Awful Polish dentist...

[JakeD]

For about 2 years I've been seeing a Polish dentist under the NHS. He's the worst dentist I have ever known in my life, and I'm well past 50. His work typically fails within two or three weeks, and he sends me away with crowns and fillings that stand too proud for me to close my teeth. After "turning the other cheek" several times, it became clear to me that this dentist was very sub-standard. I asked the practice receptionist where the man was trained and she said 'Poland'. I asked to be switched to a different dentist (a better trained, more experienced one). She offered to put me with another one - also with a foreign-sounding name. I asked: "what are his qualifications?" She said: "D-dent Kaunas". I asked: where did he receive his training? She said "Lithuania". I asked: "Don't you have anyone who was trained in the UK?" She said "No". Having had such awful standard of treatment from an east-European-trained dentist, I wasn't ready to immediately trust another one. I went onto the internet and searched for the qualification "D-dent" and "d.dent". Nothing whatsoever came up! So now I'm concerned that the dentists working at this practice are not properly trianed or qualified. I gather that every dentist practising in the UK should be registered with the General Dental Council. However, when I searched the GDC practitioner database for my Polish Dentist and the Lithinaian dentist, neither name came up!

Is NHS dentistry no longer properly monitored and policed? If so, this is an awful situation. I gather that every foreign dentist is supposed to pass an exam in order to practise in the UK. But is this exam too easy to pass (or too easy to pass fraudulently)?

All I want is an NHS dentist (quickly), whose competence I can count on. But how?

Thanks...

JakeD