Derby Woman Receives £50K After Dental Extraction Caused Years Of Severe Pain.
A woman has received £50,000 in an out of court settlement after a dentist’s blunder led to years of severe pain and permanent nerve damage.
Rehana Musa, 71, from Derby, sued Dr Piotr Pietruszczak after he removed a wisdom tooth without asking for a medical history, which had devastating consequences.
Rehana said: “I went to Dr Pietruszczak in 2008 after an appointment at The Maxillofacial Unit where the consultant recommended I visited a dentist to have my wisdom tooth removed. This followed consistent problems with the side of my cheek where I seemed to be biting it a lot and causing quite serious bleeding. At first we thought it might be cancer, which was awful in itself, but then we discovered it was being caused by a tooth catching my cheek.”
At the time Rehana was suffering from arthritis and taking daily medication for it, but Dr Pietruszczak did not take any details of her condition before removing the wisdom tooth. This mistake caused severe consequences.
Only when Rehana was recuperating at home, the agonising pain began and she realised something must be wrong. “I have never felt such pain,” she said. “It completely floored me, I couldn’t eat, felt dreadful, just wanted to stay at home.”
“When I look back on it I did feel slightly uneasy that the dentist did not take any medical details before removing the tooth. I had expected him to. But at the time I just thought he knew what he was doing.”
After the procedure Rehana was diagnosed with osteonecrosis in her mouth, a serious and painful bone deteriorating condition.
She had to have three operations under general anaesthetic in hospital and four CT scans in an attempt to relieve the pain – but this took place over a 3 year period after the tooth was removed – a prolonged period of suffering which could have been wholly avoided. Following the surgery, Rehana was left with nerve damage affecting the left side of her lower lip.
Evidence provided to Rehana’s lawyer, Heather Williams, from leading dental negligence solicitors the Dental Law Partnership, showed that the treatment Dr Pietruszczak gave was beyond poor.
“My client had already had a terrible time with her health before she went to Dr Pietruszczak, so she trusted him to sort things out. He did anything but.”
“The level of settlement reflects the severity of the consequences which arose from the complete lack of care shown by Dr Pietruszczak. His actions in removing a tooth without consideration of her medical history proved catastrophic for my client and led to completely unnecessary suffering over a long period and permanent nerve damage.”
Rehana added: “I feel years of my life have been lost in dealing with the aftermath of his blunder. My family, especially my son, has been amazingly supportive. I could not have got through it without them. I now just want to move on.”
Dr Pietruszczak has neither admitted nor denied liability.