To sue the orthodontist?

[HerbertPootle]

No win no fee? How do you do it? What do I need? I have email trails and some notes from earlier appointment. This is long as I’m trying to include all relevant details.

DS first seen Feb 2024 age 11, Orthodontist says he has multiple crowding problems but to wait a year and see if anything changes as he’s small for age and still growing. Confirms DS qualifies for NHS braces. Our local Dentist referred mainly to get baby tooth removed that’s blocking some teeth, they don’t arrange this.

Never got any correspondence and neither did my dentist. Dentist receptionist spent months emailing orthodontist for copy of report. Eventually orthodontist sent transcribed notes from appointment but no report.

No follow up sent Feb 2025 so I chased up. DS had private and then NHS diagnosis summer 2024 for metabolic bone disease which can also affect teeth so I made orthodontist aware in same message chasing appt. Got appointment that weekend (early March).

DH took DS. Different male orthodontist says teeth much, much worse after waiting a year and DS now needs urgent dental surgery. Upper canine in roof of mouth heading in direction of upper incisor roots. He will do referral to specialist/hospital, we will hear direct from them. Probably bit of delay as NHS. DH asked if he should book a further appt with orthodontist but told no need, would hear from specialist direct and see them going forwards.

Phoned orthodontist a few times to chase for a copy of referral letter but they never answer phone. DS also having other bone surgeries during this time so decided to take him to a different private dentist once he’s recovered for second opinion.

Saw private dentist last week, upper canine now hitting roots of upper front teeth. Real possibility he’ll lose all his upper teeth due to delays from orthodontist. New dentist suggests going private with them and doing asap, she’s horrified original orthodontist didn’t remove baby tooth in 2024 as this could have given enough space for canine and incisor to come through normally. Should all have been dealt with in 2024 as was visible on original X-rays (I took photo of xray in appt and showed her). She says this was urgent in Feb 2024, no reason to delay a year. Going back tomorrow to meet with her and new orthodontist with results from CT and find out costs.

Got an email from original orthodontist receptionist today that has given me the rage (and made me want to sue them). She says we were told in appointment in March that we need to make an appointment with an orthodontist to get the referral letters written. Which is a complete lie!!! Why would the orthodontist say make another appointment with an orthodontist? Complete nonsense. And even if he had said that we would have made an appointment straight away!!

So there is no referral letter. I was chasing a copy so I could contact specialist direct thinking it was done 4 months ago with new x-rays to see if we could get a cancellation on NHS before he loses all his adult front teeth. But it doesn’t exist. She’s booked me an appointment for next week to do the letters. Am so incredibly angry 😡

Would you sue original orthodontist??

@BrieAndChilli Am waiting to hear back from manager at original orthodontist and them not doing a referral in March (after saying they would). Will ask them about speeding up, thank you. So far from speaking to my dentist and private dentist waiting list in this area and central London would be 12-18m even as an urgent case.

DS was a patient as Eastman Dental Hospital for 6 years when younger and they always said we could go back if further problems. Will ask private dentist what odds are of getting seen urgently there if she refers now. She was saying NHS at Eastman would still take 18m but I’ll ask again. I didn’t know they’d see people quicker 🤞🏻

Ask a firm like Irwin Mitchell for advice, not on here x

Second pp above, do not ask for any legal advice on here!
Worth getting another opinion too.

Did you take DS to see his regular dentist for a 6-monthly check-up in 2024? The communication issue could've been picked up at this 6 months checkup if you'd have seen the dentist mid-2024?

Sorry I should've read the whole of your posts before commenting! I can see that you have.

Good luck op with the CT results and I hope things can be sorted easily.
I would say that the most recent private specialist you've seen is looking at this with £££ as well, so just make sure everything is objective.

I think the thing is….. no one has actually done anything wrong, your son is young and still growing
At 13 he’s probably still to hit his growth spurt, a lot can change

I’ve just reread the email from the receptionist saying we needed to book an appointment with the orthodontist to arrange letters and now I’ve noticed that they’re implying the appointment in March wasn’t with an orthodontist at all? So who was the man who said he’d do a referral? They’re referring to him as ‘this person you saw last’??

Have looked them up online and they have tons of 1 star reviews, mostly for bad communication and leaving kids braces on for too long, too long between appointments because no one answers phone or books follow up appointments. Staff being late and having to rearrange (we had that once were there 8.30 for 8.45 appt told would be 2hrs as orthodontist in traffic and won’t be in for another hour plus few people waiting ahead). Also found a few who were told they’d be referred but weren’t, another canine case who had to go private. Lots of people saying they’ve complained to the NHS saying it needs to be shut down it’s so bad.

I’m waiting to hear from manager after email earlier but apparently she doesn’t care and also doesn’t respond. I can’t believe my dentist referred us there. It’s a branch of a larger company with lots of local branches, other ones have 5 star reviews.

I do trust private specialist for a few reasons. We actually saw her years ago when DS having multiple spontaneous dental abscess age 2-7 (very rare in young child). She was adamant he had an underlying health condition. She’s a paediatric dental surgeon who worked at Eastman Dental Hospital, UCLH and has only seen a handful of other children the same in 35 years. She was excellent, referred to Eastman a few times trying to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, they never diagnosed but I always believed she knew the condition and ended up taking him private and getting a private diagnosis through a different route last year.

She was right, all the other doctors / dentists that we saw at UCLH for 5 years were wrong. So I trust her, especially as she knows and understands DS underlying condition (which is rare). Just wish I’d gone back to see her a few years ago instead of seeing terrible local orthodontist. Will see what she says tomorrow. Am definitely never going back to local orthodontist.

Collect all the evidence and speak to a reputable solicitors that ha dke medical negligence like Leigh Day. Your child will be entitled to legal aid, so it may not even be something you need to fund privately. However, it could take years to settle, so there's no guarantee it would cover the cost if private treatment that you now need to pay for.

Is it a franchise company? In which case there will be little consistency across practices. You might be able to make a complaint for being seen at an alternative practice if there is a local one. However it sounds as if there were issues that might have alerted you earlier and promoted you to go back to your dentist for an alternative. Medical opinions will often vary and you would need to demonstrate that the delay was unreasonable in the opinion of others and has caused ill effects and negative outcomes for your ds (which have yet to be seen).

@JustHereForthePIP thank you, Im gathering evidence now. After rereading the weird email they sent me today about last orthodontist appointment with ‘that person’ (not qualified orthodontist??) and amount of people who have formally complained to the NHS about getting them shut down I’m gonna take this further.

@LIZS Im not even sure DS actually saw an orthodontist at this point as they’re not referring to the man we saw in March as such. It’s very odd.

I never checked reviews, was referred by dentist who is actually a good family friend (parents next door neighbour) so I trusted him completely.

Ok I’m coming to the conclusion that your son has something like Vitamin D resistant rickets / hypophosphatasia (?) in which case I change my opinion entirely.
I think your son should have been referred to a hospital based consultant orthodontist from the outset and your practice based specialist orthodontist should have sorted that out without delay.
Complicated history but the crucial context of the hypophosphatasia as medical history really does change the clinical picture.

@27pilates yes DS has something along those lines. Unfortunately, he was only diagnosed last year after we went private as NHS couldn’t manage it despite thinking it was likely, so when he first had orthodontist appt they didn’t know diagnosis but they did have his clinical history.

He was discharged from Eastman Dental Hospital age 10 but shouldn’t have been.

Unlikely anyone will catagorically say in court that it was the orthodontist fault, as whoever says it will be unlikely to be able to work again. As the woman found out when she went against the shaken baby syndrome doctors.

DS has had top braces fitted today. He had the baby tooth removed by the private paediatric dentist a few weeks ago.

We decided to go ahead with private and start now as CBCT showed upper right canine is touching root of UR2 incisor (but no sign of root resorption yet). Orthodontist is not sure if he can save this tooth as canine will swing past as moving into better position and they’re already touching but if we start now other incisors should hopefully be ok. There are a host of other things that showed up in the CBCT that are consistent with his underlying condition that also mean it’s really urgent.

Did get an urgent referral back to Eastman from DS NHS bone consultant but not sure how quick it will be. Orthodontist is saying surgery needed in 2-6m and Eastman referral will take at least that long.

New orthodontist has written in initial consultation letter that there was no need to delay treatment from early 2024 as it was urgent then so I do have that in writing. Bone consultant (NHS) has also noted delay in treatment and referral from terrible orthodontist and his new urgent referral to Eastman and copied that letter to terrible orthodontist.

Have heard nothing further from manager of terrible orthodontist who was apparently going to get back to me about my complaint that they hadn’t yet done the urgent referral from March or sent any reports to local dentist from any of DS appointments. Have asked for his dental records to be sent.

I am going to see some legal people once I have all paperwork and dental records but mostly thinking about how to get them closed down. They’re the only orthodontist in our borough who are allowed to do NHS referrals and they’re awful. Have found lots of other complaints similar to ours.

I’m so sorry you’re going through this, it sounds incredibly stressful, especially knowing your son’s situation may have been avoidable with timely care. From everything you’ve described, it’s understandable to feel angry and let down. Before jumping straight into legal action, you might want to consider filing a formal complaint with the practice and also reporting the matter to the General Dental Council (GDC). These steps can sometimes lead to resolution or accountability without the cost and complexity of a lawsuit.

That said, if the new private dentist is willing to put their concerns in writing, especially noting how earlier action in 2024 could have prevented this, then it may be worth getting a free consultation with a solicitor who handles dental negligence cases. Just be aware that proving direct harm and avoidability is key.

We had a related experience where delays risked long-term issues, and switching to Blue Tooth Dental made a world of difference. They took everything seriously, acted quickly, and even helped guide us through the complaint process.

Whatever path you take, keep documenting everything. Wishing your son a full recovery and I hope the new team helps prevent further damage. You're doing the right thing by speaking up.

I'm a dentist and just wanted to mention that orthodontists do not do dental extractions, this has to be done by normal dentist, usually orthodontist would send letter and then you as a parent arrange the appointment. However, dentist can just remove baby tooth without the go ahead from orthodontist and it baffles me why so many don't do this. Also this should have been managed in hospital to sort canine. Doubt he's going to lose all his front teeth from this canine that seems like scaremongering from private dentist.

I know that the NHS oral surgery waiting list in my hospital isn't that long for adolescents.

We see kids from all over the south east. Is it worth trying another NHS provider - there are others in London! If your kid needs a GA you'll need NHS care anyway as no-one is doing this type of work in the private sector anyway (or at least they weren't three years ago) when I was approached about setting up a service at the Portland.