Dental Patients Don’t Complain (But They Want To!)

A recent survey, conducted by the Dental Complaints Service (DCS), has shown that around a quarter of all patients (26%) have wanted to complain but held back.

The DCS provides a free service to help patients resolve any problems with their dental care. In total, more than 5,000 complaints have been solved since the launch of the service three years ago.

Of all those that took the survey, 37% had made a complaint about an aspect of dental work. However, half of those did not feel that their complaint was taken care of to their satisfaction. Among these patients, the most common complaint was that the treatment was not effective (in 13% of patients) and that it was too expensive (12%).

The patients that wanted to complain but didn’t most commonly took issue with the cost of their treatment (33%) as well as their treatment being ineffective or unnecessary, and appointments being made at inconvenient times.

Most patients held back from complaining simply because they thought it wasn’t worth it, or that their complaints wouldn’t be taken seriously. Among those surveyed ten percent never visited the dentist.

If you do have a complaint about your dental service, the DCS can advice on where to go to complain about NHS and private practices.

If the cost is your top complaint, then dental insurance can help to relieve the pressure for any necessary treatments.