7 Common Reasons to Sue a Dentist for Malpractice

Common Forms of Dental Malpractice

Misdiagnosis and Failure to Diagnose

This is when the dentist gets the problem with your teeth wrong or misses it altogether.

Improper Treatment Procedures

This happens when the dentist doesn’t do the right things to fix your teeth or does things in the wrong way.

Surgical Errors

These are mistakes that happen during surgeries in your mouth, like when the dentist accidentally hurts something they shouldn’t.

Prescription Medication Errors

This is when the dentist gives you the wrong medicine or the wrong amount of medicine to help with your teeth problems.

Lack of Informed Consent

This means the dentist didn’t tell you all the important information about your treatment, like the risks or other options you might have.

Common Signs of Dental Malpractice

Persistent pain or discomfort after treatment: If your teeth or gums still hurt a lot even after the dentist has done something to help, like fill a cavity or pull a tooth, it might mean something went wrong.

Infections or complications post-procedure: If you notice things like swelling, pus, or a bad taste in your mouth after dental work, it could be a sign of an infection or other problem caused by the treatment.

Unusual symptoms or reactions to treatment: Sometimes, you might feel weird or have strange things happening in your mouth after seeing the dentist. It’s important to pay attention to these and tell your dentist about them.

Additional dental problems arising from previous treatment: If you had dental work done and then later on you notice new problems with your teeth or gums that weren’t there before, it could be because something went wrong with the earlier treatment.

How Can I Prove Dental Malpractice?

In these cases, you need to prove four things, which are

Duty of care owed by dentists to their patients

Dentists have a responsibility to take good care of their patients and make sure they do their best to keep them safe and healthy during treatments.

Breach of duty through negligence or substandard care

If a dentist doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do or doesn’t do it well, like not following safety procedures or making mistakes during treatment, it’s called negligence. This means they’ve broken their promise to take care of their patients.

Causation: Linking the dentist’s actions to the patient’s harm

This means showing that what the dentist did or didn’t do directly caused harm to the patient. For example, if a dentist pulled the wrong tooth and that caused pain or other problems, that would be causation.

Damages suffered by the patient as a result of malpractice

If a patient is harmed because of a dentist’s mistake or negligence, they may suffer in different ways, like pain, additional medical expenses, or emotional distress. These are called damages, and they’re what the patient may seek compensation for in a legal case.

Statute of Limitations for Filing a Dental Malpractice Suit