Claim off dentist ?

richardarnold

Hi all, I had a filling done at my dentsist on 6th Jan this year and it has fallen out, I have spoken to the dental receptionist and she said it should be re done for free, my question is I am self employed and am going to lose earnbings on visiting the dentist for the filling to be re done, am I able to claim my losses from the dental practice. Thanks Arnie.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Q have you got medical insurance for working?
If yes use that.

If no, chew your lip.

neilmcl

A filling is going to take less than an hour. Just how much "earnings" are you going to lose. Surely there's a time you can visit that's convenient to you.

richardarnold

I start at 6am, takes me an hour to get there, the dentist doesnt open till 9am, so suppose hes done by 10am plus an hour to get to work thats 5hrs , thats £110 lost earnings .. Thats the only appointment I can get on 15th May !

neilmcl

The fact that the dentist is over an hour away is irrelevant, you chose to go there.

Fosterdog

You don't actually know that the filling coming out is anything to do with how the dentist carried out the work, you could have eaten something that has caused it to come out. They are being generous offering to do it free (and losing out on an hour slot for a paying patient) without even knowing the cause.

Either go on the 15th May, find a dentist closer to where you work so less time taken out of your day (but you'll have to pay for the work to be done) or put up with the pain from a missing filling.

You have more than a month to make arrangements with your job, plenty of time to ensure you don't miss out on the work altogether and maybe take a half day off or even a full day off and work a different day to compensate. If you are working a job that pays you £22 an hour you can afford a half day to visit the dentist.

p00hsticks

richardarnold wrote: »

Thats the only appointment I can get on 15th May !

Why that date ? That's over a month away - does your dentist really have no other appointments available before then / at a more convenient time ?

Mine stays open untill 7pm at least one night a week

daytona0

You are perfectly entitled to take them to small claims court if you feel that they should pay your costs.

Whether you'll win or not is another matter.

Plus, you should be prepared to find another dentist for future appointments if you do that

powerful_Rogue

richardarnold wrote: »

Hi all, I had a filling done at my dentsist on 6th Jan this year and it has fallen out, I have spoken to the dental receptionist and she said it should be re done for free, my question is I am self employed and am going to lose earnbings on visiting the dentist for the filling to be re done, am I able to claim my losses from the dental practice. Thanks Arnie.

If you can wait over a month for an appointment, I'd suggest another few days isnt going to matter and book a day where you have no work stencilled in.

Undervalued

richardarnold wrote: »

Hi all, I had a filling done at my dentsist on 6th Jan this year and it has fallen out, I have spoken to the dental receptionist and she said it should be re done for free, my question is I am self employed and am going to lose earnbings on visiting the dentist for the filling to be re done, am I able to claim my losses from the dental practice. Thanks Arnie.

In theory, if you could prove it was entirely due the the dentist's negligence, then you might have a claim.

However, was it? Even if it was you will need an expert opinion to back up your claim, which will mean more time wasted seeing another dentist!

In all but the most exceptional circumstances a court would expect you to give the original supplier / tradesman / dentist one opportunity to correct any defective work so you can't just get somebody else to do it and add their bill to your claim.

Frankly, don't you think life is too short?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

How much time off work do you think it might take you to pursue this case through the court?