Taking the pain out of dental complaints

A new service aims to give dental patients a way to resolve complaints without referring to the Dental Council or the courts, …

A new service aims to give dental patients a way to resolve complaints without referring to the Dental Council or the courts, writes FIONA REDDAN

IF A recent visit to your dentist has left you in more pain than you bargained for, you will now be able to make a complaint through the newly launched Dental Complaints Resolution Service.

Following a trend set by other countries such as the UK and US, the new independent service aims to offer dental patients the opportunity to complain in a “fair and timely” manner.

Launched last week, the new service, which will be based in Castlebar in Co Mayo, will aim to help patients to settle their differences with the help of an experienced mediator, Michael Kilcoyne, chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland. Most importantly in these times of austerity, there will be no charge attached to the service.

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The Irish Dental Association (IDA) is backing the new service and, according to the outgoing IDA president, Dr Conor McAlister, it was set up as part of dentists’ overall commitment to the provision of accessible, safe and high quality dental services for patients.

“We felt there was a need for patients who had problems to have a means to resolve it without going to the Dental Council or the courts,” he says, adding, “the experience in other countries of a similar sort of service appears to work very well”.

The mediator, Michael Kilcoyne, is optimistic about the prospects for the new service.

“Up to now patients have been left with little option but to either proceed through time consuming and expensive complaints mechanisms with the Dental Council or indeed the Civil Courts. Equally, dentists have not had the benefit of a system which can address genuine concerns as they arise as well as offering invaluable feedback. I believe what is proposed offers a win-win for both patients and dentists,” he says.

The resolution service will cover areas such as: receiving the wrong treatment or poor treatment; poor communication between you and the dentist; the dentist not making clear how much you have to pay for treatment; a delay that could have been avoided; and the dentist being rude or not apologising for mistakes.

Any complaints with regards to how a third-party scheme is structured or implemented, such as the Medical Card, PRSI scheme or insurance-based schemes, will be excluded from using the services of the mediator.

In the first instance, McAlister suggests that people should approach their dentist with their issue. If that doesn’t work, they can then pursue the services of the mediator.

“The mediator will act as a referee and decide what the appropriate solution is to a patient’s difficulty,” says McAlister, pointing out that in the UK, 67 per cent of cases are resolved within a week.

The mediator describes the process succinctly.

“If you have a problem in relation to a dentist, either email or call outlining the problem and I’ll send it on to the dentist and say ‘would you ever sort this out?’. If he sorts it out, fine. If he doesn’t sort it out, there’ll be a committee of three people to look at it,” says Kilcoyne, noting that one of the members of the panel will be a dentist.

Should you make a complaint, Kilcoyne will aim to respond to you within a week, and he would then expect a reply from the dentist in question within a further two weeks.

If it’s a serious issue, Kilcoyne will refer it to the Dental Council, but he expects that most should be straight forward and sorted out easily.

If the patient’s complaint is upheld, then they should expect an apology from the dentist, full or partial refund of fees, as well as the dentist making a contribution towards the remedial treatment of up to the cost of the original treatment.

On the other hand, this won’t always be the case, as Kilcoyne says, “sometimes the customer will be wrong”, but he expects that the existence of the service will boost overall standards in the profession.

“I’m hopeful that the very fact that there is this complaints committee in place will lead to dentists being more on the ball and more careful,” says Kilcoyne.

But before you complain, make sure that your dentist is a member of the IDA, as only dentists who are members of this association – and 70 per cent of dentists in Ireland are – or those who have specifically signed up to participate in the service, may use this procedure.

Also, given that the service has just been launched, it will not be able to accept complaints that arose before the start of this year.

The resolution service marks the latest initiative from the IDA, which last year called on dentists around the State to display their pricing. According to McAlister, the association has had “almost 100 per cent compliance” with it, adding that it has helped to make the market more competitive, pushing prices down.

This September, the IDA will once again hold its mouth cancer awareness day, where dentists across the State will offer free examinations. Last year, some 10,000 people were examined and 13 cases of cancer were identified.

To contact the resolution service: telephone 094-9025105 or email michael@dentalcomplaints.ie