According to the Dental Defence Union (DDU), the most common reason for complaints among dental patients is dissatisfaction about treatment. The other most common reasons are:

  • Failed/delayed diagnosis, most often of dental decay

  • Communication/rudeness

  • Fees/charges

  • Adverse incident during treatment

  • Adverse reaction.

The most common treatments with which patients were dissatisfied, in a study of 415 complaints, were the fitting of a crown (35 cases), fillings (30 cases), ill-fitting or broken dentures (22 cases), root canal work (17 cases) and orthodontic treatment (13 cases).