No Safety

When I moved to the UK in my mid twenties, I could not understand why anyone would be afraid of going to the dentist. After multiple bad experiences with orthodontists and dentists here I now have dental phobia and become anxious just at the mention of the word dentist. It all started when I decided to straighten my teeth. It was purely cosmetic as I had no bite issues and my teeth were only a bit crooked. After 2.5 years of treatment (a year longer than I was initially told), the doctor finally said that he was finished. However, one of my front teeth was sticking out a bit and I asked if this could be corrected. Instead of warning me that tiny adjustments are very tricky to do, he claimed that this was no problem for him. After several failed adjustments he suddenly decided to change the heights of my front teeth and tilt them all at an angle. This was a drastic change that he did without any warning. I was very upset by this and asked him to undo the unwanted change. He completely botched this, making my teeth very uneven. At this point I complained and asked to see a more senior orthodontist at the practice. I insisted that my teeth are realigned to how they were before the multiple failed adjustments. The senior doctor was very condescending and the two of them kept making snarky remarks about me in third person in my presence. The changes that the senior doctor made were much more painful than usual, with the pain not going away for over 2 weeks, rather than the usual 2 days. One side of my jaw was constantly tingling and felt like it was being pulled down. I told them that something was wrong, that I’d never felt anything like this from braces in 3 years of treatment, but they ignored me. I agreed for the braces to be taken off at the next appointment despite that my teeth were still uneven; I was too scared of things getting even worse. I was left with a narrow, slanted smile that to me looked much worse than before the braces. Even worse, my facial symmetry was now way off and it looked like someone had yanked my jaw down and to the side. My bite felt very uneven with some of my teeth hitting hard against each other, while others barely touching. Eating was uncomfortable and some teeth felt very tender. An x-ray showed that the roots of my lower front teeth had dissolved – a known side effect of braces called root resorption. I was never warned about any of these risks and side effects of braces that I now have to live with. My bite issues worsened with time and two years later I was in daily pain. One of my upper canines had been pulled down so much that it was now hitting hard against my lower teeth. My retainer was also causing me awful pain and headaches and I decided to have a new one made. I went to a different orthodontist and explained the issues I’d had with the previous treatment and how my teeth didn’t feel right on one side. He started trying to convince me to shave enamel from my canine that was hitting hard against my other teeth. I refused this multiple times but agreed to have a new retainer made. He said that he had to remove some glue that he claimed was left on the back of my upper front teeth from a previous fixed retainer. I was not aware of any glue being there but I trusted him as he was a doctor and I could not imagine that he would harm me. He reassured me that he would not remove any of my enamel. He started moving the drill up and down the backs of my teeth, supposedly cleaning them. When he finally got to the canine that was causing me problems he pressed harder, making lines from top to bottom, then some horizontal strokes at the bottom of my tooth. This is when I realised that he was not cleaning my teeth, he was reducing the size of my tooth against my wishes. He left scratches on the other five teeth – that’s the price I had to pay for saying no to someone who could not take no for an answer, someone who should not be allowed to call himself a doctor. He left deep cuts on that canine, reducing its size like he’d wanted. The cuts and scratches still hurt more than 4 years later, a constant reminder that I was assaulted by someone I should have been able to trust. I confronted him immediately after, but he denied that he had used a cutting drill and claimed there had been a lot of glue there. In his subsequent replies to my complaint he first said that a tiny amount of enamel may have been removed, then changed his story and claimed that it was impossible that any enamel had been removed and that the uneven surface I could feel on my teeth meant that there was more glue there. He said that I should go back to him and he would remove the rest of the glue and prove to me that no damage had been done. Worryingly, he also claimed that I could go to any colleague of his who would do the same. It is disturbing to think that not only can this man lie so shamelessly, but he can trust that his colleagues would lie for him too. The day after my teeth were damaged I went to my NHS dentist to assess the damage. She confirmed that there was loss of enamel on my teeth, as well as reduction of my canine. She took photos of my teeth and showed them to me on the screen, she pointed at the yellow lines on my teeth and explained that this is where enamel had been taken off. I asked her for the photos and in my distress I mentioned that I was going to sue the dentist. She was taken aback and exclaimed that this was nothing, just a bit of enamel. When I finally received the photos they were of such low quality that no damage could be seen. Only less than half of the reduced canine was visible, with the most damaged part cut off. Somehow, the once good-quality photos that I saw at my appointment which clearly showed the damage had turned into an incomplete blurry mess. Finally, I reported the orthodontist who assaulted me to the General Dental Council (GDC). They closed my case after consulting an “independent clinical advisor” – another dentist. They stated that the orthodontist had used the right instrument for the job, without any explanation how they’d come to this conclusion, and despite evidence that he had left me with a reduction of my tooth which cannot be caused by the instrument for glue removal. They stated that I had consented to the removal of my enamel since that was a possible side effect of the glue removal procedure, but that the orthodontist didn’t have to inform me of this side effect because the amounts were minimal. The GDC ignored my subsequent emails asking why they had assumed that the orthodontist is telling the truth and ignored my evidence, as well as the fact that he had changed his story several times. I used to go to the dentist every 6 months but now I avoid them as much as I can. How am I supposed to trust them when they cover up each other’s crimes? How am I supposed to trust them when even their regulatory body is biased and ignores serious assault and deception? All of the above experiences have left me with so much trauma and despite years of therapy I don’t know if I’ll ever feel ok again.