Miss M suffered the loss of three teeth after her dentists failed to correctly diagnose and treat her tooth decay for years
- Further investigation by the Dental Law Partnership revealed the multiple treatments, painful infection, and progressive decay on multiple teeth could have been avoided
- £10,000 was awarded in compensation for the poor treatment which impacted Miss M’s career and took a significant toll on her mental wellbeing
Miss M has been awarded £10,000 by two of her former long-term dentists after her dentists failed to diagnose and suitably treat decay on multiple teeth for years, which resulted in the loss of three teeth and years of treatments.
Miss M was a long-term patient of Dr R and also saw Dr M at My Dentist, Bristol since 2012. “I’d been back and forth between dentists for routine check-ups for years, before I started to have issues,” Miss M recalled.
“Things started falling apart rapidly in 2023. In March, I had work done on my lower right tooth, but only three months later, I was in agony with an abscess. By July, that tooth was extracted under sedation because the infection had gotten so bad it couldn’t be saved,” Miss M recalled. “I’d only just recovered, when my lower left tooth, which had been ‘fine’ since a procedure in 2014, started causing trouble. I went back and forth to Dr R for months with pain, getting temporary fixes and more antibiotics, until the pain became unbearable. In March 2024, I lost a second tooth.”
“Six months later, the news got worse. Dr R told me that I had significant bone loss in my upper right tooth and that tooth was likely also a lost cause,” Miss M explained. “Suddenly, I was facing the reality that after 12 years of multiple examinations and general routine care, I was losing three major teeth and still needed a specialist to save the one that had been swelling since 2020, all because my tooth decay hadn’t been properly diagnosed or treated. I finally sought help elsewhere but due to the failings of my previous dentists, I had to have a third tooth extracted in June 2025. I also then had multiple costly implants to replace the three teeth I lost.”
Frustrated with the experiences she had gone through, Miss M contacted us in 2024. Further analysis revealed the extent of the poor dental treatment Miss M received from Dr R and Dr M, where they failed to diagnose and treat decay for multiple years and gave her poor restorative treatment. This resulted in her suffering an infection of her lower left tooth, and the loss of three teeth which all required costly implants to replace – all of which could have been avoided.
“It’s been a long, painful, and invasive journey. It’s left me feeling like the care I relied on for over a decade completely failed me,” Miss M explained. “It impacted my career, making me feel self-conscious when I was talking to people. The whole experience had a huge impact on my mental health. I now suffer with anxiety around going to the dentist but I’m trying my best to put that to the back of my head and move on with my life. In the end, I felt like going private was my only option, and that left me feeling like I had no choice but to pay for the care I should have been able to rely on.”
At the Dental Law Partnership, we took on Miss M’s case in 2024. The case was successfully settled in February 2026 when Miss M was paid £10,000 in an out of court settlement. The dentists involved did not admit liability.
If you are able to relate to Miss M’s story and believe that your dental professional has failed to appropriately diagnose them can find out more about this type of dental injury claim here.