Wrong Tooth Extraction Compensation Claims

Every healthcare professional is required to meet the expected standard of care. Before any operation or procedure, healthcare providers need to ensure that they have taken all reasonable measures to protect you from experiencing avoidable harm. This includes ensuring that they are performing the correct procedure. Failing to do this can be seen as negligence. If you have suffered due to dental negligence you could be eligible to make a claim for compensation. This is a guide to making a claim for a wrong tooth extraction caused by dental negligence. 

wrong tooth extraction

Wrong tooth extraction claims guide

This guide will talk about the responsibility placed on dentists and their staff and the options you have as a patient if they acted negligently and caused you harm. It will show you how to begin a claim, and explain the benefits of hiring a No Win No Fee solicitor.

Our advisers are also available to answer the questions you might have about the dental negligence claims process, and can provide information on the compensation you could be awarded for the different effects of your injury. To speak with an adviser, you can:

Select A Section 

  1. How Could A Wrong Tooth Extraction Happen? 
  2. Dental Patient Rights And A Dentist’s Duty Of Care 
  3. How Could A Wrong Tooth Extraction Affect You? 
  4. Eligibility To Claim For A Wrong Tooth Extraction 
  5. Wrong Tooth Extraction Settlement Amounts 
  6. Get Help With Making A No Win No Fee Dental Negligence Claim 

How Could A Wrong Tooth Extraction Happen? 

How can a dentist extract the wrong tooth?

  • By failing to check patient information before starting the extraction
  • A failure to involve the patient in identifying the correct site 
  • Poor communication or administration error 
  • Inadequate assessments before performing the procedure

If you have had the wrong tooth extracted because the dentist failed to check your notes or accidentally took out the tooth next to the one that should have been extracted call our expert advisors today.

You could be awarded compensation for the physical and psychological harm you have experienced as well as any financial losses caused by the harm sustained. 

Please speak to one of our advisers for information on beginning a claim for having the wrong tooth extracted. 

Dental Patient Rights And A Dentist’s Duty Of Care 

Whenever a health care professional, like a dentsit or doctor, agrees to treat you, straight away they owe you a duty of care. This duty is applied so that you are never caused any harm that is avoidable. 

In addition to your dentist owing you a duty of care, you also have certain rights as a patient. For example, as per the General Dental Council, you should ask yourself the following questions: 

  • What does the treatment involve? Ask for a written plan
  • Your options: For example, ask your dentist are there any alternative treatment options.
  • How the operation is being performed: This includes whether the treatment is offered under the NHS or privately.
  • How much will the procedure cost? 
  • You have the right to ask for more information so that you can make an informed decision.

If a dentist breached their duty of care, and this caused you harm that could have been prevented, please speak with one of our advisers for information on wrong tooth extraction and other dental negligence claims. 

How Could A Wrong Tooth Extraction Affect You? 

The extraction of a wrong tooth could affect you in various ways. For example:

  • Physical pain due to the tooth being extracted and the original tooth being left untreated. 
  • Having the function of your tooth impacted. 
  • Experiencing complications from an unnecessary surgery; such as damage to the jaw, a dental abscess or damage to the root of the wrongly extracted tooth.
  • Causing an impact on your finances, for example if you need to spend money on an implant to replace the extracted tooth.
  • Psychological suffering due to scarring as a result of complications from your original condition being left untreated.

If you had the wrong tooth removed, please get in touch with one of our advisers for information. 

Eligibility To Claim For A Wrong Tooth Extraction 

In order for you to be eligible to make a claim for a wrong tooth extraction, the dentist will need to have acted negligently.

For example, a dentist may have failed to check your patient notes correctly before performing the procedure. As a result, they may have removed the wrong tooth. This may have resulted in you sustaining an additional injury as well as experiencing complications from the original ailment.

Alternatively, your dentist may have failed to use clean equipment before performing the procedure. As a result, you may have been exposed to a disease during the surgery. In these cases, you could make a claim for the infection you picked up, such as an MRSA claim.

However, not all instances of an operation gone wrong will result in a claim. You need to prove that negligence occurred. As such, you would need to gather evidence, such as dentistry records. 

When making a claim, there is a  time limit to be aware of. Generally, you will have three years from the date of the incident or the date you connected negligence with the harm you sustained. 

If you are looking for more information about whether you could be eligible to make a claim for a wrongful tooth extraction, please reach out to one of our advisers. 

Wrong Tooth Extraction Settlement Amounts 

As part of the claims process. you can make a claim for compensation to address:

  • The pain and suffering you have experienced as a result of the harm you sustained. Compensation for this is awarded under general damages. 
  • Any financial effects the harm you sustained may have had. You could seek reimbursement of any financial losses under special damages. They could include loss of income, surgery costs and prescriptions costs provided you have sufficient evidence to prove them. 

General damages takes into account both physical and psychological harm. The amount of compensation you’re owed is often calculated by legal professionals. They can use medical evidence alongside guidelines from the Judicial College.

We have included a table with figures from the April 2022 edition of these guidelines. The figures are bracket compensation amounts relating to different tooth, mouth and mental injuries. Please only use them as a guide as each claim is assessed on it’s own individual circumstances. 

InjuryNotesAward
Serious Fracture Of Jaw (e) (ii)A serious fracture that causes difficulty in using the mouth, including opening the mouth and eating.£17,960 to £30,490
Simple Fracture Of Jaw (e) (iii)A fracture that requires the jaw to be immobilised but a complete recovery is made.£6,460 to
£8,730
Significant Scarring (c)In these cases, plastic surgery will have reduced the worst effects.£9,110 to £30,090
Tooth Damage (f) Significant tooth pain that is chronic and causes the overall condition of the teeth to deteoriate.Up to £38,130
Tooth Damage (f) (i)Damage or loss to several front teeth £8,730 to
£11,410
Tooth Damage (f)(ii)Damage or loss of two front teeth,£4,350 to
£7,630
Post Traumatic Dress Disorder Moderately Severe£23,150 to £59,860

Get Help With Making A No Win No Fee Dental Negligence Claim 

You could hire a No Win No Fee solicitor when making a  dentist negligence claim. 

This means you would not have to pay an upfront fee, and you would not pay any ongoing fees as your claim continued. Instead, you would pay a legally capped success fee if your claim is successful. There is no success fee to pay, if your claim fails. 

To see if a medical negligence solicitor from our panel could help you make your claim, please get in touch with one of our advisers now by: 

Related Dental Negligence Claim Resources 

Please find some additional resources below.

We hope this guide on wrong tooth extraction claims has helped. If you have any additional questions, call our team on the number above.