Question:
Dental Question About Malpractice?
Can I sue my former dentist for malpractice? I'd been seeing this dentist for a while and in 2006 I went in wanting help with my front tooth which had a bit of visible decay. She took x-rays and told me I didnt need any root canal, however, I needed a crown, which I agreed with. I got the procedure done. After about a few weeks I went back because I wasnt feeling comfortable with the crown, it wasnt painful or anything but it felt somehow uncomfortable. She told me I was going to get used to it since its something new in my mouth. Time went by, and this crown started sticking out more than the others. I started having a swollen lump in my mouth. I went to see a different dentist who told me that my tooth was broken inside and the lump was a large amount of infection that was also eating bone around that area. She had to completely take the tooth out and put me on some antibiotics. I went back to my old dentist complaining about the case and she said that she didnt do anything wrong and there was nothing she could do about it. I had a partial made which I'm still wearing up to now. Another dentist is fixing my tooth so that I can have a normal smile again but I had to go with a partial for 2 years which is very uncomfortable. I just want to know if this is something that I can spent my time on or I should just let it go, given the time that has past.
Answers:
If at that time she took xrays and the xrays were totally normal and clear of any infection when she made the clinical decision not to do a root canal treatment before the crown then there is no case to answer to.
The clinical decision is made at that point in time based on the presenting evidence. A clinical examination and xray would accepted as evidence of normality at that precise time.
Infection can occur at any time and may be in your case co incidental. It happens. For whatever reason infection can just appear anywhere.
She is confident that she has done nothing wrong as she has the xray that she took. So she knows what her judgement was on that particular day.
The choice is yours, but you would have to prove malpractice and it is expensive to do so.
No win no fee will rarely take on dental cases so it would have to self funded.
Expert opinions cost a great deal of money as well and it will come down to clinical judgement on the day.