I would appreciate if anyone could help me with the procedure for filing a complaint against my daughters dentist who has been downright rude and racial and made me cry twice. I am in my ninth month of pregnancy if that is not a cause enough for not stressing out and being vicious to the parent of a five year old patient who is terrified of getting her cavity filled)

I am myself a doctor and have never met anybody who could get away with being so rude and ridiculous in their behaviour, and then charging me for quote "for wasting his time and that is how things work in Switzerland".

Without going into details of my story I would just say that I am shocked that a doctor in a first world country would behave like this and get away with it. Being in the same profession I know that we have to be most careful of our behaviour with patients as a medicolegal problems and complaints are things which we would like to avoid at all costs. Doesn't look like this is the case here, maybe they have very good insurance cover for their behaviour and don't give a damn about their proffessional conduct!!!

Why not just vote with your feet and find a more family orientated dentist? Switzerland doesn't really have a culture of bringing legal action for hurt feelings or rudeness so you probably wouldn't get very far.

Use another dentist, tell your friends and colleagues how rubbish the other guy was and put it down to experience.

You are in your ninth month of pregnancy, is it really worth getting in a twist about an idiot dentist?? Think happy thoughts and leave the racist, rude git to put himself out of business.

This is what I though and let it be as my last visit was 25 days ago. But after I received my bill and called his receptionist to know how the difference was so significant from the one told to me, I was straight away transferred to him ( seems as he was expecting me to call). He was offensive from the beginning though I was not and trying my best to be polite. He took offense of my call and was most abusive ending his call with a statement "if you are trying to teach me a lesson, you have called the wrong number" ( this is when I told him that I was also a doctor).

Now I feel that atleast an apology is owed for restoring my dignity. I don't want anyone to trample all over me and get away with it because we dont want to be confrontational.

Well, you could start by looking up whether the itemised actions correspond to what was actually carried out, and whether the tariff points allocated to each correspond to the schedule (which is publically available).

I get a feeling he was miffed because you doubted / challenged his modus operandi?

Oh I am quite sure that the billing would legally be correct. Infact I was told that although I wasted half an hour as my daughter was crying (not true) he magnanimously charged me for 15 mins.(180CHF) as they wasted time in preparing the tray of instruments etc(which was never used ). I told him I would pay him and I was not questioning that. But maybe because morally I am correct he was defensive and offensive at the same time.
I am not challenging anybody on their professional competence but on their professional conduct. I have some rights as a human being if nothing else.

Yes, namely the right to choose a different dentist.

This might be the problem. I know in the UK there is a difference between a quote and an estimate so, in this case, if he had quoted you a certain price he'd be obliged to charge you that after treatment and not a Rappen more. If, on the other hand, he'd given you an estimate insofar as his experience told him the treatment would encompass, he could quite legitimately add more to the bill if, in his experience as the dentist, the treatment required it.

I'm no lawyer and have absolutely no experience of Swiss legal practices but common sense tells me that you'd be hard pressed to argue with him whether the "extras" on the bill were necessary if he'd just given you an estimate for the treatment.

Hi, there is a local weekly newspaper here in Zürich which has a complaints page in it for people to vent their pet hates on. I´ve seen in the past, direct criticisms - names were named! If there is a Geneva equivilant, maybe you would feel better after tell the whole city how rude he is. After I got terrible, painful, down right wrong treatment at the hands <name removed>, a dentist who worked in the uni-spital, blonde hair blue eyes, must be about 32 now... run if you see him coming, I just bad-mouth him as much as possible. (NB; His treatment eventaully cost me three op´s and the loss of 2cm of bone from my jaw, so it´s well justified action)

Yes! Don't get mad, get even. I like that .

Trick is, neerajana, to make sure you compose the letter when you yourself are composed, so to speak. If you're still spitting mad with him on a personal level, you will sound irrational and just lose any ground you might make.

Write the dentist a letter, outlining the problem you have with him and his bill, but make sure you put in a night's sleep before you send it. Re-read it in the morning and if it sounds like a mad-heavily-pregnant-woman has written it in the heat of the moment, have another go. You would be much more likely to get a decent response and explanation and (dare I say it?) an apology if you have a cool manner about you.

I was heavily pregnant around this time last year so I know how easy it is to become ultra sensitive over things .

Thanks. I infact did write a letter to him after my last ever visit to him and saved it on my PC. Then as I said earler I let it be as I have too many things too worry about right now, plus he had no email ID so i could not email it but would need to post it. Probably would end up in the rubbish bin anyways.

Infact I called up a Swiss friend of mine who has sent me a website of the local association ( where I can put up a redressal) and also very emphatically told me to take action. She was very annoyed and helpful. Hence just to clarify I am not angry with the whole country but with an individual who needs to learn some manners.
Infact the most helpful and lovely people I have met here are also the local ones like my neighbours etc. But professionally in quite a few places there is a definite apathy.I am not a follower of "lump it or leave it" policy although it is the safest way to live I guess.

Completely un-related to anything, can I just say *#@\§ß+

so sorry Gooner... I respect your wisdom.... I just couldn´t help it.

If you want to take your dispute further, I would recommend separating facts from your emotion and what might be considered hearsay.

dave

I dont know who your dentist is but just FYI.. my wife and I have recently found a very nice, english speaking, dentist downtown.

if you would like his name / number let me know.

Sent you a PM

and I've just replied... good luck!!

If you were not 9 months pregnant I would say go for it, get the bastard.

However, I think it is in the interest of your baby's health as well as yourself that you try to put it behind you, as hard as that maybe. Why? Because stress during pregnancy can have effects that last a life time. See for example this article,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4286512.stm

So even though he sounds like a prick to be be honest, think of your child. You could always pay the bill and lodge an official complaint in a few months.

Meanwhile in another report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4987080.stm

Wish they'd make their minds up .

on a lighter note. Will keep you guys updated which version is true as heaven knows have had enough stress to last a life time in this single pregnancy ( moving countries, leaving job to be stay at home mom, not understanding a word of french initially, and faced with an ever dwindling bank balance for the first time in life feel poor) not to mention adjustment problems and meeting jerks like the dentist. My kid should definitely be a good case study for both these researches

Why don't you phone up your health insurance and tell them what happened to you and at the same time ask them where you can send a complaint? I don't know how things work in Switzerland, but there should be some sort of dentist association that watches over what doctors are doing?