Dental Malpractice

Dentists are held to a standard of care that is measured by what another dentist of reasonable competence would have done in performing a certain procedure under similar circumstances. If a particular dentist breached or deviated from that standard of care, then he or she may be liable for dental malpractice. While many dental mistakes can be fixed relatively easily, some dental injuries caused by a dentist can be devastating and even life-threatening. The most significant injuries include:

• Dental nerve injuries
• Improper installation of implants
• Failure to diagnose cancer in the mouth or tongue region

Dental Nerve Injuries

Whenever a dentist drills, or removes teeth, he is operating very closely to certain nerves that exist within the mouth. A mistake can leave a patient with numbness in the lip, chin, and gums, a speech impairment, burning and tingling, loss of taste or even pain in the sinuses, face, and near the eyes.

Inferior alveolar nerve injuries can occur during wisdom tooth removal, installation of implants, or a poor root canal. Trigeminal nerve injuries can occur during root canal, while a lingual nerve injury can occur from a wisdom tooth extraction.

Improper Installation of Implants

If a dentist drills too deeply or at the wrong angle, he can enter your sinus cavity, leading to severe infections from the bacteria in your mouth.

Failure to Diagnosis Cancer in the Mouth or Tongue Region

If a dentist does not diagnose cancer in these regions in its early stages, complications or even death can occur. You may be entitled to compensation for negligence if your dentist failed to diagnose these conditions.

Other possible dental malpractice cases can arise when a dentist attempts to perform work that he is technically not qualified to do, such as that performed by an orthodontist, endodontist, periodontist, prosthodontist, or oral surgeon.

If you feel that you or a family member has been seriously harmed by a dentist, dental specialist or oral surgeon, or if you have any questions, please call our toll-free number at 1 (888) 878-3342 today.