One in Four Dental Patients "Want to Complain but don't"

By: (UK) General Dental Council
 |  News

A quarter (26 per cent) of dental patients have wanted to complain about their dental care but didn't. According to a survey by the Dental Complaints Service (DCS)

Of the dental patients surveyed, a third (37 per cent) had complained about some aspect of their dental care, says the DCS, which is free to use and which has helped resolve more than 5,000 complaints about private dental care since its launch three years ago.

Half (53 per cent) of those in the DCS survey who did complain to their dental practice felt their complaint wasn’t resolved satisfactorily. The most common cause of complaints (13 per cent) was ineffective treatment, followed by the cost of treatment (12 per cent).

When it came to complaints that patients wanted to make but didn’t, the most common reason was the cost of treatment (33 per cent), followed by ineffective treatment (14 per cent), inconvenient appointments (13 per cent) and unnecessary treatment (13 per cent).

Most common reasons not to complain were because it wouldn’t “be worth it” (35 per cent), patients lacked confidence (17 per cent), or they feared “negative comeback” (15 per cent).  Nine per cent of those who failed to complain didn’t know where to take their complaint.

Ten per cent of those surveyed – 12 per cent of men and eight per cent of women –  never went to the dentist. Men who did and complained were more likely (49 per cent) to be satisfied than women (44 per cent). A third (37 per cent) of dental patients had never wanted to complain.

In the last three years, the DCS has received more than 20,000 calls to its local rate 08456 120540 complaints hotline. Two thirds of complaints logged are resolved within a fortnight.

“If you have a complaint about private dental care but don’t know where to go, call us,” urges Hazel Adams, head of the Dental Complaints Service. “We’ll try to help resolve your complaint quickly and fairly.” The DCS can also advise on where to go with complaints about NHS dentistry.

The DCS was set up by, but is independent of, the General Dental Council, which regulates dental professionals in the UK. Complaints that raise issues about patient safety and whether a practitioner should be allowed to continue practising continue to be dealt with by the GDC.

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