X rays are only one of the methods a highly trained and skilled professional uses to reach a diagnosis and treatment plan. Medicine/ dentistry is very rarely black and white and the usefullness of images such as an x Ray, mri , ct scan etc lies not so much in the image but in the skill and experience of the person who interprets it alongside other clinical findings.

I see. I think mine is quite a difficult case. I've been given a diagnosis of 'chronic atypical facial pain' and am getting by on prescription pain killers (which would not help if the pain was due to neuralgia I understand).

This has been going on for many years and it seems no clinician/dentist is willing to stick their neck out in fear of retribution or something.

The foreign body that was allegedly removed (which was infected according to the surgeon) must have been in there for around 20 years too as it was due to an extraction when I was about 12 years old. The dentist at that time said it should not 'cause any problems'. I beg to differ some 25 years later.

JasonBat

FBaby wrote: »

I would question why a hospital consultant would ask you to go back to your dentist to get a x-ray done. Surely that would be part of your consultation and what they are paid for.

Also surely if you gave the consultant your own copy of an x-ray, you should be able to get it back from them and if this is not happening, the complaint is more about the hospital than the dentist.

Why did you see two consultants? I am guessing from your posts that you are suspecting there are some surgical pieces left in your jaw and you want this acknowledged. Are the two consultants confirmed that this is not the case and you are questioning their medical judgement? Is that also the case with the dentist, so 3 clinicians agreeing against your judgement? Or are those clinicians refusing to pronounce one way or the other?

I popped into my maxillo-facial clinic for a routine appointment however the person I usually see was not around so I saw someone different.

After some poking around this consultant suspected that there may still be something embedded in the area in question and suggested a more 'local' x-ray to be taken by my dentist may prove helpful.

Upon my dentist taking the x-ray I noticed something appear on the x-ray on the screen the patient sees. My dentist initially tried to dismiss it as an 'amalgam tattoo' or something along those lines.

I then took the x-ray to the consultant I usually see and he spotted the abnormality but also tried to dismiss it based on curious reasons. I raised a complaint against the consultant and he then asserted there was no abnormality at all whilst copying in my dentist who seems to only want to retrospectively concur with the consultant.

I later underwent an MRI (after being told by the consultant that all forms of scanning etc. had been exhausted) which suggested an inflammation in a neighbouring facial muscle so it is clear to me there is something going on. Indecently, the consultant failed to mention this to me when he wrote to me with the results of the scan and it wasn't until I asked for a copy of the radiology report did this come to my attention.

So yes, I would like some acknowledgement that something is definitely not right.

brook2jack

Amalgam tattoos are a very common and non sinister finding on x rays , it doesn't cause pain .

Atypical facial pain is not an unusual diagnosis and is very frustrating as there is often no reason or cure for it. You can exhaust every test going and not find a reason or cure , that's not someone's fault but the consequence of the complex innervation and anatomy of the face.

cavework

I later underwent an MRI (after being told by the consultant that all forms of scanning etc. had been exhausted) which suggested an inflammation in a neighbouring facial muscle so it is clear to me there is something going on..


Sinus infection?

Bantex_2

JasonBat wrote: »

Thanks Bantex.

So they can cherry-pick patients and discriminate at will?

Just like any other business they can pick and chose who they wish to have as clients (subject to certain criteria such as race, sexuality etc)

FBaby

So yes, I would like some acknowledgement that something is definitely not right.

What did the consultant say was wrong? The problem here is that you are clearly questioning the clinical judgement of both the main consultant and your dentist.

It would be very very silly of them to deny there is something left there if indeed they think it is the case as they would know it would only take you going to another dentist to highlights the negligence that could only lead to much more trouble for them then if they acknowledged it now.

Not saying that is impossible, you do hear crazy stuff everyday, but I would say that this instance is much less likely than that they really didn't such outcome on the x-rays and the MRI.

Your consultant might still be at the stage of trying to assess the cause of your pain, not being able to say what it is yet, just what it is not.

JasonBat

cavework wrote: »

Sinus infection?

Seemingly not. Seen many an ENT and had several CT scans and they suggest my sinuses are not the 'direct' cause.

I do have problems though with my sinuses though which I suspect may be secondary to what is going on in my jaw.

JasonBat

FBaby wrote: »

What did the consultant say was wrong?

It would be very very silly of them to deny there is something left there if indeed they think it is the case as they would know it would only take you going to another dentist to highlights the negligence that could only lead to much more trouble for them then if they acknowledged it now.

Not saying that is impossible, you do hear crazy stuff everyday, but I would say that this instance is much less likely than that they really didn't such outcome on the x-rays and the MRI.

Your consultant might still be at the stage of trying to assess the cause of your pain, not being able to say what it is yet, just what it is not.

Well it appears my dentist wants nothing to do with it so is neither denying it or accepting it.

As for the consultant, this has being going on for years and there were absolutely no more diagnostic steps taken prior to raising a complaint - hence the complaint.

With regards to the MRI (which I was not referred for before raising a complaint), I have already clarified that there was indeed an adverse finding.