How Much Compensation Could You Expect to Receive for a Potential Claim?

If you decide to pursue a claim against your dentist for dental negligence, you may be in with a chance of being awarded compensation. Every situation is different, meaning there’s no set amount for what the average settlement for dental negligence is. It’s common for settlements to average between £10,000 and £12,000 – however, it’s highly dependent on the situation itself, so this isn’t a given.

How Does the Dental Negligence Claims Process Work?

Your first contact with us will usually take the form of a telephone interview. All your details will be taken down by a member of our Customer Service Advisor team who will assess whether your situation is pursuable. Your case will then be assessed by our expert team. In some cases, you’ll get an instant response as to whether we’re taking your case forward during the initial call; other times, we may need to run some further checks and will get back to you. Once your case has been accepted, your information will be passed across to one of our paralegals. They will collect your dental records together and any other evidence needed to establish a timeline for your case. Our team of dental legal advisers will work through the chronology of your case and assess it further. As our team is made up of ex-dentists, we have an extensive knowledge of the industry. After this assessment, your case will then be assigned to an experienced solicitor if it’s deemed to be strong enough. Your dental negligence solicitor will draft a ‘letter of claim’ – this letter will be sent to the defendant, who then has four months to respond. Once the defendant has responded to the letter of claim, your allocated dental negligence solicitor will negotiate with them to settle your claim and work out how much your dental malpractice settlement will be. If the defendant doesn’t respond or the negotiations break down, there’s a chance the case may go to court. If this happens, you may be required to attend and give testimony yourself. This is quite rare though, as most cases are settled outside of court. Once the case has been resolved, you’ll receive your settlement. At this point, we’ll also take our fees. We work on a no-win, no-fee basis, which means that you won’t pay anything at all if your claim is unsuccessful.

How Much Compensation Can I Claim for Dental Negligence?

Q: When Will You Receive Your Compensation?

If you go through a legal case (particularly a lengthy one), you may be wondering when you’ll receive your compensation – providing that the case is settled in your favour, of course. This will vary based on your situation – particularly, whether a settlement was reached or if you had to go to court to get justice. However, on average, we aim to distribute compensation to you within a month of the case being settled – although this may differ. One thing you can be sure of is that we’ll do whatever we can to ensure that you receive your compensation in a timely and efficient manner.

Q: Are There Any Extra Costs Associated with a Dental Compensation Claim?

Unless a case is taken on a pro bono basis (which is when work is carried out for free by a legal professional, usually on the basis of public interest) or undertaken by a charity, there will be legal fees to pay.

Wondering how much compensation you could receive for dental negligence? Although the amount of compensation awarded varies from case to case, previous client success stories can give you an idea of how much you might receive should you go ahead with making a dental negligence claim.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about how much compensation you can expect to receive from a successful dental negligence claim, drawing on case studies and the average amounts we’ve seen awarded for different types of negligence.

Think you’ve got a claim? Use our dental negligence self-assessment tool to find out whether you might be eligible for compensation.

How much compensation can you expect to receive from a dental negligence claim?

Every case is different, which means we can’t say exactly how much you will receive if your claim is successful.

That being said, data from our previous case studies can give you a ballpark figure based on the type of dental negligence you’ve experienced:

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Type of dental negligence	Average settlement figure (2025)
Endodontics	£8,401.06
Neglect	£11,071.71
Oral Surgery	£15,306.25
Implants	£10,868.20
Crown & Bridge	£6,875.00
Periodontics	£17,055.56
Restorative	£10,637.50
Misdiagnosis	£11,583.33
Consent	£8,400.00
Orthodontics	£10,125.00
Cosmetic	£18,500.00

Before opening a claim, you also need to be aware that if your claim is accepted, this isn’t a guarantee that it will be successful or that you’ll receive the amount of compensation you would like. However, if your claim is unsuccessful for whatever reason, you’ll be covered by our no-win, no-fee guarantee, which means you won’t pay a penny.

Client stories: Previous settlements for dental negligence

Another thing that can give you an idea of how much compensation you might receive for a dental negligence claim is our client success stories.

Remember that these case studies are designed to give you a rough idea of how much you might receive, rather than providing an exact figure. Even if your own case seems similar, there will be other factors in play that will impact your own settlement.

Case study 1: Unnoticed abscess

One of our clients was recently awarded £5,400 in compensation after her dentist failed to notice a severe abscess that ended up putting her in the hospital.

Emily Smith had been visiting the dentist regularly to have fluoride applied to her teeth after chipping a tooth. Despite these regular visits, the dentist did not notice the abscess developing at the site where the tooth had been chipped.

Emily was eventually referred to the hospital after her chin started to grow into an unusual, elongated shape. She was put on IV antibiotics and underwent an operation under general anaesthesia to drain the abscess, but developed an infection, which resulted in four days in hospital.

The original dentist denied negligence, but the Dental Law Partnership argued that had the chipped tooth been sealed correctly at the initial appointment, the infection that led to the abscess could have been prevented.

Case study 2: Root canal negligence

One of our clients was awarded £14,500 in compensation after being left permanently disfigured when her dentist forgot to put a protective guard in her mouth during a root canal treatment.

Sodium hypochlorite (a kind of bleach) filled Claire Shorrock’s mouth and went straight into her tissue, causing extreme pain and swelling. Claire was rushed to the hospital and is still dealing with ongoing dental issues as a direct result of the negligence she has suffered, including a disfigured lip and the loss of several teeth.

Our legal team found that multiple dental errors had occurred under her dentist’s care, and the root canal treatment could have been avoided in the first place if Claire’s treatment had been better.

Case study 3: Undiagnosed gum disease

One of our clients was awarded £20,000 in an out-of-court settlement due to his dentist’s failure to diagnose and treat his gum disease. The client had been attending the same dental practice for several years, until he had an appointment at another dental surgery in 2009.

The new dentist found that the client had an advanced form of gum disease, with several other tooth issues also found at the same time, all linked to treatment carried out by the previous dentist.

The original dentist denied negligence. However, when the Dental Law Partnership brought a claim against them on the customer’s behalf, £20,000 was awarded in damages, some of which went towards future treatment costs to fix the issues caused by the dentist’s negligence.

Get the compensation you deserve with the Dental Law Partnership

If you’ve suffered at the hands of your dentist and would like to open a dental negligence lawsuit, the Dental Law Partnership is ready to help.

We’ve helped thousands of people get the compensation they deserve since our inception in 2000, and our specialist team of dentists and solicitors have all the expertise needed to assist you throughout the entire claim process.

To find out more or get the process started, fill out our online contact form, and a member of our team will be in touch.

Dental negligence compensation FAQs

How is a dental negligence settlement calculated?

Every dental negligence case is different, so there are several factors that will impact the amount of compensation you receive.

These include:

The nature of the claim: Was your dental injury caused by poor technique, misdiagnosis, or carelessness?
The severity and longevity of the injury sustained: How much pain and suffering has been caused by your dentist’s breach of care? This can include psychological and financial suffering (such as loss of earnings), as well as physical pain.
Whether or not remedial treatment is needed to rectify the issue: Is corrective treatment required to repair the damage? If so, this will also be taken into account.

You may also be able to claim for some expenses. For example, if you have to travel via train to visit an expert as part of your case, your train fare may be reimbursed.

When will you receive your compensation?

When you will receive your compensation depends on your particular situation – some cases take longer to settle than others, especially if the case cannot be settled outside of court.

However, once your claim has been settled, we aim to ensure you receive your compensation within one month, although it may take slightly longer for more complex cases.

Are there any extra costs associated with a dental compensation claim?

The Dental Law Partnership operates on a no-win, no-fee basis, which means you won’t have to pay anything unless your claim is successful.

If your claim is successful, the amount you’ll need to pay in legal fees will depend on the complexity of your case and the amount of compensation you receive. However, transparency is important to us, so you’ll be made aware of all the relevant details before you sign our fee agreement.

How does the claims process work?

For more information about how the process works, please visit our dental negligence claims process page.