I have had a very intimidating experience at this orthodontist over the brackets in my child's braces coming loose.
When the braces were first put in 7 brackets came loose during the first 6-8weeks. Only 2 came loose because of food, the rest were unknown. My daughter is very careful about her teeth and more stringent about what she is able to eat with braces than me. I asked the female orthodontist about it and was treated to a criticism of my parenting skills and an observation (that's me being polite to call it that) on my daughters behaviour behind my back. I was offended and challenged the orthodontist on this and was treated as though I was a pest and unreasonable. I left very angry about it but as my daughter was upset as well I left things alone.
I wish that was the end of it!
After that visit 3 more brackets came loose at the same time while my daughter was sleeping. Again nothing to do with food. I decided to leave it until the next visit as when I had called before over the previous brackets we had been told to wait until we were due to come again. My daughter had to tolerate the braces turning over and she was very worried about going to the orthodontist again in case they said anything about her not taking care of her teeth, which is not the case.
Finally came the day of the visit. We went in as normal and waited to be seen. My daughter was called and she went in. I followed with all her stuff and was treated to a glacial stare over by all the members of staff in the room. Yes, every single one of them stared me out. What a service! I took a seat at the end of the dentist chair my daughter was sitting in and focused on her, smiling and asking if she was ok. The orthodontist didn't address either me or my daughter. No hello or asking how my daughter was or if she had any problems. Meanwhile beside us the female orthodontist from the last visit was giving the most exemplar display of over the top customer care; how obvious!
Though my daughter had asked me to speak about the 3 loose brackets, taking on board the intimidation and lack of acknowledgement I decided that it would be unwise to say anything. My daughter spoke up and mentioned about the 3 loose brackets which the orthodontist said was too many. He removed the 3 brackets, didn't replace them and put in new wires top and bottom. He dismissed my daughter and as I started to ask about the 3 brackets he raised his voice to me and bellowed "Next time". I hesitated and then started saying that the brackets came off in her sleep to which again, before I could get halfway, he thundered "Later".
We left. Clearly this orthodontist's office has no concern over how they treat NHS patients. Second class citizens are treated better than us. What is most disturbing is the level of arrogant, critical, intimidating and bullying behaviour they believe they are allowed to engage in, simply because they will refuse you treatment and leave you without dental care.
Oh, and I didn't even get to tell you about the dental nurse who barged past where I was sitting by my daughter during her treatment, just to get to some cupboard she could have accessed another way, and then did it again on her return journey. Where do they think they work? In a school playground? Infantile, puerile behaviour which unfortunately was very upsetting for my daughter as she somehow feels responsible.
Go there if you want to experience whole staff intimidation, orthodontist bullying and non-defined dental work1 read more