• 65-year-old Elisabeth Lewis from Porlock, Somerset had implants fitted that fell out four days later
• Even after spending thousands of pounds Miss Lewis was still experiencing problems and had to re-mortgage her home to pay for corrective treatment
• £25,000 awarded in compensation
Between September 2013 and February 2015 Miss Lewis visited Dr Rameshchandra Shah of Holloway House Dental Surgery in Minehead.
“I didn’t have perfect teeth when I first visited Dr Shah” Miss Lewis recalls. “But he sold me the dream of a perfect smile. He said all I needed were a few implants. I was told I’d have a new smile in no time.”
Dr Shah began planning Miss Lewis’s implant surgery in September 2013, and finally undertook the surgery in July 2014. But just four days later they all fell out.
“Almost as soon as I left the dentist I could feel something was wrong,” Miss Lewis said. “The implants felt very loose, as if they didn’t fit my mouth. And a few days later they just fell out.”
Miss Lewis was soon back with Dr Shah having the implants re-fitted in February 2015 Miss Lewis had bridges placed on the implants. But once again she was sure something was wrong.
“Once again, it felt like they didn’t fit my mouth,” Miss Lewis explained. “This new smile I’d been promised was starting to feel unrealistic. The bridge was horrendous. There were all sorts of gaps that made it feel uncomfortable, and it fell out two weeks later.”
The bridge and implants fell out so many times Dr Shah recommended changing the bridge for dentures, but the plate didn’t fit properly either.
“The implants were thousands of pounds to start with, and became even more expensive when they fell out time after time. I ended up having to re-mortgage my home to be able to pay for the corrective treatment. It’s unbelievable.”
Miss Lewis moved to a new dental practice in January 2016, where she was told the implants in her upper arch weren’t evenly placed and she had minimal bone levels. She was advised that she would need extensive corrective treatment.
Fed up with the situation Miss Lewis contacted the Dental Law Partnership. Analysis of her dental records revealed that Dr Shah had indeed failed to fit her implants properly. The dentist had not carried out a proper in-depth assessment before starting treatment, which would have shown Miss Lewis suffered from severe bone loss at the top of her mouth. This meant fitting implants was wholly unsuitable treatment and is the reason they repeatedly fell out. The dentist had also tried to fit too many implants under Miss Lewis’ bridge, which also led to her requiring extensive corrective treatment.
“To think all this drama could have been avoided is infuriating” Miss Lewis said. “Dr Shah never should have recommended the treatment he did. If he’d been doing his job properly all my problems would have been avoided.”