The Fiji Medical and Dental Secretariat is now investigating complaints against two dental clinics in Suva.
CEO Dharmesh Prasad confirmed that the complaints were forwarded to them by the Consumer Council of Fiji and they now have the written statements from the two complainants.
The dentists concerned have now been given time to respond to the allegations levelled against them.
The information will then be put forward to the Professional Conducts Committee which will deliberate on the matter.
In the first case, a 30-year-woman lost her healthy front tooth in a procedure.
She had visited a Suva based dental clinic for an L-shaped gold filling.
It is alleged that the procedure was performed by an unlicensed dentist and the woman suffered swelling around her nose area and had a high fever.
It is alleged that another dentist of the clinic’s branch in Suva performed a sequence of procedures within a span of three days and in the end, the woman lost her healthy tooth.
She paid $200 cash and two 22 karat gold chains to the dentist.
In another case, a woman from Canada in her late 30s visited a dental clinic in Suva.
She had a decayed tooth.
It is alleged that upon extraction, she was advised that her tooth had four roots and unfortunately one root remained embedded.
On the same night, the woman experienced pain in the tooth next to the extracted tooth which was neither decayed nor had an infection.
It is alleged that a clinic employee carried out the extraction.
However, in this case, the dental clinic concerned has told Fijivillage that all the roots of the tooth were removed and the woman did not come back until four days later to complain and wanted a letter to defer her travel arrangements.
The clinic also stressed that a licensed dentist had carried out the extraction.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
Feature
Secretariat investigates complaints against dentists
