MDDUS PROFILE


Dentist “A


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In the second of a series of profiles featuring MDDUS professionals, Summons editor Jim Killgore chats with dental adviser Claire Renton


NY DENTISTwho has been in practice long enough,” says Claire Renton, “will know what it means to deal with a difficult patient or to be on the receiving end of a complaint.” Indeed this is somewhat of a guiding principle to Claire in her


work as a dental adviser at MDDUS. We chat during a morning off from taking advice calls in her Glasgow office. “We’ve all carried out treatment for patients that for one reason


or another just hasn’t worked,” she explains. “But that doesn’t mean you set out to do things badly.” Claire joined the dental advisory team at MDDUS in 2009 and


in that time has dealt with many distressed members. She says: “A lot of our work is dealing with patient complaints against


members. It can be difficult for dentists because in most cases they will have been bending over backwards, doing their very best for somebody. Quite oſten it’s the patient seen at lunch time or out of hours. So the dentist – quite rightly – feels aggrieved when they subsequently make a complaint. “And patients complain not only about the dental work itself –


a crown not fitting or falling out or breaking – but oſten add on things like ‘and I spent hours at your surgery and I want you to compensate me for my time off work’. So there can be a lot of emotional baggage attached to complaints.” Dealing with that emotional baggage is all part of the job as an


adviser and requires a high degree of understanding and empathy. Just as with all the professional advisers at MDDUS Claire brings a broad range of experience to her role.


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Legal interest Claire qualified as a dentist in 1985 aſter graduating from the University of Glasgow. Her first job was as a house officer at the Glasgow Dental Hospital and then an SHO in oral surgery at the Victoria Infirmary. Aſter working as a registrar, she accepted a five-year lecturing post in Adult Dental Care at Glasgow University. In the meantime she married her husband Rod, also a dentist,


and they had three children. On completing her university contract Claire decided to go part-time as a GDP and eventually went to work with her husband in their practice in Bearsden, north of Glasgow. In that period she also rekindled an old interest in law and


ethics. Claire says: “I had always been quite interested in legal matters. Even as a student I thought I might do law. But my Dad was a dentist and I think that’s probably why I plunked for dentistry in the end.” In her limited spare time Claire undertook a three-year part-


time Masters in Medical Law at the University of Glasgow. Not long aſter completing the course a job at MDDUS became vacant and the organisation was keen to appoint a dentist with her breadth of experience.


Being pragmatic Te dental advisory team at MDDUS operates out of two offices in Glasgow and London. Part of the job involves fielding calls


SUMMONS


PHOTOGRAPH: CLAIRE MILLAR


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