• 33-year-old Marina Kisieliovaite from Hindhead, Surrey, lost her tooth after her local dentist punctured the root of the tooth during root canal treatment
• Mrs Kisieliovaite experienced extreme anxiety and pain for over two years as the dentist failed to diagnose and treat decay
• £6,750 received in compensation
Mrs Kisieliovaite moved to Hindhead in 2014 and had visited her dentist for check-ups since 2015. She always believed that her teeth were in good health but unfortunately this turned out not to be the case.
In January 2015, Mrs Kisieliovaite made an appointment complaining of pain and sensitivity in her teeth.
“The left-hand side of my mouth felt very sensitive and painful,” Mrs Kisieliovaite said. “My dentist told me that I had lost one of my fillings but he said that it wasn’t urgent to get this replaced. I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy at the time and was having terrible morning sickness and the pain was making it worse, my dentist did not seem concerned about doing anything straight away and advised that I wait to see if the pain would settle down on its own.”
A year later in January 2016, now a mother with a young baby, Mrs Kisieliovaite was still experiencing great discomfort so went to see her dentist who took an x-ray and placed a filling on the tooth. However, just a month later Mrs Kisieliovaite had to go back and see her dentist as the pain had only gotten worse.
“I was already having trouble sleeping with a five month old baby so the pain meant I was hardly getting any sleep at all,” Mrs Kisieliovaite explained. “My dentist said he would perform a root canal and fit a crown if the tooth didn’t settle.”
Over the next five months, Mrs Kisieliovaite went to see her dentist on seven occasions as she could not bite down on the tooth and was continuing to suffer from excruciating pain. During this time, she had a night guard fitted and another new filling placed on the tooth. The stress of raising a child and dealing with such severe pain took a toll on Mrs Kisieliovaite’s mental wellbeing.
“Something just didn’t feel right,” Mrs Kisieliovaite recalled. “I’d never suffered from anxiety before, but having a young baby and the constant pain was causing me so much stress. I was worried that there was something seriously wrong with my tooth.”
At another appointment in June 2016, her dentist advised that her tooth had advanced decay and prepared Mrs Kisieliovaite’s tooth for root canal treatment.
“It was awful,” Mrs Kisieliovaite said. “I remember sitting in the dentist’s chair and actually jumping during the root canal treatment as I suddenly felt a sharp pain I was under anaesthetic and shouldn’t have felt a thing. I knew straight away that something had gone wrong.”
Dental records revealed that the dentist had perforated the root of Mrs Kisieliovaite’s tooth during the treatment. At this point he advised her that the tooth was no longer restorable and would need to be extracted.
“I was so upset,” Mrs Kisieliovaite explained. “I had been left without a tooth and will now need to get an implant. It has really knocked my confidence and I haven’t been able to smile for ages because there’s now a hole where the tooth should be. Since this happened I have been scared to go to the dentist whereas it never bothered me before.”
