Cosmetic dentistry attacked in Times article
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- Published: Monday, 08 August 2016 12:14
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Patients left with ruined teeth as cosmetic dentists get rich quick, says the report in The Times. A “gold rush” of dentists setting up lucrative cosmetic practices with no training has led to a rise in ruined teeth, experts warned.
For full article see: http://tinyurl.com/zmrhvkc
Claims taken against these firms have risen by 80 per cent in the past five years as traumatised patients are left disfigured, out of pocket and in need of corrective surgery, the newspaper reports. It accuses the GDC ‘of putting patients at risk by ignoring serious concerns reported about a string of repeat offenders’. Senior legal figures have expressed their astonishment that many “particularly egregious” clinicians have not been struck off, despite a history of harming clients.
Christopher Dean, director of the UK Dental Law and Ethics Forum, a senior negligence lawyer and qualified dentist is quotred as saying: “I have personally reported several individuals to the General Dental Council who are guilty of horrifically negligent practice. There are a number of people we’ve complained about who are still on the register. To my astonishment they continue to profit from patients, who they treat as customers. We’re seeing more and more general dental practitioners leave traditional surgeries to join or set up private cosmetic firms. Many complain that the NHS does not remunerate adequately — unfortunately cosmetic dentistry is easy money. This is the gold rush.”
Mr Dean is calling on the GDC to create a separate register for cosmetic practitioners so that patients are protected. “There are specific organisations who we see time and time again in these cases, a number of which have in their title that their primary focus is cosmetic dentistry,” he said, “The words ‘perfect’ appear often, as does ‘smile’. It is a product.”
As the demand for perfect teeth begins to outstrip traditional treatment, dentists across the country have reported an increase in the number of corrective surgeries to fix collapsed jaws, rotten bridges and faulty implants. Figures compiled by the Dental Law Partnership, the largest dental negligence firm in Britain, showed that claims for purely cosmetic negligence represented 22 per cent of business and were as common as those concerning root canals and implants. In the past six months the demand for legal representation to claim against cosmetic dentists has rise by 40 per cent, according to another source.
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