A teenager whose face swelled to more than twice its normal size when her dentist gave her the wrong treatment has won £18,000 in compensation reports the Metro.
Kimberley Wilson, 18, from Camphill, sued her dentist after he failed to diagnose the infection in her tooth, which led to her being hospitalised.
Kimberley was unable to eat after her dentist failed to realise the extent of the infection spreading in one of her teeth.
Kimberley said: “I first visited my dentist in October 2009 for a routine check up where I received a filling. I thought that would be the end of it but by the following June I was experiencing such bad pain in that tooth I was having difficulty eating.”
Kimberley’s face also became severely swollen and she ended up in hospital. She is scarred for life with red marks on her neck and face after he gave her only a filling at Camphill Dental Practice in Nuneaton, Worcestershire. An abscess developed and she needed hospital treatment to drain it in 2010.
Kimberley’s lawyer, Heather Williams, from the UK’s leading specialist dental negligence law firm, the Dental Law Partnership said, “Because the root of the tooth was affected, Kimberley’s dentist should have carried out a root canal treatment to get rid of the entire infection. By only placing a filling on the tooth he left the infection in the root to worsen, which led to Kimberley’s problems.
“His failure to spot and treat the infection has caused a lot of distress for my client and left her with permanent and visible damage.”
Kimberley said: “It is upsetting that this could have been avoided if he had examined my tooth properly, but I am glad that this is now settled. The money is going towards repairing some of the damage done and I am looking forward to moving on from this.”
The dentist has neither admitted nor denied liability.