dental negligence
Can a dentist or oral surgeon be sued?
Yes. Dentists and oral surgeons are considered health care professionals and must provide a certain standard of care when providing dental services to a patient. Just like medical doctors, dentists and oral surgeons have a duty to uphold that standard of care in his/her specialty. A breach of this duty, resulting in injury to a patient can result in what is generally referred to as dental malpractice or dental negligence.
Some types of injuries caused by dental negligence include permanent or temporary nerve and/or structural injuries to the tongue, jaw, chin and lips including lingual nerve injury (tongue), inferior alveolar nerve damage (lips, chin and jaw), numbness, loss of taste sensation and even death. These injuries can be caused by: improper removal of impacted wisdom teeth and other negligence in the administration of dental procedures.
Dental malpractice or negligence cases are as expensive and difficult to try as medical malpractice cases, so our firm believes a serious permanent injury is needed to justify and merit bringing a dental negligence case. Serious dental injury cases our firm has been involved in include lingual and inferior alveolar nerve injuries and antibiotic or pre-medication errors. As with medical and birth injuries, our firm ends up turning down far more of these cases than we can take. If your dental treatment has been sub-standard our aim is to obtain maximum compensation for you as quickly as possible and only to take cases we feel we can win.
Trials/Settlements in Dental Negligence Cases:
Burgess v. Teamsters Medical Clinic: A verdict of $250,000 plus medical bills ($8,968) for a 30 year old man whose lingual nerve was severed by defendant's general dentist while extracting a wisdom tooth.
Franco v. Willamette Dental: In attempting to remove plaintiff's
lower right wisdom tooth, periodontist damaged the lingual nerve,
causing permanent numbness and pain in plaintiff's tongue, including
shooting and throbbing pain, difficulty with biting and use of his
tongue, decreased taste sensation, numb gums on the right side of his
mouth, inability to
distinguish hot from cold. Jury Verdict $600,000
Palmedo v. Scharwatt, D.M.D.: A $415,000 jury verdict in a no offer case which was paid after being affirmed by the State of Oregon Court of Appeals. The jury found the endodontist slipped with a drill while performing a procedure, permanently injuring a young woman's inferior alveolar nerve in her mouth.
Swift v. Dr. Doe Oral Surgeon: $350,000 verdict in a no offer case
for a young woman whose lingual nerve was damaged by the doctor while
extracting a wisdom tooth.
Gilbertson v. Dr. Doe Dentist: A verdict of $250,000 for a young woman
whose lingual nerve was severed by defendant's general dentist while
extracting a wisdom tooth.
Lingual Nerve Injury Information
American Dental Association
Oral Health Resources
