National Smile Month is held from the11th May to 11th June every year in the UK and is led by the Oral Health Foundation, to help raise awareness of important oral health issues. And this year is going to be bigger and shared wider than ever before as it’s the 50th anniversary of Smile Month.
You’ll be sure to see plenty of people talking about brushing your teeth, your sugar intake, and the importance of regular dental check-ups. But there’s another side of dentistry that doesn’t get talked about quite as much.
“Like… what happens when dental treatment goes wrong?” Well, that’s where we come in, as a dental negligence law firm we support people when things haven’t gone to plan with their dental treatment and they have suffered as a result of their dentist’s poor care.
Dental Health in the UK Right Now
- Tooth decay is still one of the most common health issues in the UK
- Around 1 in 5 five-year-olds show signs of tooth decay
- Tooth decay remains the leading cause of hospital admission for children aged 5-9
- Cases of oral cancer are rising, where early detection is key
These figures show that oral health problems are very much widespread even with increased awareness.
What The Data Shows When Things Go Wrong
Dental negligence is more common than you may think. One thing that often surprises people is just how many cases we actually see day to day. We’ve supported over 1,000 clients with dental negligence claims in the last 3 months alone, and that number continues to grow. We don’t just see individual cases in isolation; over 26 years of helping clients we have been able to see trends across thousands of enquiries and dental negligence claims. Read more about this here. From our 2025 dental malpractice statistics:
- Dental complaints have risen from 466 in 2023 to 1,102 in 2024
- Around £670,000 in refunds were issued in 2024
- In the last 5 years, the NHS has paid out £4.2 million in dental negligence claims
These figures aren’t about focusing on the money; they are about understanding the scale of dental negligence currently in the UK. When treatment goes wrong, the consequences can be significant, long-term, and costly to put right.
Many clients come to us months or even years after their negligent treatment, not because they ignored the problem, but commonly because they didn’t realise their experience wasn’t right. “I didn’t realise anything was wrong at the time…” we hear this quite often.
A recent case that comes to mind, is one of our clients who suffered the consequences of undiagnosed gum disease despite repeated routine dental appointments complaining of issues. The condition wasn’t picked up early enough, which meant it continued to progress, leading to avoidable complications that could have all been prevented with timely diagnosis and treatment.
This is exactly the kind of situation many patients don’t immediately question because they trust that if something serious was wrong, surely it would be identified by their dentist. But by the time our client came to us, she was dealing with the consequences of advanced undiagnosed gum disease including bone loss in multiple teeth and long-term treatment needs. We were able to review her case with both our legal team and in-house dentists and help her receive £19,650 in compensation. You can read more about this story here.
The consequences of dental negligence spans further than a lot of people realise, it can affect your everyday life, your confidence, and sometimes something as simple as smiling without feeling self-conscious can feel like an uphill battle.
If Something Doesn’t Feel Right…
You’re allowed to ask questions, after all dentistry relies on trust and most people don’t question their dentist if something doesn’t feel right. But if something has been playing on your mind like:
- “Why am I still in pain after treatment?”
- “Should this have taken this long to heal?”
- “Why wasn’t this picked up sooner?”
- “Is this normal?”
You don’t need to commit to anything, just opening a conversation to help give yourself clarity is okay. You can learn more about your rights and what to do if dental treatment goes wrong here. And you might never need to come to us and that’s a good thing.
But if something doesn’t feel right, it can help to speak to a team that specialises in dental negligence. And at the Dental Law Partnership, that’s all we do. If your unsure, you can get in touch with our team for a free, no obligation conversation and we can take it from there