Firstly, the reception staff were friendly and always happy to help.
Unfortunately, beyond this, I’d echo recent reviews in general feedback - rushed appointments, missing x-rays, incorrect notes, and painful poor quality treatment leading to further damage and decay. I would strongly suggest for dental needs beyond the bare minimum, to avoid at all costs....
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Firstly, the reception staff were friendly and always happy to help.
Unfortunately, beyond this, I’d echo recent reviews in general feedback - rushed appointments, missing x-rays, incorrect notes, and painful poor quality treatment leading to further damage and decay. I would strongly suggest for dental needs beyond the bare minimum, to avoid at all costs.
I visited for a chipped molar with a lost filling (temporarily filled by the dental hospital). X-rays were taken, but ended up missing due to technical issues. No X-rays were retaken, even though I was charged (NHS). The dentist was okay to deal with, albeit rushed on that first appointment, however I do take responsibility for this as I was unfortunately running late that day.
I opted for a private repair and was given a newly qualified dentist - I have no issues with this, as I understand everyone has to start somewhere, but despite trying to be objective, the experience was not good. Key (not all) issues:
1. I was asked how deep the temporary filling was and whether I had any underlying decay that needed to be fixed - the dentist was unable to determine due to the missing x-ray. I’m at a loss to understand how a patient is expected to know this.
2. The volume of local anaesthetic made the entire left side of my face (mouth, cheek, eye) droop until the next day, and the injection site painful for days.
3. The supervising dentist had to remind the ‘trainee’ to change gloves as she had touched something else and couldn’t continue using them. The dentist tried to argue her point, and made a passing remark about how annoying it would be to continually remove gloves (I’m paraphrasing)
4. When removing the temporary filling, I was again asked how deep it was, because she didn’t want to continue and remove healthy tooth…again not sure how I’m reasonably expected to know this
6. The filling was left sharp and didn’t reconstruct the shape of my tooth - I could feel it every day although I did eventually adjust to it (this is relevant later on)
My jaw was also left incredibly sore and tender from the contorting required for the not too gentle dentist to reach the tooth. Despite all this, I figured it was a place for someone to start, and as long as the tooth was fixed I was happy. I made no comments / complaints at this point.
A couple of months later, the filling came out. While making an appointment I asked if I could please see the original dentist, as it wasn’t a good experience with the one who performed the work, and now that the filling had failed, I had little confidence. The receptionist was happy to support my request, although no further questions to understand the reasons.
The subsequent appointment with the original dentist (Valerio I believe), was nothing short of abysmal. I was told it was a different filling which had fallen out, not the repair they’d performed - even though for the preceding 2 months or so, I’d felt it every single day, and now that same filling was gone and I was left with an identical hole to the one I originally went in to get fixed. But he was adamant I was mistaken and their notes were clear that they’d repaired a different tooth. In the end he acquiesced to fixing the missing filling but not without a pointed, and rather passive aggressive, remark about if that’s what I believed, then he supposed he needed to fix it. Although the words suggested compromise, the attitude clearly conveyed otherwise.
Despite this offer to fix it, I categorically did not trust them to do a fair job and so moved to another dentist.
Unfortunately, due to the poor level of care, the tooth had suffered significant decay and required substantial reconstruction - I was shocked at how much of the tooth had to be removed, as was the dentist performing the repair. The 2hr long reconstruction process was meticulous and left me with no discomfort at all - crystallising just how unprofessional and amateur Fountainbridge Dental are.
If you value your dental health, I’d suggest registering elsewhere.
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