Dr X -Cash, Pills and Dental implants –
A series of unfortunate events?
I really could not make this story up….
I was recently contacted by a very upset mother on behalf of her daughter. She rang me to say that she had- in a nutshell -paid a very large sum of money (many thousands of pounds) over in cash, to a person, namely Dr X who she thought was a dentist based in London. Dr X had promised to carry out implant treatment over in Poland for her daughter.
Mum arranged the dental appointment and flights through Dr X in London and a large sum of cash was handed over at the airport by mum to Dr X – Interestingly, the sum was handed back to mum by Dr X whilst they all went through UK Customs and Dr X then asked for the cash back when safely through and seated on the plane!
When mum and daughter finally reached Poland, they were ushered into a dental surgery where they were introduced to a Polish dentist who carried out the implant placement- a large number of both upper and lower titanium dental implants were placed in a very short space of time.
To cut a long story short, the end result was that daughter has now upon her return to the UK been told that the dental implants that were placed by the Polish dentist are the wrong type and should never have been used, and that they have not been fitted correctly- leaving her in extreme pain.
Mum contacted Dr X about her daughters pain following the treatment and who unbelievably turned up at her home that evening with some painkillers which appeared to mum to have been opened. – A quick search online by mum showed that these painkillers turned out to be a derivative of horse tranquilliser pills.
Now, a quick search by me of the General Dental Council register, whilst mum was on the phone, shows Dr X to not be registered at all as any sort of medical professional, let alone a dentist.
On closer inspection, photos of him on social media advertising his “practice” in what appears to be dental scrubs, portray him as an “owner of a beauty consultation clinic” meaning that he is arguably not holding himself out as as an unqualified dentist, -despite appearances.
The problem for mum and daughter is twofold; Any claim against Dr X will fail as he will argue that he just arranged the flights to Poland and booked the Polish dental appointment – a bit like a travel agent.
Secondly, the Polish dentist who placed the implants allegedly incorrectly is not subject to English Law -as the treatment was carried out in Poland.
This arguably leaves both mum and daughter with nobody to bring a claim against.
Mum is seriously out of pocket to the tune of thousands of pounds and daughter is in extreme pain waiting for her substandard treatment to be sorted out.
This case just goes to show that sometimes -the law is broken.