A Thane consumer commission has ordered a dentist to refund Rs. 30,500 to a retired Army colonel and pay compensation and litigation costs totalling Rs. 30,000 after three of the 23 ‘crowns’ fixed for the 76-year-old, fell off while he was having dinner in Goa.
The retired Colonel Suresh Khanna had stated in his complaint before the commission that he had visited Dr Anand Krishnamurthy’s Citizen Dental Clinic in Nov 2017. He was told by the dentist that 23 of his teeth require fixing of crowns. The procedure involves fixing a cap of a material such as porcelain or metal for a damaged tooth.
Khanna took the treatment by paying Rs. 2.33 lakhs. The ex-army man said that though he was assured that there was a seven-year warranty on the crowns, shockingly, three of them fell out a few months following the treatment, when he was at a dinner in Goa.
He said he suffered severe pain and difficulty due to it. The following day, with the due appointment, he had visited the dentist’s clinic but said he was made to wait for quite some time and the dentist did not treat him or replace the crowns.
The dentist had contested the complaint before the commission and told it that the teeth inserted in the patient’s mouth were made by M/s. Dawda Dental Art and is a firm that gives a seven-year warranty. He said he was not responsible for the loss of the three teeth.
The commission said in its judgment that the complainant had severe pain in his mouth, but despite this, the dentist did not attend to him, which shows deficiency on his part.
It held that Khanna had lost three of his 23 teeth due to deficiency on the dentist’s part. It ordered the doctor to pay him Rs. 30,500 with 12 per cent interest p.a. from the date of the incident. It also held that the Navi Mumbai resident was liable for compensation of Rs. 20,000 for mental harassment as the dentist did not attend to him when required, stating that the non-attendance might have been harassment at the hand of the doctor.
Additionally, it ordered the dentist to pay Rs. 10,000 as litigation costs to the senior citizen.
