About 30% to 50% of the population avoids going to the dentist because they are afraid. A bad experience, due to dental malpractice, only verifies these fears making future visits even less likely. Dental malpractice can be just as serious as any medical malpractice case.
Like doctors and other health care providers, dentists have a duty to provide a certain acceptable standard of care and to obtain your informed consent for any treatment they provide. When a dentist causes significant injury by intentionally or unintentionally committing an act or omission that no other responsible dentist would have committed under the same circumstances, he or she has committed dental malpractice. Malpractice may be the result of incompetence, negligence, or intentional misconduct on the part of the dentist. Dental malpractice includes:
- Negligent dental work
- Failure to diagnose an oral disease or condition
- Delayed diagnoses of an oral disease or condition
- Failure to treat an oral disease or condition
- Delayed treatment of an oral disease or condition
- Malevolent or intentional misconduct
- Any treatment for which the patient did not give consent
Dental malpractice can cause temporary or permanent injury or even death. Some common examples of injuries caused by dental malpractice include:
- Damage to nerves of the jaw, tongue, lips, or chin
- Loss of taste
- Numbness
- Temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ)
- Injuries caused by the use of Sargenti Paste during root canals
- Injuries to the teeth, gums, or bone during to root canals
- Infections of the teeth gums, or jaw due to faulty root canals
- Infections due to improper use of dental tools
- Infections due to faulty dental tools or devices
- Injuries associated with tooth extraction
- Unnecessary extraction or extraction of the wrong tooth or teeth
- Inappropriate orthodontic procedures
- Failure to diagnose or treat oral cancer
- Failure to diagnose or treat gum disease
- Injuries, infection, or death caused by oral surgery
- Injuries or death caused by improper or negligent administration of anesthesia
- Injuries or death caused by treatment by an unlicensed dentist
- Failure to obtain informed consent or treatment beyond the scope of consent
The results of dental malpractice can be painful, debilitating, costly, and sometimes deadly. If you or a loved one has been the victim of dental malpractice you may be entitled to compensation for the following:
- Original dental and medical expenses
- Past and future dental and medical expenses
- Loss of income
- Pain and suffering
- Permanent disability
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Long-term care
- Loss of companionship
In addition to these standard forms of compensation, dentists may be forced to pay punitive damages for intentional misconduct. Intentional misconduct can include inflicting injury or unnecessary pain on purpose, knowingly performing treatments to which the patient did not consent, molesting a sedated patient.
If you or a loved one has been injured due to dental malpractice, contact an experienced malpractice attorney today.
