BrucegateDentalProblems.com
A website about the dental treatment and customer service I've received from Brucegate Dental Practice which is in Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland.
LATEST
October 2024: The web stats show that between 35 and 68 unique visitors come to this website each day, around 1,000 each month. It is now the 17th result on Google when searching for "Brucegate Dental Practice".
I was left in almost constant mild discomfort for several months from November 2023 despite me patiently and politely pursuing the matter. It seriously affected my life and well-being and didn't begin to ease until around April 2024. However, a year after the crown was fitted, I still have problems just about every time I eat anything, no matter what it is. That wasn't the case before the crown was done.
Brucegate is a private dental practice and I paid £640 for this crown which a friend has described as looking "damaged." From the start the crown seemed very tight between the teeth, with a sharp edge against one. There seemed to be far too much material on the outer edge. The bite was far worse than that which I'd had before it was done. I don't know why the crown was like this.
At this stage I won't go into detail about why I felt unable to continue seeing the dentist who did the crown. But after I got home after an appointment on 21st November 2023 I telephoned with a complaint.
The initial response was to tell me that Brucegate Dental Practice didn't get complaints. There is a whole lot more to say about how my complaint was handled and I will go into more detail in the future. But I was so dismayed by the response that I submitted a Subject Access Request (SAR) to get copies of telephone conversations, xrays, photos etc. in case I needed those in the future. That initial gut feeling was proved right...
After several more appointments spread out over four months and with the situation unresolved, in April 2024 the Practice told me they could not reach my "expectations" (which were nothing more than to have a crown with a normal bite which wasn't irritating me). They claimed they had done all they could (which I dispute) and wished me luck with my (imaginary) "new dentist."
They wrote that knowing full well all the problems there are finding a dentist these days. And knowing that as a patient I was already somewhat nervous about dental treatment. Make of that what you will... A refund and "new dentist" transferred any risk and extra costs onto me.
I received a refund of what I had paid for the crown. I consider that to be woefully inadequate considering what I had gone through and the situation I am left in. As of October 2024, I still haven't been able to see a dentist somewhere else and it is now a year since the crown was done.
I've puzzled over why any health provider would deal with a complaint in this way. I expected it would be resolved eventually and, if it had been, I would have moved on. Instead I will now publicise my experience at every opportunity for the forseeable future.
Is there part of the picture that I'm not aware of? So far I've been unable to get the opinion of another dentist. Or has the dental crisis made dentists and their staff feel special and superior and that they can do this? Like the bad old days of the medical profession 40 or 50 years ago... I felt I was treated as if I was a gullible idiot.
On the left you can see the crown that was fitted by Brucegate Dental Practice in 2023 (photo date: 22 April 2024) and on the right, for comparison, is a mould of the former tooth that was made by another dentist, I believe in 2010. It is the most recent reference I have and I strongly believe the tooth was still that shape until the crown was done. While saying they didn't know what the problem was, Brucegate declined the offer to look at this mould after I realised I had it and managed to find it.
I believe that, looking at this, most people would spot what the problem might be.
The final sanding of the edge of the crown seemed to improve matters slightly, relieving some of the pressure. The irritation eased somewhat several months after that (possibly because the teeth moved slightly to accommodate the crown?), however the crown still seems to be either nipping the gum slightly or have a sharp edge which is either pushing against the tooth in front or getting slightly wedged against it when I eat.
When I eat I have the sensation that something is trapped between the crown and neighbouring tooth and gum. Using floss seems to ease the pressure. But now and again the irritation continues for longer: for hours or days. I don't think this is root related (I have never had any root problem) it is just how the crown is interacting with the teeth on either side and the gum. The bite is much worse than it was. Almost as if a tooth was removed.
This is my best interpretation of the situation as so far I have been unable to see another dentist.
From the moment the crown was put in it was clear to me that the bite was way out from what it should be. For example, the outer side seemed to be too long. However Brucegate steadfastly refused to redo the crown and instead "smoothed" it repeatedly over a number of appointments (I will reveal more about this in the future). To the point where apparently there were concerns that it might fracture if more was done. Never before had I had a crown that needed this much adjustment.
I was told that if it was redone it would just be the same as the crown that had been put in. That didn't seem to make sense when the crown appeared to be so different to the tooth that had been there before.
Rather than resolve this for me, and perhaps because I wasn't blindly accepting a narrative that didn't seem to make sense and had found the mould from 2010, suddenly they declined to do any further treatment, offered a refund and to forward my notes to my "new dentist."
That was a shock and at that point I decided I would launch this website. I will write in greater detail in the future but I am preparing complaints. There are many interesting aspects to this in terms of the attitude towards me, delays, treatment and the handling of patient data. For example...
DATA BREACH
On 5 April 2024 I opened an email from Brucegate Dental Practice, looked at the enclosed photos, and thought "that isn't my lower face and those aren't my teeth." I had been sent another patient's medical data (8 photographs) by mistake and by ordinary email. They semed to show him having veneers fitted.
Brucegate described this to me as a "technical data breach" but claimed that "no patient identifiable information" had been revealed. But, as a professional photographer by trade, I believe I would be able to recognise this man from the lower half of his face and teeth if I met him in person.
So this incident was brushed off. However the audio files of the telephone conversations that I requested under the SAR were also sent to me by email. This is despite me stating in the original letter that those could "be provided on CD or as files on a secure web service." Because they were sent by email, audio files of my telephone conversations in which I discussed my medical treatment, with staff at Brucegate, ended up on the Los Angeles based server which hosts my email.
They were mp3 files sent as unencrypted email attachments that any member of technical staff at the American hosting company could potentially access and listen to.
That reply was the latest in response to the Subject Access Request (SAR) that I first sent to Brucegate Dental Practice on 27 November 2023 and more than four months later they still hadn't sent everything I had asked for. Usually a business should provide the requested data within a month. I never did receive the photographs that were taken at the first appointments. Presumably those would have shown how the tooth was before the crown. But months after the SAR was submitted the Practice told me the photos had been deleted... I will say more about that in the future.
I will provide updates as I bring this situation to the attention of various third parties and we will find out how effective those are at regulation, or not.
MEDIA
If you're in the media, reporting the dental crisis and would like to discuss my experience, get in touch. In the past I have appeared on national BBC1 (twice), Channel 4 News, BBC Radio 4 Scotland and BBC local radio several times.
Also this website will be a source of news and information about the UK dental crisis and provide resources. Please bookmark it.
Pay attention to those rare negative reviews about any dentist
Due to the ongoing dental crisis in the UK it's likely that people feel less able to speak out about a poor experience, while there will be any number of favourable reviews.
Brucegate Dental Practice has a one star review on Google Reviews from a patient who apparently had a dental emergency while on holiday in the town and so probably feels more able to speak up than a local resident.
Also in general be aware that on the social media pages for any business negative comments may have been removed.