Who can help?
In-house complaints procedure
All dental practices should have an in-house complaints procedure. If you have a problem with your dental care, we usually recommend you first contact the practice to try to get it resolved locally.
When starting to consider who else to approach to make a complaint about your dental care, it is helpful to be clear whether your treatment was provided under the NHS or not. If it was not it may have been called private treatment or, sometimes, independent treatment. If you are not sure check with the registrant or the practice.
NHS Complaints Procedure
If you received NHS treatment, your local Health Authority/ Primary Care Trust (England and Wales) or Health Board (Scotland) or Health and Social Services Board (Northern Ireland) will be able to tell you whether your complaint can be dealt with through the NHS complaints process. More information can be accessed through the NHS website - www.nhs.uk.
Or you can find more information on the NHS complaints procedure relevant to each country as follows:
If you are unhappy about the way a complaint has been dealt with under the NHS complaints procedure in England and Wales, you should contact the Healthcare Commission.
Private dental treatment
If you have a complaint about private dental treatment that has not been resolved to your satisfaction using the dental practice’s own complaints process, you can call the Dental Complaints Service on 08456 120540 or email: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk. They will help you and the dental professional put things right by working with you both to sort out the complaint. Alternatively, you can visit their website: www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk.
Complaints to us
If you think that your dentist or DCP has behaved in a way which calls into question whether he or she should be allowed to remain on our register and continue to practise, you should report it to us at the GDC.