3 Examples of Dental Malpractice
Medical malpractice doesn’t just happen at hospitals or doctors’ offices. Negligent treatment takes place at dental practices more often than you might think.
When you visit a dentist, you are trusting him or her with your health and wellbeing. You deserve to receive an adequate standard of care as established by the dental community. When a dentist fails to provide that, you may experience significant harm.
What Is Dental Malpractice?
If you are considering taking legal action against a dentist, you must understand the legal standards that apply in these cases. Dental malpractice occurs when a dentist does not provide the standard of care that others with similar training provide, and a patient is harmed as a result. Our dental malpractice lawyers at Colling Gilbert Wright will carefully review your records and talk to you about your experience to determine whether it meets the legal criteria for a malpractice lawsuit.
Dentists make mistakes or exercise poor judgment sometimes. When another dentist with similar training might have made the same mistake, there is no malpractice. Even if you suffered harm due to an error, there is no legal basis for a malpractice lawsuit if the mistake and the dentist’s response to it was reasonable under the circumstances.
If the mistake was due to carelessness, lack of knowledge, or skill, the dentist may have committed malpractice. However, you only have a malpractice case if you suffered harm as a direct result. If there is no harm, there is no basis for a malpractice lawsuit.
Dental Malpractice Can Have Serious Consequences
Healthy teeth and gums have a substantial impact on your overall health. Mistakes when performing dental work can lead to tooth loss, chronic pain, and bone deterioration in the jaw and sinuses. Failing to take a proper medical history, anesthesia errors, and sloppy surgical techniques can cause heart attacks, strokes, and even death.
Here are some of the most common dental malpractice issues:
Serious Infections
Most dental practices see dozens of patients a day. Between the high traffic and the type of invasive care being provided, dentists must maintain sanitary conditions. Failure to keep offices and equipment sterile can expose patients to bacteria and bloodborne infectious diseases.
Infections that start in the mouth can be especially dangerous. If not discovered and treated quickly, the infection can travel through the sinus to the brain and cause an abscess.
Brain abscesses are medical emergencies that can cause death if not treated promptly. Treatment will require extensive treatment with antibiotics and may involve surgery. Even with prompt and effective treatment, you may suffer long-term effects like seizures, personality changes, or mobility issues.
Surgical errors
The same mistakes can occur during dental surgery as during a hospital procedure. These mistakes include slips of your dentist’s scalpel or tools and incorrect anesthesia or anesthesia overdose. While dental surgery carries risks, dentists should not expose patients to additional harm.
Tooth extraction is a common surgical procedure dentists perform and often the basis of dental malpractice lawsuits. Errors during extraction surgery include:
- Accidentally severing a nerve
- Perforating the sinus
- Fracturing the jawbone
- Injuring the joint of the jaw
Extractions can also lead to serious infections.
Mistakes during other common dental surgery procedures, like root canal therapy and dental implants, carry similar risks to tooth extraction.
Anesthesia Errors
Many dental procedures require the application of a local anesthetic. Administering too much anesthesia can lead to a condition called Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity ( LAST), which can produce frightening symptoms like seizures, coma, and death. Milder cases may cause a persistent metallic taste in the mouth and dizziness.
Inadequate or ineffective anesthesia can produce excruciating pain and ongoing psychological effects such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Other anesthesia errors include administering a drug that reacts with the patient’s other medications, failing to observe the patient for signs of an allergic reaction, and not responding quickly enough to signs of distress.
Failing to Provide an Accurate Diagnosis
Dental malpractice may occur when the dentist fails to diagnose a condition promptly. A failure to timely diagnose gum disease can lead to tooth loss, destruction of the jawbone, and a buildup of bacteria that can lead to heart attacks, stroke, pregnancy complications, and other health impacts.
Most oral cancers can be treated successfully when caught early, but once the tumor is established, mortality increases. Treatment may involve highly invasive and disfiguring surgery.
Unnecessary or overzealous treatment: There have been cases of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment for several years longer than necessary, while the dentist continues to collect fees for maintenance and adjustments. Greed and insurance schemes can drive unscrupulous dentists to suggest services you don’t need. These services can be financially burdensome and may even harm the look and function of your smile.
Unnecessary or overzealous treatment
There have been cases of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment for several years longer than necessary, while the dentist continues to collect fees for maintenance and adjustments. Greed, and insurance schemes, can drive unscrupulous dentists to suggest services you don’t need. These services can be financially burdensome and may even harm the look and function of your smile.
Administrative Failures Can Lead to Liability
Surgical errors in dentistry may be due to a dentist’s lack of skill, a momentary distraction, or an equipment failure. Many other incidents of dental malpractice could be prevented if the dental office had maintained better procedures.
Talking an inadequate medical history or failing to review the history before treatment can lead to anesthesia errors. Inadequate attention to the patient’s medical history and current complaint could contribute to failures to diagnose serious conditions. A dentist also could be liable for not obtaining a patient’s consent before performing a service or procedure.
The skilled attorneys at The Florida Firm will review the practice’s procedures, looking for administrative deficiencies. When it is evident that the harm you suffered could have been prevented, the dentist could be liable for your past and future expenses and your pain and suffering.
Contact Colling Gilbert Wright Today
With over 80 years of combined experience, our medical malpractice attorneys know how to assemble the resources and testimony needed to prove negligence. We will work tirelessly to obtain the compensation you deserve as a victim of dental malpractice.
It’s crucial to pursue legal action quickly before the statute of limitations is up. If you’ve been injured due to dental malpractice, call our lawyers today at 407-712-7300. Colling Gilbert Wright serves clients in Orlando, Tampa, and Miami, Florida, as well as nationwide.
