What is a Dental Injury and Types of Common Dental Injuries
A dental injury involves trauma to the mouth, including teeth, lips, gums, tongue and jawbones.
Dental injuries include
- chipped teeth
- teeth fractures
- a tooth knocked loose or knocked out
- a tooth jammed into the socket and fractures of the tooth socket wall
- a jaw fracture and lacerations of the lips and gums
What Constitutes Dental Negligence?
Dental negligence occurs when a medical professional has failed to provide a reasonable standard of care to you when you have suffered a dental injury or have attended for dental treatment. Examples include incorrect, delayed or poor dental treatment that has led you to experience further injury or suffering.
- Whom Can I Claim Against?
You can claim against the dentist or orthodontist personally if they are not covered by the Clinical Indemnity Scheme.
Dental Negligence Claims
If you have suffered an injury or further suffering because of the negligence of a dentist, you could be entitled to claim for dental negligence.
The Medical Practitioners Act 2007 includes dentists as legally recognised medical practitioners in Ireland. They are required to practice dentistry to the highest medical standard. Because dentists are considered medical practitioners, you will have to pursue your claim through a solicitor, as it will not be possible to lodge a dental negligence claim with the Injuries Board.
Dental negligence claims arise when a person’s teeth or mouth are injured because of dental treatment or their appearance has been affected due to dental malpractice.
Types of Dental Negligence Claims
Cosmetic Dentistry Claims
Reasons for cosmetic dentistry claims can include:
- Adverse effects or unsatisfactory aesthetics resulting from cosmetic dental procedures
- Incorrect use of whitening treatments
Reasons for non-cosmetic dentistry claims include:
- Infection
- Nerve damage
- Failure to accurately diagnose a dental issue
- Delay in diagnosing a dental condition
- Incorrect diagnosis of a dental problem
- Extraction of an incorrect tooth
- Inadequate root canal therapy, fillings, or crowns
- Inadequate orthodontic care
- Failure to manage tooth decay or gum disease
- Failure to treat a dental condition at all
Nerve Damage Claims
Nerve damage is one of the injuries that can occur through dental negligence. This damage can be long-lasting. You may be able to claim for compensation if you believe your nerve damage occurred through your dentist’s failure to provide necessary dental care, failure to diagnose an illness or condition, incorrect dental work, or substandard work.
Oral Cancer Claims
Failure to detect mouth cancer can result in severe illness or even death. Dentists are often more adept at identifying mouth cancer than physicians, underscoring the importance of them routinely checking for its signs during check-ups. Should your dental provider overlook symptoms or fail to diagnose mouth cancer, you might have grounds for a dental malpractice case.
Periodontal Disease Claims
Gum disease appears as an inflammation of the gums and is caused by plaque building up on the teeth. Gums may bleed during teeth-brushing, and bad breath (halitosis) may occur. Without timely treatment, gum disease can damage the bone fastening the teeth to the jaw. This is known as periodontal disease.
Teeth may loosen and fall out, and the patient can suffer severe pain and discomfort. If you attend regular dental checkups and your dentist fails to diagnose gum disease or periodontal disease, you may be able to make a periodontal disease claim.
Restorative dentistry claims
Restorative dentistry involves repairing teeth that have been damaged or decayed using the likes of fillings, crowns, and bridges. Many restorative dentistry procedures are necessary because a dental practitioner failed to diagnose tooth decay in the first instance. Any of the following cases could lead to a valid restorative dentistry claim:
- Poorly executed fillings that leave decay in the treated tooth
- Improper cleaning of the cavity before filling
- Untreated decay
- Filling the wrong tooth
- Extracting a tooth unnecessarily
What Is the Time Limit for Dental Negligence Claims?
Exceptions to the Legal Time Limits for Dental Negligence in Ireland
This can include situations where the victim may not have been aware of the alleged negligence at the time it occurred. In such cases, the individual arguably has two years less one day from the date of discovering the negligence. This discovery could happen during a follow-up appointment where the patient learns about the origin of the negligence, or it might not occur until the patient obtains a copy of their medical records. It’s crucial to understand that the date of discovery refers to when the victim has constructive knowledge of the alleged negligence – in other words, when they should have reasonably known about it.
How to Make a Dental Negligence Claim?
If you are unhappy with the treatment that you have received from your dentist, you may wish to contact a solicitor who is an expert in the field of medical negligence to investigate your case.
It can be a daunting task for a victim of medical negligence to consult with a solicitor to review the issues that they have had with their care.
1. Consulting a Solicitor
The first step in any case is for the solicitor to take up a copy of your medical records from the relevant dentist.
The solicitor will review your records and instruct an independent expert to carry out a report to consider whether the treatment that you have received is below the standard of care that should normally be applied.
2. Establishing Negligence
Dentist negligence means that the dental treatment that you received is below the standard of care that one would ordinarily expect to see that a patient should receive from a dentist.
3. Establishing Causation
It must then be considered that due to the negligent dental treatment that you have received your recovery has been delayed or you have suffered further injury and sustained a loss.
4. Gathering Proof/Medical Care
In order for a solicitor to issue proceedings in a medical negligence action, we must have a positive independent expert report before proceedings can be issued. We would not proceed with a case on your behalf unless we had a positive report from the medical expert and that we were confident of a successful conclusion of your case.
If you or your loved one has suffered from dental negligence, get in touch with us.
With over 50 years of expert legal experience advising patients, we are here to provide expert advice when you need it most.
Call us today on 1800 207 207 or contact us online.
