Question:
My friends daughter, aged 19, visited her dentist to have a tooth removed.
This was a back tooth, but not a wisdom tooth.
The dentist managed to remove the tooth but not without breaking the girls
jaw bone.
As you can imagine one does not expect this to happen, and it caused the
girl a lot of pain & discomfort during her exam periods.
This happened approx 12 months ago now, and although the mother complained
to the dental practise and has visited solicitors etc, they are unable to
get anywhere as to obtaining compensation etc.
They have been told by solicitors that they will require another dentist to
say that the dentist was negligent, but this seems to be impossible as no
dentist (that they have approached) will say this.
Does anyone now if the dentist/practise is liable, and where is the best
place for them to seek further advice?
Answer:
It isn't automatically negligent for a dentist to break the patient's jawbone.
In other words, the legal advice that has been given to your friend and her
daughter is right. You have to find a dentist who will testify as an
expert witness and say that the dentist who broke the jawbone was
negligent. If no dentist will say this, then it probably isn't true.
They could shop around for an expert opinion that suits them, or they
could accept that it was an unfortunate accident for which nobody was to
blame.
I quite agree that something has gone badly wrong in your friends
daughters, dental treatment. It sounds as though the extracted tooth
was a molar, they often require considerable force to remove them.
Even so, an extraction resulting in the patients broken jaw suggests
a high probability of negligence to me. The injury you have described
commonly results in permanent damage to one or other of the
temporomandibular joints. That damage can be detected by the
presence of an audible clicking in the jaw and the long term prognosis
for that complication is usually very poor. Quite often patients do not
connect the initial subtle symptoms with their dental treatment, keep that
in mind.
As Jon has told you (he is an expert) you cannot even begin to
establish a claim until you can find an expert witness, in this case
preferably a consultant in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery
who will provide an examination and initial medico-legal report for
a sum ranging between £350.00 - £550.00.
Unfortunately legal aid is no longer available for personal injury
claims and they are notoriously expensive to fund if they go to trial.
Your friend could approach a lawyer to take the case on a no- win
no- fee basis.
If I can just add my two cents worth. Does a dentist have the same
degree of immunity as a doctor? Doctors have been granted a degree of
immunity in negligence cases that the rest of us dream about; and the
case prcecedent for it, whilst initially accepted by other countries
such as the States, Australia and others has now been (rightfully)
overturned.
I would hardly think any solic' would take on a medical negligence
case on a NWNF basis: they are too expensive and too difficult to
prove.
