To be really pissed off with the orthodontist's emergency line?

[Taz1212]

DS had braces put on just under a month ago. He's had no problem with them but then last night he was eating some chicken for dinner and the whole of the bottom front brackets (8-10 teeth maybe? I'd need to count) have popped off and are now jutting out in his mouth. DH phoned the orthodontist's emergency phone number yesterday evening and there's not been a peep from them.

He then phoned NHS24 and whilst they don't have an orthodontist at our local hospital, DS has an appointment for 1:00 this afternoon. On the phone they suggested that if we can't get hold of our orthodontist, the dentist at the hospital might be best removing the whole bottom set of braces.

AIBU to expect some sort of response from the orthodontist- why bother having an emergency line if you aren't going to respond? Or do they not respond in the evening and should we expect someone to phone us back this morning?

[PedlarsSpanner]

No yanbu to expect a service implied by having an emergency line

Poor DS

[Minisoksmakehardwork]

Yanbu. But I guess they have it manned at certain times so you possibly won't hear from them until after 9am this morning. They need to make it clearer though what service their emergency line provides.

[Taz1212]

I'm hoping that's the case and they will phone back this morning because we're a bit stuck if they don't. The hospital won't be able to fix them but they could remove them, but unless we speak to the orthodontist we don't know whether to have them removed or to just feed DS soup (he can drink but not eat) until he can be seen by the orthodontist.

[Littleturkish]

Keep calling emergency line- hopefully someone at the orthodontist will get back to you.

Very poor to have an emergency line with no guidance on hours.

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Hope you get it resolved. If you don't, you could try just holding them back into place with wax. It worked for me but only one of my brackets had come off.

[Mrsmorton]

You should definitely take them to task over this. Sometimes emergency contact fails for a good reason, but they need to know its failed.

As an aside, I'd be amazed if they had a contract to see orthodontic emergencies out of normal surgery hours. I think orthodontists should always teach patients/parents a bit of first aid so you know what you can do if something breaks etc.

[Taz1212]

Thanks for the suggestion, Blueberrymuffint0p*. I'm a bit worried about bending the wires because the few back teeth still have the brackets attached, if that makes sense. I don't really understand how they are managing to stick out like this and am paranoid about making it worse.

I left another message- still no response. We cancelled the hospital appointment because DS says he's not in any pain- despite jutting out, they don't seem to be rubbing- he just can't close his jaw enough to chew. We'll fill him up on soup until we can get in contact with them and get him seen.

Still fuming- there's no point in having an emergency phone number if you don't check it for messages! It would be nice to be able to speak to someone!

[Janethegirl]

I'm assuming you've tried the normal phone number for the orthodontist? I'd be leaving seriously pissed off messages if there is an answer phone.