Excuse me, are you the patient...

One of our orthodontic patient came to the practice with the braces on one of her lower front teeth dislodged. This resulted in that tooth slipping its contact with the neighbouring tooth and going crooked again. We showed her the problem and reinforced the need to keep the braces intact.

We removed the broken bracket and replaced it with a new bracket. We then gave her an appointment one week later so as to minimise the loss of treatment time due to the broken bracket. The intention was to tie in the repaired bracket and this was communicated to the patient. The patient was also given a 6-week adjustment appointment on 30 October 2009.

That evening, the patient showed her mother the crooked tooth and wondered why that tooth was not tied in to the bracket.

The next day, over anxious mum calls and insisted on talking to the dentist despite the clinician being in the midst of treatment. When mum's call was returned, she claimed that her daughter's upper tooth was crooked. She continued to insist that the problem was the upper tooth despite being reassured that the breakage was on the lower tooth. She refused to accept the dentist's explanation and wanted to have her daughter seen immediately and not at the stipulated appointment. She was afraid that if the teeth were left unattached to the wire, the tooth would get worse.

The attending dentist then asked the patient where she perceived the problem and she replied that it was her lower tooth!

When the appointed time came for the patient to return for attaching the tooth to the wire, the patient failed to attend and did not even call until after the event. The patient then insisted on getting another appointment the very next day, which she was given.

Again, the patient failed the second appointment and again she insisted on a next day appointment. She failed the third appointment and was given an appointment within four days of the third failed appointment.

The patient failed her fourth appointment and was gievn an appointment 1 week later. This gets even better. She fails her fourth appointment and gets a fifth appointment 1 week later (which she finally attends). This is barely 2 weeks from her 6-week adjustment appointment, which means that her teeth did not move in the mean time and treatment has been set back by about one month.



The failed appointments add up to 50 minutes that could have been given 5 other patients. Inconsiderate patients like this rob others of an earlier appointment.

What options do we have? Charge patients for not showing up for their apointments?