A dental practice in the East Lindsey area

3. Mrs B complains about aspects of the care and treatment she received at the Practice between June 2024 and May 2025. Specifically, she raises the following concerns the Practice:

• failed to book her an urgent appointment • removed an incorrect tooth and damaged nearby teeth • failed to provide care advice following removal of her teeth • failed to provide advice on the usage of dentures • failed to provide further care and treatment.

4. Mrs B also raises concerns about the way the Practice handled her complaint.

5. As a result of bringing this complaint to us Mrs B is seeking financial remedy and service improvements.

6. Mrs B attended 14 dental appointments at the Practice between June 2024 and May 2025. This included four appointments for extractions, with five teeth being removed.

7. On 2 May 2025 Mrs B attended an appointment to have dentures fitted.

10. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mrs B to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

11. Mrs B has told us the Practice’s failure to book her an urgent appointment meant there were delays in receiving treatment. She adds that her face is no longer the same as the wrong tooth was removed and additional extractions were needed. She believes she may need future treatment to fix damage.

12. Mrs B says she has experienced prolonged pain and is unable to wear her dentures. She explains she finds it difficult to eat and often experiences dribbling. We recognise how difficult this continues to be for her.

13. In line with our legislation, we have considered whether it would be reasonable for Mrs B to pursue legal action, given she is seeking financial remedy.

14. When asked about the amount of financial remedy she would like Mrs B was unable to quantify the amount she is looking for. She advised this would be more than £326.70, the amount previously offered by the Practice.

15. By making her complaint, Mrs B is seeking financial compensation. There is therefore a possible legal cause of action available to her as she may be able to make a clinical negligence claim to achieve this.

16. We understand Mrs B may find the legal process difficult. We appreciate this, but Mrs B was also able to make a complaint to the Ombudsman and our process and a court process are similar.

17. At this point in time, we are satisfied there is a potential legal route available for Mrs B to pursue her concerns, which may provide the outcome she seeks. As there are time limits for making a legal claim, we do not want to remove this as an option when it could potentially offer what she is looking for.

18. Mrs B raised concerns about complaint handling at the Practice. She is unhappy because she found staff were aggressive, rude and unhelpful. She finds it insulting the Practice would issue a reimbursement only if she did not take further action against them.

19. We considered if we should look at this element of the complaint further at this stage. The legal process may directly or indirectly address Mrs B’s concerns with the Practice’s complaint handling as part of a consideration of her overall complaint about the Practice. For this reason we do not think it proportionate use of our resources to consider it in isolation now.

20. We are very sorry to hear about what happened to Mrs B and how this has affected her. We thank her for bringing her concerns to us. We hope this statement clearly explains why we will not be considering her complaint further at this time.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs B’s complaint about the Practice. We have decided not to complete a detailed investigation as we consider Mrs B could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.

2. We are sorry to hear about the circumstances of Mrs B’s complaint and the pain and difficulties she has suffered from. We truly appreciate the impact this had on her and would like to take this opportunity to sincerely wish her all the best for the future.