MAN LOST FOUR TEETH AFTER BOTCHED TREATMENT FROM LOCAL DENTIST

• 67-year-old Mr Alexander Sayer from Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, lost four of his upper teeth

• Mr Sayer suffered episodes of excruciating pain and stomach problems from not being able to chew and digest food properly

• £25,000 accepted in compensation

Mr Alexander Sayer, a 67-year-old HGV driver from Cwmbran, South Wales, has won £25,000 in compensation from his local dentist with the help of specialist dental negligence solicitors, the Dental Law Partnership. The dentist’s failure to perform satisfactory treatment over a 15 year period cost Mr Sayer years of pain and resulted in him losing four upper teeth.

Mr Sayer visited Dr Stephen Parry at Wysome Parry & Associates Dental Surgery in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire from November 1999 to March 2014. During this time he fell victim to an array of poor treatment including bridgework and root canal treatment.

In 2001, Mr Sayer first had crowns and bridgework fitted to the upper left hand side of his mouth to address gaps between his teeth. Once this was complete he thought that the problem had been resolved. Unfortunately this was only the beginning of Mr Sayer’s troubles. Over the next few years he experienced many problems with the bridgework and had to keep returning to see Dr Parry.

“I kept telling Dr Parry that the bridge was loose and felt too big for my mouth,” Mr Sayer explains. “He said that the reason I was having so many problems was because I had an incorrect bite. I just trusted his judgement and thought he knew what he was doing.”

However, Mr Sayer continued to experience periods of excruciating pain, and over the course of the 15 years had to have his bridgework refitted five times due to it repeatedly breaking. Mr Sayer also suffered terrible stomach problems as he was unable to chew and break up food properly because of the pain.

“I was in agony,” Mr Sayer recalls. “I couldn’t digest my food properly. I also work really long hours and had to take a full day off work whenever I needed to see Dr Parry but he just never took my problems seriously.”

Finally, frustrated by the pain and the lack of improvement in his dental health, Mr Sayer decided to visit his wife’s dentist for a second opinion in July 2014. She identified that the bridgework Dr Parry had previously carried out was loose, and referred Mr Sayer to Cardiff Dental Hospital to have two of the roots underneath the bridge extracted.

When Mr Sayer attended Cardiff dental hospital in May 2015 he was advised that there was infection under the bridge and the teeth beneath the bridge needed to be extracted. Acting on advice from the dentist, Mr Sayer contacted the Dental Law Partnership.

Analysis of his dental records revealed that Dr Parry had failed to place adequate bridgework and also failed to properly advise Mr Sayer that the bridgework had a high risk of failure and that a different, and preferable, option of implant treatment could have been provided and would have been covered by the Denplan implant upgrade cover for which Mr Sayer had been paying. As a result, Mr Sayer is going to need extensive remedial treatment..

“It angers me that I’ve spent so much time and money going to Dr Parry,” Mr Sayer says. “If I’d been told that implants were covered by my particular Denplan Scheme sooner, I would have at least saved myself a lot of money and trouble. Although in hindsight, I wish I had gone to a different dentist altogether.”

Heather Owen of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “What our client went through was completely unnecessary. If the dentist had provided the proper treatment in the first place, the problems he experienced would have been avoided. We hope the compensation enables him to undergo the corrective treatment required.”

The Dental Law Partnership took on Mr Sayer’s case in February 2015. The case was successfully settled in October 2017 when the dentist paid £25,000 in an out of court settlement. The dentist did not admit liability.