Manchester clinic closes leaving patients in the lurch
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- Published: Tuesday, 09 February 2016 08:01
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Manchester Evening News has reported that hundreds of patients have been left out of pocket after Pure Clinic, based in Manchester closed. Many customers were angry and frustrated that work hasn’t been done at all or was only partially completed. Many had paid £1,095 for its ‘six month smile’ deal. Others paid for whitening and other cosmetic dental work. One is reported to have paid £15,000 but no work has been done.
Tatum Flynn told Manchester Evening News: “The company has just disappeared and I’m left with this brace on my mouth. I’ve been quoted £450 to remove it at another clinic. It’s been the most stressful experience of my life. I’ve emailed them but they said there have been ‘administration issues’ with my refund.”
Another customer Kimberley Lo, 30, from Leigh, said she paid £1,095 for work to correct her crooked teeth but the work was never completed. “I have a brace on my mouth and I was already quite self-conscious. I was looking forward to getting the thing off. I wanted to have straight teeth to get my confidence to have a photo with my daughter,” she said.
Pure Clinic is locked in a legal dispute with another dental firm about who should refund customers left out of pocket. Haroon Ahmed, director of Pure Clinic’s parent company Skin Store Ltd, admitted the company was ‘struggling to survive’ and could go bankrupt. He insisted another firm, Manchester Smiles, which is based in the same building, provided the dentists to carry out the work brought in by Pure Clinic, which he claimed was merely a ‘marketing company’ which brought in the customers and took ‘nine or ten per cent commission’.
When Pure Clinic ceased trading, its name was taken from over the door and replaced with a Manchester Smiles sign. Manchester Smiles owner, dentist Syed Maududi, 45, said Pure Clinic had rented three rooms from him and had their own dentists doing the work. He told the newspaper: “They have just vanished without paying their staff. People have been blaming us but we are victims in this too. People have been ripped off but so have we. The dentists who worked there are all young, in their 20s and 30s. They are all competent dentists. They are upset too.” He said he had tried to help out Pure customers but some had been abusive to his staff.
The British Orthodontic Society (BOS) has reacted to the closure, saying it was concerned to learn of patients who are unable to continue their orthodontic treatment due to closure of the clinics responsible for their ongoing care. Richard George, Director of External Relations at the BOS, advises that patients wearing orthodontic braces without a provider should talk to their general dental practitioner and seek a referral so that treatment can either be continued or the braces removed, depending on the circumstances. He said: “Orthodontics is a specialist area of dentistry. We recommend that any member of the public considering orthodontics asks carefully about the training and qualifications of their provider before embarking on treatment.”
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