Caerphilly woman was ‘afraid to eat’ after dental treatment gone wrong

Tracey Dowling, 58, from Caerphilly, received the money from her former dentist after it was found she was “inappropriately” given specialist treatment which made her paranoid.

Mrs Dowling initially had six veneers fitted by mydentist in Reading in the summer of 2022 after deciding she wanted to improve her smile and said she was ‘over the moon’.

Mrs. Dowling had only taken the veneers a few months before they fell out (Image: Dental Law Partnership) However, within months of the initial treatment, the veneers fell off, meaning Mrs Dowling had to return to Reading to have them refitted after moving to Caerphilly to care for her terminally ill mother.

This was the first of a long series of expensive and invasive rehabilitation treatments, and also led to her mother’s death due to the trip to a dentist appointment.

It left Mrs Dowling “devastated”, as she recalled the moment she got the call about her mother’s death while driving back to Wales.

Despite this first repair, Ms Dowling had further problems with her veneers falling out “several more times” and was even referred to a specialist who told her she “should never have been a candidate” for the treatment in the first place.

Tracey Dowling has spent almost £20,000 on rehabilitation treatment (Image: Dental Law Partnership) As a result, she was told she would now need multiple crowns on the affected teeth.

She recalled: “The restorative treatment took months – and we realized that I have spent more than 28 hours in the dentist’s chair with my specialist!

“My treatment cost almost £20,000 and I had to use some of the income from my mum’s house to cover the costs.”

Concerned that she may have been treated negligently, she contacted the Dental Law Partnership in December 2022 and a search of her records revealed that veneers were never “an appropriate treatment due to her dental history”, with the firm claiming that a “alternative therapy” could have avoided all the “suffering, disruption and significant remedial work”.

Ms Dowling said the emotional damage left her paranoid and with nightmares of her teeth falling out (Image: Dental Law Partnership) Ms. Dowling said the “emotional impact” was severe, along with the “physical disruption” caused.

She said: “I was so scared to eat because I was worried about swallowing veneers if they popped. I lost a lot of weight as a result, and I would also have regular nightmares about my teeth falling out.”

Kyle Padley of Dental Law Partnership commented: “The significant distress, pain and suffering our client suffered was completely unnecessary. If the dentist involved had provided more satisfactory treatment, her problems could have been avoided.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on the case in 2022 and the case was successfully settled out of court in July 2024, when Mrs Dowling was paid £15,000. The dentist involved did not admit liability.

A mydentist spokesman said the care Mrs Dowling received was below expectations. They said: “Providing the highest quality dental care to our patients is our number one priority and we are deeply sorry that, on this rare occasion, it fell short of our expectations.”