Dental Negligence advise needed.

tzb27

I am registered with my dentistry since 2007. I attended the surgery on Feb, 20 2008 with Mr. XYZ after receiving a text to book a general appointment. In appointment Mr. XYZ suggested that he can make a new crown for me as current crown didn't seem in good state. As a patient I took professional's advice and attended the surgery on Feb, 27 2008

It was the worst experience I had in my life and I can remember it as a slaughter house. Receptionist was keep phoning in to inform about the other patients waiting and dentist was struggling to take the old crown off. He decided to grind it off and in this process with receptionist pressure he manage to broke both side of my tooth. In the whole process he was asking me question which made me feel that he is not sure what to do next...... It was a lot of blood and discomfort. He carried out a surgery to remove outer side of the teeth root, stitched me, told me everything is fine and asked me to book another appointment. I went out and could feel a sharp teeth in my gum. I came back immediately to inform him about this and he assured me that there is nothing.

I attended the surgery again on Mar, 05 2008 and insisted that I can feel a teeth inside. My gum was infected by now. On insisting Mr. XYZ carried out an x-ray and agreed there is root inside my gum and he will have to refer me to hospital for this. Also he wrote me some antibiotics for the infection. I visited him again on Mar, 12 2008 to remove the stitches for first surgery.

Cut the story short after suffering through all this time I had my surgery done at ABC hospital on May, 01 2008. Words can't explain the discomfort and terrible experience I went through. I lost all my trust in dentists and this has created a dentist phobia. My friends advised me to seek legal advice on basis of professional negligence but the experience have left me not to talk about it or try to remember it.

I haven't visited any dentist since this experience but now I have to because I badly need orthodontist assistance with my milk teeth as it's coming from middle of my mouth after 22 years wondering around somewhere else. This is causing me a lot of discomfort and headaches.

I have discussed this issue with British Orthodontic Society via emails and they advised me "You will need to register with a dentist and then a referral might be possible to a District General Hospital where you may be offered NHS treatment as there appears to be a high need and the problem you have might prove a good training case."

I contacted the surgery and explained above. Surgery Manager advised me to book an appointment with dentist to discuss this matter which i did today and it was waste of time. He charged me £18.50 to just refer me to their Orthodontist and advised next appointment will be £40.

All i want to do is to get referral for NHS district hospital and take legal actions against my dental surgery for negligence but don't have the knowledge or home insurance (renting flat at the moment) to cover legal costs.

Any advise in right direction will be much appreciated.

closed

Use your whiplash cash

wealdroam

tzb27 wrote: »

My friends advised me to seek legal advice on basis of professional negligence...

Either follow your friends' advice, or that of Closed.

Your choice.

lincroft1710

There is a 3 year time limit for making a medical negligence compensation claim.

Toothsmith

Ok - a bad experience. But is a bad experience negligent?

Dentist identified the crown as being in a bad way. He suggested re-doing it.

During that procedure, it would seem that the crown was worse than he thought, (You can't always tell by surface appearance or even x-ray) and the whole tooth needed removing. This seems to have been difficult. These things happen - nothing negligent so far.

It would seem that a bit of root was left in place during the extraction. But you were told not to worry about that. Again, fair enough, left bits of root rarely cause much of a problem, and if the extraction has been difficult, it's often better to leave it alone than get too heroic and really put a nervous patient through even more stress.

The left bit did cause a problem - but it seems you were seen in a timely manner, and referred for the removal of the root at a local hospital and the referral came through pretty quickly (for the NHS!). Again nothing negligent - in fact they seem to have done things very well.

The root being taken out at the hospital was again an unpleasant experience for you - but it was never going to be a bed of roses & fluffy cushions if you're a nervous patient! It seems to have been done successfully.

Needing orthodontics is now a completely separate problem and not related to the previous treatment. Its very unusual for an adult to get orthodontics on the NHS anyway. So a hospital department probably wouldn't see it as their job to treat you. The dentist you saw carged you £18.50 for a check up - which you would have needed anyway as it was so long since you'd been seen by a dentist. He then referred you to the orthodontist for free.

Your experience might have been a bit traumatic a few years ago, but it's hard to see what was actually negligent. Sometimes bad things happen, and from what you write, this sounds like it was just one of those things.

bris

It's been over six years, any fictitious claim you may have had is well past it's best before date.

tzb27

closed wrote: »

Use your whiplash cash

Thanks for being very kind but half of the cash is already paid for extra premium for this year insurance.

tzb27

Thank you very much for kind advice. Why others have to be sarcastic.................

Toothsmith wrote: »

Ok - a bad experience. But is a bad experience negligent?

Dentist identified the crown as being in a bad way. He suggested re-doing it.

During that procedure, it would seem that the crown was worse than he thought, (You can't always tell by surface appearance or even x-ray) and the whole tooth needed removing. This seems to have been difficult. These things happen - nothing negligent so far.

It would seem that a bit of root was left in place during the extraction. But you were told not to worry about that. Again, fair enough, left bits of root rarely cause much of a problem, and if the extraction has been difficult, it's often better to leave it alone than get too heroic and really put a nervous patient through even more stress.

The left bit did cause a problem - but it seems you were seen in a timely manner, and referred for the removal of the root at a local hospital and the referral came through pretty quickly (for the NHS!). Again nothing negligent - in fact they seem to have done things very well.

The root being taken out at the hospital was again an unpleasant experience for you - but it was never going to be a bed of roses & fluffy cushions if you're a nervous patient! It seems to have been done successfully.

Needing orthodontics is now a completely separate problem and not related to the previous treatment. Its very unusual for an adult to get orthodontics on the NHS anyway. So a hospital department probably wouldn't see it as their job to treat you. The dentist you saw carged you £18.50 for a check up - which you would have needed anyway as it was so long since you'd been seen by a dentist. He then referred you to the orthodontist for free.

Your experience might have been a bit traumatic a few years ago, but it's hard to see what was actually negligent. Sometimes bad things happen, and from what you write, this sounds like it was just one of those things.

tzb27

I haven't made a claim and only asking for an advise. Who are you to judge about the reality of the story? Was you in my trouser?

bris wrote: »

It's been over six years, any fictitious claim you may have had is well past it's best before date.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Has the Whiplash knocked the Crown out? You should also check your ears, for industrial deafness, there is a get rich scheme on that as well!

sarahab_2

Hi

In order to make a medical negligence claim, the time limit would be 3 years from the date of the negligent act, or 3 years from the date you would have become aware that the negligent act caused your injury. So your claim is out of time.

Even if it was in time, you would need to show that your dentist was negligent, that means he owed you a duty of care, (which he did) and he fell below that standard of care ,(they would compare him to other dentists). That on its own is very difficult to prove in any medical negligence claim.

Not only that, you would need to assess the harm caused and if the consequences were reasonably foreseeable by him at the time.

If you don't suffer that much and it hasn't had much of an impact on your life, i.e you have carried on working and doing normal things, this would cut down the amount of compensation awarded.