Help!! Unhappy with dental work - paid by finance

Safia212

Really hoping someone can give me advice and let me know where I stand ... I had composite bonding done on my top front four teeth in January 2019 priced at £300 per tooth which I paid on finance at £100 per month. £1200 in total. The finance company the dentist used was hitachi.
Initially I loved my teeth, however after just 2 months they started to become stained. I went back to the practise and told them my concerns. They then polished them for me to help with the stains. However this didn’t help much. A couple of months later I returned to complain again about how stained they looked, something I didn’t struggle with at all before I had this done. They again polished them but then said I needed a scale and polish on all my teeth ...Which I reluctantly agreed to and paid yet another £56 for. After this I still wasn’t that impressed but felt I was getting nothing but short responses from the manager so I left feeling rather disappointed again.

I’m now at the point where I hate my teeth, I hate smiling as I’m embarrassed and I’ve had a second opinion from another dentist. He said they looked badly done and in his opinion the composite bonding on all teeth needed removing and redoing all over again. Which would cost another £1000.

Today I went back to the original practise and said I was very unhappy, that I’d got another opinion and I wanted some of my money back so that I could go and have them fixed elsewhere. They said they can’t give my money back as they’d already paid the dentist and she’s left the practise. They admitted they looked stained, tried to blame me for it, questioned my diet, asked if it was my stained teeth underneath causing it!!! And then to add further insult to injury, they stated they could give me 2 free scale and polishes (big deal!) re do the composite bonding again from scratch but I would still have to pay costs of materials at £100 per tooth!!!! I don’t want anything further to do with them, I don’t want them touching my teeth as they’ve done such poor work in the first place!

So my question is, what are my rights? Where do I go from here? Am I covered by the consumer rights act section 75? Can I go to the FOS as I paid by finance? Someone please help me 😞

Thanks so much in advance

brook2jack

Did the dentist discuss composite bonding with you or give you anything to sign?

A well known problem is that composites do stain they stain quicker and easier than teeth. . How often and how quickly depends on what you eat and drink, if you use mouthwash that contains chlorhexidine or if you smoke.

Mostly polishing will remove the staining but drinking black coffee, tea , smoking , using chlorhexidine mouthwash will cause them to stain quickly.

https://www.drlarrystone.com/pdf/forms/compositeresinbonding.pdf

Safia212

Thanks but I’ve had all info on composite bonding, I followed all advice and I’m a non coffee drinker non smoker, brush and floss twice a day. The second opinion was from a top dentist who I should have gone with initially; he said they should not have stained as quickly as they did and they’ve been poorly done.

I purely want to know about where I stand in terms of rights

Safia212

They also admitted that they should not be as stained as they are and claimed they never have this issue normally...

brook2jack

Your first port of call is to address your concerns in writing to the practice . You can include a copy of the report and treatment plan from the second dentist.

When a dentist leaves a practice a sum of money is retained for a while to cover the cost of work that needs replacing etc so the fact that the dentist is not still there should not matter.

When they have replied in writing then you can see where you stand . If you get no luck the dental complaints service https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/
Offers a free,fast and efficient service to resolve complaints about private dental treatment.

Safia212

Thank you brook2jack, I have filled in an online web form on the link you provided.