The Dental Negligence Claims Process

There are many reasons why somebody might want to start a dental negligence claim. If you have suffered from negligent dental treatment, there is a likelihood that you’ll have more than one thing to claim for, although every situation is unique to the individual.

Some of the most common reasons that people have for making a claim against their dentist include:

• Misdiagnosis or late diagnosis of a serious dental condition which results in you suffering from pain or injury – . If your dentist misdiagnoses a condition or diagnoses it too late, you could be able to make a claim. Misdiagnosis can be particularly harmful, as it may end up causing avoidable injuries if the wrong treatment is carried out.
• Complete failure to diagnose a serious dental condition resulting in injury, pain or suffering –This form of negligence links in with the previous point. If your dentist completely fails to diagnose an issue or doesn’t tell you about it, it can have serious consequences – particularly if you have a condition like gum disease or oral cancer.
• Injury caused by poorly performed dental procedures – If a dental procedure is carried out poorly, you may end up with a dental injury. For example – if your dentist exerts too much pressure when extracting a tooth, you could end up with fractured teeth or a fractured jaw.
• Failure to treat a dental issue – If your dentist diagnoses a dental condition but fails to treat it correctly (or doesn’t attempt to treat it at all), you may be able to make a claim. This also includes situations in which your dentist recommends an inappropriate treatment path or fails to examine your oral health correctly.
• Failure to obtain patient consent – When carrying out work on your teeth, your dentist has a duty of care to ensure they obtain informed consent for any procedures before carrying them out. They have to inform you of any risks or side effects that may occur, as well as suggesting other treatments that may be less harmful. Your dentist also has a duty of care to ensure you have the capacity to consent, as it must be obtained voluntarily.
• Financial loss from having to pay to correct a mistake made by a dental professional – If incorrect treatment is carried out, or your dentist makes a mistake when working on your teeth, you may have to pay future treatment costs to fix the mistake. If you make a complaint, you may be able to get corrective treatment carried out by the dentist who carried out the incorrect treatment in the first place. However, this isn’t a given, so you may have to pay for remedial work to be carried out.
• Loss of earnings suffered if you are unable to work as a result of dental negligence – If you suffer from serious physical injuries during routine treatment, you may have to take time off work to recover. You may also need to travel further for remedial treatment if you don’t want to visit the same dentist, leading to additional costs. This is something you can claim for through the Dental Law Partnership.
• Physical trauma suffered as a result of dental negligence – Depending on the severity of your injury, you may have physical trauma as a result of poor dental treatment. The term trauma refers to any injury that is classed as being serious or life-threatening – things such as avoidable nerve damage and jaw fractures would come under this category.
• Psychological trauma suffered as a result of dental negligence – Many people have a fear of the dentist as it is. If you suffer from dental negligence, this could be classed as a traumatic experience, which may lead to psychological issues as a result.

If you’re a dental negligence victim, your situation will usually fit into one of these categories. However, every case is different, so your circumstances may differ slightly from the categories listed here.

If you’ve suffered from dental negligence and you’d like to find out whether your situation is something you can claim for, contact our helpful team and we’ll advise you accordingly.

If you think that you may have been a victim of dental negligence, the first thing you should do is contact a specialist dental law solicitor. They will discuss your experience and advise you on whether you have a legitimate claim.

There are several things your legal team will take into account when making a decision as to whether we can accept your dental negligence claim:

• Your individual circumstances
• The nature of your complaint and the reported negligence of your dentist
• The severity of the injury, pain or suffering you have experienced as a result of the poor dental care you may have received
• Any additional costs you may have incurred as a direct result of negligence

However, this is not an exhaustive list and we judge each case on its individual merits.

If you’d like to find out whether your situation is something you can claim for, our expert team will be happy to help with your enquiry.

As previously stated, every situation is different and the case proceedings will depend largely on your own individual circumstances.
However, there is a general claims process we usually follow, which may give you more of an idea of what to expect when you seek legal advice from the Dental Law Partnership.

The process usually takes the following steps:

1. When you first get in touch with the Dental Law Partnership, a member of our experienced team will go through a questionnaire with you and take down your details. This initial phone call will be used to decide whether or not your case is something we can accept.
2. Once your claim has been accepted, you’ll need to sign some paperwork, including our no-win, no-fee conditional fee agreement. Your information will then be passed on to one of our paralegals and we’ll collect your dental records so that we can establish a timeline for your case. Legally, your dentist has to keep your dental records for a minimum of two years.
3. Our team of in-house dento-legal advisors will work through the details of your case and assess your claim, making a decision as to whether it’s strong enough to pursue.
4. If we decide that you have a strong claim, your case will be allocated to one of our expert solicitors. Your dental negligence solicitor will draft a letter of claim, which will then be submitted to the defendant. The defendant has four months to respond to the letter of claim. Once they have responded, your specialist solicitor will then start to negotiate with the defendant (or their representative) to settle your claim.
5. In most situations, your case will be resolved during the negotiations period, which means you won’t need to go to court to settle your claim. However, if negotiations fail, the case may need to enter court proceedings . If this happens, your specialist solicitor will go through the next steps with you.

We will always endeavour to achieve a negotiated settlement of your dental negligence claim. The majority of claims are resolved at a relatively early stage and without the need to commence court proceedings. However, on occasion a dentist may strongly resist a claim, or additional information may come to light which affects the claim.

Because of this, sometimes it is necessary to commence court proceedings in order to resolve the claim.

It doesn’t matter whether your negligent treatment took place at an NHS surgery or a private dental surgery, as we can start dental claims regardless of the setting.

We can’t advise on how long your claim will take without knowing your individual circumstances, as this is something that is different for every case. You also need to be aware that there is a strict three-year time limit for any dental negligence claims from the date the negligence occurred, or from the date you were first made aware of the problem, so it’s important to contact us as soon as possible.