Michael

By the end of October 2000 I had been suffering from a severely swollen and pronouncedly and clearly defined abscess due to an infected nerve of a tooth. The abscess had developed over several days, reaching proportions causing me severe discomfort and pain.

As my condition had clearly become one needing emergency treatment, I went to a local dental clinic for immediate help. I chose to consult the clinic - one of a chain of clinics, where nine months prior I had been treated very satisfactorily.

At the clinic I asked to be seen by a dentist, stating that the NHS covers me. At that time the previously treating dentist was not in attendance. So another dentist whom I asked to drain the abscess by incising it for instant relief saw me.

This dentist explained that he doesn't treat NHS patients. However, upon seeing my condition and realising my suffering, he agreed to attend to me. After an X-ray he also appeared to be pondering treatment. I was still sitting in the treatment chair when he then turned away from me slightly, getting hold of a sheet of paper, which I assumed to be my previously taken dental-medical records. On perusing this sheet of paper, the dentist turned back to me, mentioning my HIV status and said:
"That involved blood, I cannot have that here."

Following his remark he refused to incise and drain the abscess. Instead he insisted upon treatment with antibiotics only, explaining at length now why this would be necessary. Based on my HIV status and the condition of my extremely poorly functioning immune system, which I relayed to him, I objected to the antibiotics treatment alone.

When again insisting upon instant relief, he suggested visiting another clinic, which apparently is equipped to handle and treat HIV patients; he then handed me this clinic's telephone number. Instead of treating me as repeatedly requested, I was only given a prescription for a course of antibiotics.

I was so stunned and devastated by this dentist's discriminatory remark that I referred not to discuss it with him. In view of universally regulated dental-medical precautions against possible HIV infection did I neither care to discuss with him the purpose of being shoved off to another clinic where staff could apparently protect themselves better than this dentist - never mind the much greater danger of getting infect with hepatitis. It all did not make sense to me.

I therefore never consulted this other clinic, nor was I up to it considering the immense discomfort I was suffering. I was very much under the impression that this dentist did not get his priorities right in terms of medical ethics based on the Hippocratic Oath vis a vis losing his employment by not adhering to the clinic's enforced business directives, presumable stipulated by its director.

The following day I wrote to the director, a doctor whose name the clinic chain bears, informing his of the events of the previous day and indicating that I am considering to relay an account of this incident the relevant institution dealing with violations of this sort.

Meanwhile, having to contend merely with the prescribed antibiotics and despite taking them, the condition of the abscess deteriorated further still. In the course of the next five days following my visit to the dental clinic, the abscess swelled to walnut-sized proportions into the mouth cavity, inhibiting my speech, preventing the intake of solid food, and severely disrupting my sleep due to the excruciating pain.

Eventually, I got so desperate that I resorted to draining the abscess myself by incising it with a scalpel. I took seven-day in all for the abscess to slowly subside.

During this time I embarked on lengthy correspondence with the director of the clinic, complaining about the unfounded discrimination and refusal of treatment by one of his employees and asking him for his comments and a statement regarding the events.

Shortly afterwards, following my first letter of complaint, I received a phone call, followed by a letter from the "treating dentist" in an effort to vindicate his decision. I briskly referred him to his employer to make his views known there. Several weeks had passed without me getting any satisfactory explanation from the clinic's director. This was when and why I decided to inform the General Dental Council of the discrimination and the refusal of treatment indicated for the dental condition presented.