Patients hit by extra charges after poor dental treatment

The national charity helped people in England and Wales with 4,000 dental care problems last year, up by 9% from the year before.

Substandard service was the biggest issue reported to the Citizens Advice consumer service about dental care between April 2015 and March 2016. An analysis of 354 of these cases revealed that 3 in 4 concerned treatments that caused the patient further problems.

People reported dentists cracking healthy teeth during a treatment, fillings that came out and dentures that didn’t fit.  In one case, someone had paid thousands of pounds for a crown that didn’t fit, couldn’t be removed and had bruised the patient’s face in the process.

In a quarter (23%) of those cases patients also said dentists refused to offer a refund or a free-of-charge repair.

In one case, a woman in her 70s paid £500 to have her teeth capped but the dentist chipped her two front teeth during the treatment. When the dentist didn’t offer a repair for the chipped teeth or any compensation, she moved to a different dentist and had to pay a further £700 to get the damage fixed.

Citizens Advice is calling on dentists to follow the rules by correcting their mistakes free of charge instead of passing costs onto patients.  

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:

“Some patients are having to pay up to fix their dentist’s mistakes.

“While many people get a good service from their dentist, some patients are having treatments that leave them with a new problem like a loose or painful filling or healthy teeth that have been cracked.

“Not only do they have to undergo further treatment to fix the problem - in some cases dentists are breaking the rules by wrongly asking patients to pay the extra costs. If a dental treatment causes more problems for the patient, the law states that in most cases the dentist should be offering to repair this at no extra charge.  Asking patients to pay could put their health at risk if they are unable to afford the further treatment.

“Dentists need to make sure that they aren’t charging patients for their mistakes and that they provide patients with clear information about how they can claim compensation if something goes wrong.

“Anyone who is concerned that their treatment has caused further problems should report this to their dentist. They can also get free and confidential advice from Citizens Advice about their options for making a complaint.”

Under the Consumer Rights Act, which came into force last year, patients of private dentists whose treatment has not been carried out with reasonable care are entitled to have any problems fixed by their dentist. If a problem can’t be fixed, the patient has a right to get at least a partial refund.

The NHS dental contract also states that NHS patients who get treatments like fillings, inlays or crowns are also entitled to have this repaired or replaced within 12 months, at no extra charge.

Citizen Advice is outlining how people who feel they are being charged for dental work unfairly or who have had a dental treatment that caused them more problems can report this.

For NHS dental patients:

• For complaints about NHS dental work in England you can make the complaint directly to the dental practice or you can use the NHS England complaints procedure in the first instance. You can contact NHS England by phone on 0300 311 22 33.

• For complaints about NHS dental work in Wales you can raise a concern directly with the dental practice. You can also phone Complaints Wales on 0300 123 1299.

• If you are not satisfied by the response, you may want to contact the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO) in England on 0345 015 4033. In Wales you can contact the Public Services Ombudsman on 0300 790 0203.

For private dental patients:

• If you have a complaint about private dental treatment which you can't sort out with the practitioner concerned, you can report this to the Dental Complaints Service on 020 8253 0800 or through their website.

For all patients:

• You can get advice from Citizens Advice on making a complaint about dental care through the Citizens Advice consumer service by phoning 03454 04 05 06, online at www.citizensadvice.org.uk, or by visiting your local Citizens Advice.

Notes to editors

1. Between April 2015 and March 2016 the Citizens Advice consumer service helped people with 921 problems they had with dental care, up from 756 between April 2014 and March 2015. Local Citizens Advice in England and Wales helped people with over 3,031 problems with dentists and dental care over the same period, up from 2,864 problems reported between April 2014 and March 2015.
2. The Citizens Advice service comprises a network of local Citizens Advice, all of which are independent charities, the Citizens Advice consumer service and national charity Citizens Advice. Together we help people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers. For more see the Citizens Advice website.
3. The advice provided by the Citizens Advice service is free, independent, confidential and impartial, and available to everyone regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age or nationality.
4. To find your local Citizens Advice in England and Wales or to get advice online, visit citizensadvice.org.uk.
5. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 03454 04 05 06 or 03454 04 05 05 for Welsh language speakers.
6. Last year we helped over 2.7 million people face to face, by phone, email or web chat.
7. People sought our help with 6.2 million issues in the last year. For full service statistics see our quarterly publication Advice trends.
8. Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 23,000 trained volunteers, working at over 2,900 locations across England and Wales.
9. Citizens Advice was named Charity Times 2015 charity of the year.