From Volume 41, Issue 2, March 2014 | Pages 168-173
There is increasing concern amongst dentists, and dental care professionals (DCPs), about the risks associated with complaints from patients and the possibility of escalation to legal action or referral to the General Dental Council (GDC). This is the first of a series of four articles considering the management of risk. It will describe why complaints happen, how to identify problems at an early stage and strategies for preventing complaints occurring.
Complaints are unhappy occasions and the emotional impact upon the whole team should never be underestimated.1
Dental treatment is very personal. If a patient likes their dentist, they usually feel great loyalty towards him/her. Unfortunately, if the patient is unhappy then their complaint will invariably be personal as well. Discontent is rarely directed against the building or the organization, but rather against the individual. Essentially, the patient is saying ‘I don't like what you have done for me'.
A complaint can produce a range of reactions, but perhaps the most frequent is fear that the matter may escalate to legal action, or even ultimately be a threat to an individual's registration with the GDC. Whilst this fear is in most cases illogical, for example a single complaint about treatment is highly unlikely to jeopardize a dentist's or DCP's registration, emotion and logic do not always sit easily together.
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