Summary
Mrs C complained on behalf of her son (Mr A) about the care and treatment he received from his dentist. The dentist had extracted four of Mr A's adult teeth that were different from those requested by the orthodontist. When the dentist found out that he had extracted the wrong teeth, he apologised to Mrs C. He explained that there was an error in the orthodontist's letter.
We upheld the complaint as we found that the responsibility clearly lay with the dentist. He should have realised that there was a typing error and clarified matters with the orthodontist before carrying out extractions. However, our medical adviser noted that Mr A's orthodontist should still be able to produce an orthodontic result comparable to that which was initially planned. The dentist has, however, changed his processes and procedures as a result of the complaint to ensure that he does not make the same mistake again.
When this report was first published on 18 January 2012, it was incorrectly categorised as being about Lothian NHS Board. This was due to an administrative error which we discovered on 18 January 2012, and for which we apologise.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201100050 as a PDF (14.92 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018