A dental practice in the Hounslow area

4. Mr S complains about aspects of care and treatment he received from a dental practice in the London Borough of Hounslow when he had a tooth removed in January 2021.

5. Specifically, he said the dentist left the root stump in his mouth. He also said the Practice refused to provide him with further treatment.

6. Mr S told us he has had a lot of pain from the root stump.

7. Mr S said he has also moved to a new dental practice, which took him eight months to find. He says he suffered further issues with his affected tooth, which has then affected his other teeth. He feels he has wasted time pursuing this issue. He believes the Practice also removed his children from the patient list, because of his complaint.

8. He is looking for an apology and a financial remedy.

9. Mr S said the Practice left root stumps in his mouth following an extraction in 2021. He said this led to him being in pain from 2021 until surgery in 2024. Mr S said the Practice refused to treat him anymore and has removed him from the Practice.

10. In 2023, Mr S complained to the Practice on an unrelated matter. After he left a review about some treatment he received at the Practice, he said the Practice removed him from its patient list. He said he saw an alternative dentist at the same Practice, once he and the Practice had resolved the complaint.

12. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so. We have discussed this with Mr S to understand the reasons why he could not do so. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to Mr S.

13. Mr S complains the Practice left a bit of his tooth behind, when it performed a tooth extraction. He said they refused to treat it. He told us he was aware of this, on the day of the tooth extraction in January 2021.

14. Mr S told us he has felt pain in his tooth continuously since the extraction. We believe it is reasonable to say Mr S was aware of concerns about his dental care on the day of his tooth extraction or shortly after.

15. In order for Mr S’s complaint to be within our time consideration, he should have brought his complaint to us by January 2022. He brought his complaint to us in June 2025. His complaint is three years and five months outside our time consideration.

16. Mr S attended the Practice 22 times, between January 2021 and January 2024. Mr S said he raised concerns regarding his teeth every time he attended the Practice, but it did not take this into consideration. He also told us he complained to the Practice about an unrelated matter in March 2023. This suggests Mr S was able to complain to the Practice within 12 months of becoming aware he had a reason to complaint about his tooth extraction.

17. Mr S complained to the Practice in March 2024. At this point, his complaint was two years and two months outside the 12-month time consideration. Mr S received a final response from the Practice in April 2024. Local resolution took less than one month to complete.

18. Mr S first brought his complaint to PHSO in July 2024. At this time, the complaint was two years and six months outside our 12-month time consideration. PHSO asked Mr S to investigate taking legal action, before it considered his complaint further. He returned to us in June 2025, 11 months later. He said he was unable to make a legal claim.

19. Mr S has not provided us with a suitable reason to explain why there was a delay in making his complaint to the Practice. He also not provided us with a suitable reason as to why it took him eleven months to return to us, after seeking legal advice.

20. We are not satisfied that Mr S have provided us with sufficient reason to put our time consideration to one side.

21. We recognise how difficult it can be to make a complaint. We thank Mr S for bringing his concerns to us.

1. We have carefully considered Mr S’s complaint about a dental practice in the London Borough of Hounslow (the Practice). We recognise the experience has been distressing to Mr S.

2. The complaint falls outside of our time limit and we have decided there is no good reason for us to put our time limit aside to consider it further.

3. Mr S became aware there was an issue with his tooth extraction in January 2021. For his complaint to be within our time consideration, he should have brought his complaint to us by January 2022. Mr S brought his complaint to us in June 2025.