Visakhapatnam: Partha Dental Care asked to pay Rs 3.8 lakh for botched-up procedure

Visakhapatnam: A district consumer commission has directed dental care to refund Rs3.3 lakh with interest and pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for the botched-up procedure.

District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Visakhapatnam-I was dealing with a complaint filed by the Consumer Rights Organization President Vikas Pandey against Partha Dental Care India Pvt Ltd, Visakhapatnam, and its Managing Director Dr. Partha Sarathi PV.

Vikas Pandey mentioned that Thota Govinda Lakshmi, a housewife of Mutyalapalli Modi in West Godavari district was suffering from tooth decay. To avoid further future complications and have a permanent solution, she consulted the clinic in October 2017.

After diagnosis, the clinic advised root canal, and implantation crowns so that the patient's facial appearance would become good. The implanted crowns would look just like the original. The dental clinic said they would complete the treatment in three months for Rs 3.3 lakh. The patient paid the treatment fee in installments by March 2018.

The clinic promised that they would remove and replace all the teeth of the patient, but they retained six original teeth stating that the six of them were strong enough. The treatment started in October 2017.

The services of the clinic were very poor and rendered quite negligent. Instead of three months, they took six months. Though the treatment was delayed by three months, the treatment was not up to her satisfaction and the teeth were detached and had fallen three times within two months.

When the complainant was brought to the notice of the dental care, she was asked to come for treatment again. She along with her children came to the clinic several times. Vexed with the poor treatment, the woman's children demanded dental care to refund the money.

However, the clinic claimed that the woman was treated by specialists for the placement of implants and fixing the crowns. Due to certain reasons, the crowns were fixed temporarily and they came out after some time. The clinic requested further treatment citing that case is unique.

The woman visited another dental clinic where the doctor observed that the one-piece implant was mobile, moving from its original position and there was a problem with another implant.

They submitted to the commission that they have collected fees as per the examination, investigations, and evaluation of the case only. They also claimed that the patient was impatient and had neither tolerance nor the patience to wait for further treatment. The complainant can't unanimously take a decision and withdraw in the middle of the treatment.

The Commission led by President G Tanuja, member V Krishna Murthy and woman member Rahimunnisa Begum observed that the evidence reveals that the clinic utterly failed to fix a crown on the teeth of the woman permanently even after several sittings.

Hence, service is deficient on the part of dental care. The commission concluded that the dental care had reneged their promise to the woman, who was quite uncomfortable with their treatment. The commission asked the dental care to refund Rs3.3 lakh and pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to the woman.