The Dental Complaints Resolution Service assists dental patients and participating dentists to resolve complaints about dental services.

We are an independent service provided by the Irish Dental Association.
Our aim is to resolve complaints fairly, efficiently, transparently and quickly by working with the patient and dentist involved.

To seek our help with a dental complaint email the Facilitator, Mary Culliton, at mary@dentalcomplaints.ie. Alternatively you can fill in the form on this website. If you wish to proceed with a complaint, a written account will be needed either by email or through the website form, so these methods are better in the first instance. However, if you prefer, you may call Mary on 087 354 5842. If she cannot take your call, she will return it at the earliest opportunity.

For patients

Any patient wishing to make a complaint should, in the first instance, raise the issue with the nominated person in the dental practice.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, then contact the Dental Complaints Resolution Service.
To find out how to do this, see above or click here
click here

For dentists

If you have received a complaint about any aspect of your treatment or service, contact the Dental Complaints Resolution Service here.

Only patients of dentists that are members of the Irish Dental Association or of those dentists who have specifically signed up to participate in the Dental Complaints Resolution Service, may use this procedure.

New IDA DCRS Annual Report shows the value of the Service

The IDA Dental Complaints Resolution Service (DCRS) Annual Report for 2023 has been published. Once again, the Report shows that the IDA DCRS provides an invaluable serviceto patients and dentists. Where parties sometimes see no way forward, the Service helps them to find common ground.

Mary Culliton, Facilitator of the IDA DCRS, says that dentists engaging with the Service is what makes it successful: “The Service is only as good as the people who participate in it and we are so grateful to the large number of dentists who respond immediately and with a very proactive approach”.

Fintan Hourihan, IDA CEO, highlights the success of the Service: “Since 2012, we estimate that the Service has received over 2,000 phone calls, 10,000 emails or letters, has accepted over 1,500 complaints, and has helped to resolve well over 800 of those complaints. Many other of those complaints we feel certain have been resolved but the resolution hasn’t been confirmed to the Service. We are very confident in asserting that the IDA DCRS is helping, directly or indirectly, to resolve three out of four complaints it receives”.

Dr Martin Foster, Head of Dental Services, Ireland for Dental Protection says the strength of the IDA DCRS is that patients and dentists who engage with it feel listened to: “This sense of being listened to is immediately apparent, not just to a patient who complains but to the dentist who is on the receiving end of the complaint too”.

The Annual Report is now available online and you can access it by clicking here or on the image above.

Facilitator

Mary Culliton is the Facilitator of the Dental Complaints Resolution Service.
She is an independent healthcare consultant and a certified mediator with  specialist experience of the management of complaints.

Clinical Adviser

Dr Maurice Fitzgerald provides independent advice on clinical matters to the Service.
Dr Fitzgerald graduated in dentistry in 1989, holds postgraduate qualifications, and practices with Cleary Fitzgerald in Sligo.