Dental Negligence Decisions: 2025–26 Analysis
Analysis period: 1 April 2025 to 27 July 2026. Last checked 27 July 2026 against the sources named below.
PHSO general dental practice complaints, 2024–25
The latest service-type page available during this review reports complaint handling stages rather than compensation awards. Percentages should be read carefully because detailed investigations are a small selected subset of all contacts.
Published PHSO general dental practice data for 2024–25
| Measure | Published count | What it means | Do not infer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complaints received | 1,771 | Contacts classified under general dental practice. | That all alleged clinical negligence or caused compensable injury. |
| Decided after primary investigation | 443 | Cases reaching a primary decision. | That all received complaints underwent this stage. |
| Accepted for detailed investigation | 11 | A small selected group received detailed investigation. | An 11-case sample describes the whole complaint population. |
| Fully upheld | 2 | Detailed investigations fully upheld. | A court finding of negligence or a damages award. |
| Partly upheld | 6 | Detailed investigations partly upheld. | That every part of clinical care was deficient. |
| Not upheld | 3 | Detailed investigations not upheld. | That the original experience was satisfactory in every respect. |
Conclusion: The published 2024–25 data show high complaint volume but only 11 detailed-investigation outcomes, so outcome percentages need the denominator beside them.
Source note: PHSO annual complaints data: General Dental Practice.
Published themes in 2025–26
Published dental decision themes reviewed for 2025–26
| Published material | Decision/finding | Practical significance | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHSO: broken teeth and gap between services | The July 2026 report describes prolonged difficulty obtaining effective treatment across local dental and hospital services. | Commissioning and referral ownership can cause harm even where no single appointment explains the whole delay. | Ombudsman finding; not a negligence judgment. |
| PHSO: faulty NHS root-canal follow-up | The Ombudsman said the contracted practice remained responsible for appropriate NHS follow-up after the treating dentist left. | A departed clinician does not necessarily end the provider’s service responsibility. | Ombudsman finding; not a court damages award. |
| Official judgment repositories search | No new reported merits judgment squarely deciding a patient’s dental clinical-negligence breach and causation was identified in the review window. | Absence of a reported judgment does not mean absence of claims or settlements. | Transparent search finding, not proof that no judgment exists. |
| Hughes v Rattan remains relevant background | The 2022 Court of Appeal judgment addressed a practice owner’s liability route for treatment by associate dentists. | Correct defendant analysis can be separate from whether treatment itself was negligent. | Reported appellate judgment outside the annual window. |
Conclusion: The clearest new public learning in this period comes from Ombudsman findings about responsibility and delay, not a new appellate test for dental breach or causation.
Source note: PHSO dental findings, 9 July 2026; Judiciary 2025 judgment summaries; Hughes v Rattan [2022] EWCA Civ 107.
How this annual analysis was compiled
We reviewed official Judiciary and National Archives search results for dental negligence terms, current PHSO general dental practice data and PHSO dental publications in the stated period. We excluded dental professional-discipline appeals, tax disputes involving dentists and unrelated clinical-negligence anonymity orders. Search indexing changes and many County Court decisions are unpublished, and confidential settlements do not appear. The analysis is therefore a reproducible public-material review, not an incidence study or settlement database.
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