Unhappy with private dental work

keanelover

Hi there

Hopefully I have posted this in the right place. A couple of years ago I responded to a groupon deal for invisalign braces. It went as far as a free consultation which didn't progress as my teeth needed a fixed brace which would have cost twice as much more as I was prepared to pay. fast forward to 2014 and somebody from the same dental clinic called me to say they were offering fixed braces for £1500. I had just come into some money so thought why not, I always hated my crooked teeth.
I had the white braces fixed and was told it would take 6 months to complete treatment. I was given no advice as to how to look after the brace other than to brush after each meal. I had to return on a monthly basis to tighten the brace. I lived in Kent and the surgery was in Finchley so not an easy visit but only once a month (or so I thought) After a few weeks I was due to go on holiday. My husband and i went for a meal and after the meal he commented on how yellow my teeth looked. To my horror my braces were illuminous yellow! I was not told that certain foods can stain the braces and its permanent! I was due on holiday in two days so had to visit the dentists other practice in Hertfordshire to have the bands replaced to get rid of the yellow!
I came back from holiday and discovered i was pregnant (great holiday obvs) I continued going for my monthly appointments but inbetween these the brace snapped a few times and the metal braces were digging into my gums at this point and causing pain. I had to travel several times to Finchley to get this sorted and a lot of the time the dentists wasn't available to repair and i had to wait until the next week to get it fixed enduring a lot of discomfort. After 5.5 months my teeth were visibly straight and it was decided to remove the brace and fit a permanent retainer (an extra £350.) To make sure everything was as perfect as possible the dentist had to shave down some of my teeth so that when they moved with the brace they had space to align. I then had cosmetic/ceramic filler to smooth over any gaps.

So heres my issue. When the braces were removed my teeth were perfectly straight. After 3 days the retainer at the back of my teeth snapped, these were meant to be cemented in place. i didn't know this had happened until I looked in the mirror and noticed my tooth on one side had returned to its original wonky position. Again I had to wait until she was in Finchley (she worked 1 day a week) and by now I was 7 months pregnant and it was winter and i was hugely frustrated at yet another problem. Nothing could be done to resolve the problem apart from more cosmetic filler to close the gap that had arisen to make it look better but the tooth was basically left wonky and her opinion was that it didn't look that bad! She then fitted a more sturdy retainer but to be honest the damage has been done and my teeth are not perfect and i hate them just as much as I did before and i have paid almost 2 grand for this. I feel she has bodged my treatment and also shaved far too much of the teeth down and has covered it up with filler which will not last forever. I feel more and more aggrieved when I look at the results but don't really know what to do. I would love some advice on how to proceed with a complaint ( I made several at the time but nothing more as i had a baby) I feel angry at the amont of money I spent for someone making a mess of my teeth. I should be due some money back considering the result is nowhere near perfect. Any advice?

Apologies for the very long winded post, i felt the history was needed considering the poor care i received.

brook2jack

First off send your concerns , in writing , to the dental practice . They should reply promptly.

If you are not happy with their response the dental complaints service is a free , confidential service which has a very high satisfaction rate and cases are normally sorted within weeks. http://www.gdc-uk.org/sites/dcs/Pages/default.aspx

I would never advise going via group on for any dental treatment and would always advise seeing an orthodontist for brace treatment rather than a general dentist. I would also advise to have any orthodontic treatment close to home as there are always extra appointments necessary due to brackets debonding, wires snapping etc.

Tooth reduction or removal is almost always necessary with this type of brace as you need space to move teeth.

Retainer wires breaking is also a fairly common occurrence in brace work.

In other words it would appear many of the problems you had with treatment are ones that happen with most brace work but because you chose to see a dentist some distance away this made things more complicated than normal, however it would appear the dentist accommodated you by arranging for you to be seen at a branch practice.

The breaking of the retainer wire and relapse in your treatment is again something which can commonly happen with braces and you should discuss with the practice what might be possible to rectify it.

keanelover

Thanks for your reply Brookjack.

i totally agree that treatment via groupon isn't my preferred choice but cosmetic dentistry isn't something I would afford normally so thought it might be the best way to get treatment for my teeth. Again I also appreciate nothing is ever straightforward and traveled wherever they needed me to at a great cost to myself just because i am aware that these things can happen. But when all things are considered I don't feel I have had good value for money really and 2 grand isn't a small amount of money groupon or not so hopefully I can get my point across to them and get it resolved amicably.

Thanks for the helpful links, much apreciated

brook2jack

The reason why group on is such a bad idea for dentistry is there really isn't the profit margins to make such deals , in normal terms , viable.

The laboratory costs for eg Invisalign start at around £1300 for a very very simple "junior" case and go rapidly upwards. Other alligner systems are cheaper but still are a large part of the cost. Add to that a surgery in a dental practice will cost £160 or more per hour to run and you will se why many dentists find it difficult to see how practices can offer groupon deals. If you search on this forum there are many stories of patients have been left high and dry in the middle of groupon type orthodontic treatment when surgeries and /or orthodontic laboratories have gone bust.

In general buy dentistry on expertise and recommendation not on price.