Playbook, dental clinic
A patient wants their money back on a filling
Nothing here resembles a return. There is no item to send back, the work is inside somebody's mouth, and whether anything went wrong is a judgement a dentist has to make by looking. A refund request in dentistry is the opening of a dispute about care, and the only safe handling is to recognise that in the first sentence.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for refund requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- There are no goods to inspect and no condition to check: whether treatment failed can only be established by examining the patient, so eligibility cannot be assessed from any document you index.
- Practices usually have a remake or repair position before they have a refund position, for instance a crown that debonds within a stated period being refitted, and quoting the refund route first skips the answer most patients would prefer.
- A refund can amount to an acceptance that treatment was inadequate, which carries consequences beyond the money and may involve an indemnity provider, so it is not a decision anybody delegates to a widget.
- A dental bill often mixes funded and private items and may include a laboratory fee already paid to somebody else, so what is even refundable is not obvious from the total the patient is quoting back.
How it arrives
- i want a refund for my crown it fell out
- my denture does not fit can i have my money back
- do you redo work if it fails
- how long is a filling guaranteed for
- i paid for a treatment plan i no longer want
- can i get the lab fee back
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your remake, repair and guarantee position | What you will redo, within what period, and on what conditions. This answers most of these messages and it usually exists only in somebody's head. Written down, it converts a refund demand into an appointment. |
|---|---|
| How a refund request is handled | Who reviews it, whether the patient is seen first, and how long a decision takes. Being seen first is normally a step in the process, and saying so early makes it read as care rather than as delay. |
| What sits inside a treatment fee | Laboratory work, materials, the chair time already used. This is what makes a partial position explicable on the occasions when a full refund is not what is being offered. |
| The complaints procedure, as the route that runs alongside | Refund requests and complaints arrive together. Give the patient the procedure rather than leaving them to find it after the answer about money has disappointed them. |
The reply
I am sorry this has happened. Whether something can be redone or refunded depends on the dentist seeing it, so the first step is an appointment to look rather than a decision made from here [1]. Our position on redoing work is set out on our terms page, including the period it applies for [2]. I cannot make any decision about a refund. Leave me your name, an email, roughly when the treatment was and what has happened, and the practice manager will pick it up.
It puts the appointment first, because an examination genuinely is the next step and it is also what most often resolves the situation. It quotes the remake position rather than the refund policy, since that is the offer the patient may not know exists. And nothing in it characterises the treatment or concedes that anything went wrong.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for money back on treatment, any statement that work has failed, and immediately on any mention of a solicitor, a regulator or an indemnity provider.
A refund on treatment is decided by the practice after a dentist has looked at it, not here. Leave me your name, an email and what has happened, and the practice manager will contact you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a refund will be given, is likely, or that the practice usually refunds in this sort of case.
- Never say that treatment failed, was substandard, or should have lasted longer than it did.
- Never quote a guarantee period that is not written in your own terms, since dentistry is not sold with a warranty the way a product is.
- Never suggest the patient have the work redone somewhere else.
Questions
- Can it tell somebody whether a filling is still under guarantee?
- It can quote whatever your terms publish about redoing work. It cannot say whether this filling qualifies, because that turns on when it was done, what was done and what has happened since, none of which it can see.
- Is it safe to publish a remake position at all?
- It is safer than the alternative. Patients assume either that everything is guaranteed forever or that nothing is, and both assumptions produce arguments. A written position with a period on it settles most of these before they become complaints.
- What if somebody demands the refund in the chat?
- It should hold the line and route it. A sympathetic sentence that sounds like agreement becomes the screenshot in a dispute the practice has not yet had a chance to look at.
Keep reading
- Everything for a dental clinicThe questions a dental practice actually gets, the ones that must reach a clinician, and the documents worth indexing first.
- Handling refund requests in generalA refund question is really about eligibility and timing. What to index, what the reply may promise, and where it has to reach a person.
- Can you see all four of us at the same time?Four people, one dentist and one chair. What can be explained about consecutive slots and the school holiday rush.
- A dental visitor wants an appointment. What should happen?What to say when a dental visitor asks for an appointment, given the assistant cannot see the diary or hold a slot.
- Explaining a dental deposit or a charge for a missed appointmentWhat the assistant should say about dental deposits, short notice cancellations, and a charge that has already landed.
Try it on your own material
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