• Dentist left instrument in tooth after a botched Root canal treatment
• Mrs Y faces more procedures or extraction of tooth.
• £4600 awarded in compensation
A South West Woman has been awarded £4,600 in compensation after her dentist’s failure to perform adequate root canal treatment left her with a dental file in her tooth.
In 2013 Mrs Y was suffering from pain in her tooth and so made an appointment with her dentist. Her dentist recommended she have root canal treatment and so an appointment was made.
In November of that year Mrs Y attended her appointment and root canal treatment started, “I attended my appointment and my dentist seemed to be having difficulty during the procedure, at some point my dentist mentioned he was unable to remove something but he eventually finished and so I thought nothing else of it, when the root canal was over he put a temporary filling on my tooth, my tooth was quite uncomfortable but I knew this was a common procedure many people have at the dentist, my dentist reassured me the pain would subside eventually”
A few months later Mrs Y had to book another appointment as the pain was not improving, she felt something was not right with the temporary filling and her mouth was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
“I had started to take painkillers regularly to treat the increasing pain I was in, I was experiencing a shooting sensation which occurred whenever I was eating and it was aggravating my sinuses. I couldn’t carry on with it anymore!” Mrs Y explained.
Mrs Y attended another appointment complaining about the painful tooth and so her dentist decided to adjust the temporary filling. “My mouth was still quite uncomfortable but the filling felt a little better, I was told by my dentist that the pain should subside completely in time and I was sent home”
Mrs Y’s pain became even worse to the point it was difficult for her to get on with her daily life. She decided to get a second opinion and saw another dentist in 2017. X-rays were taken which revealed that her dentist has left a piece of equipment used to perform root canal treatments in her tooth, the file had perforated our clients tooth and encroached into the surrounding bone contributing to the agonising pain she had been experiencing.
“I couldn’t believe my dentist had left me in such a state, towards the end of my last appointment with them my jaw was throbbing from the pain, in hindsight I should have known something was not right, I wish I had done something sooner. You trust your dentist and expect them to do their job correctly don’t you?”
Tyla Westhead of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “The distress and pain our client experienced was unnecessary. It is our client’s position that if the dentist had carried out adequate treatment in the first place, her problems could have been avoided.”
The Dental Law Partnership took on Mrs Y’s case in 2018. The case was successfully settled in 2019 when the dentist paid £4,600 in an out of court settlement. The dentist did not admit liability.
