Mrs A from the South East put a lot of trust in her dentist, like most people do. She attended her regular check-ups and believed that Dr H was providing her with the best level of care. She felt she could trust his opinion on what treatment would be best for her oral health.
When Dr H suggested that one of her teeth should be extracted and replaced with an implant Mrs A didn’t think anything of it and agreed to go ahead with the procedure. The tooth was extracted by Dr H and an implant was placed.
For a while everything with the implant seemed fine, but it didn’t stay that way. Mrs A made an appointment to visit another dentist after the implant failed. The new dentist found that the implant was poorly positioned. It was also noted that Dr H didn’t inform Mrs A that she had periodontitis. This meant that there would have been a high risk of implant failure. If Mrs A had been advised properly about the risks of implant failure then she wouldn’t have gone ahead with the procedure.
Mrs A commented, “I thought I could trust Dr H with the procedure. I felt he had kept important information from me that could have swayed my decision to not have the implant. Now I’ve had to have a replacement and it could have been avoided and I feel really let down.”
The new dentist told Mrs A that she would need periodontal treatment first and after that a replacement implant would be fitted. Since being provided with the implant by Dr H, Mrs A has suffered the avoidable loss of the implant and an avoidable bone grafting procedure. Due to the lack of care shown by Dr H she will now require a replacement implant.
Mrs A said, “I felt like I needed to do something when I was told about Dr H’s mistake. Not really sure of how to go about a complaint I contacted the Dental Law Partnership. They put me at ease straight away and listened to my concerns and the possibility of a potential claim. They’ve helped me secure the compensation that will now go towards future treatment.”
We understand that starting a claim is a daunting process and can seem complicated, however at the Dental Law Partnership we hope to make the process as friendly and as easy to understand as possible.
If you think you have suffered from dental negligence don’t hesitate to get in touch! You can call us on 0808 271 6955 or complete and submit our online claim form.