Dental Malpractice Lawyers

These are a few of the most common forms of injuries to dental patients:

• Jaw fracture — Most commonly found after tooth extraction, a fracture can occur when too much force is used to remove a tooth.
• Alternatively, dental implants where hardware is implanted directly into the jawbone can cause fractures and subsequent structural damage, rendering future treatment detrimental or impossible.
• Delayed or wrong diagnosis or treatment — Can range from simply waiting too long to have a procedure done or treating the wrong disorder or tooth.
• Improper usage of dental tools and equipment — Resulting in injury to the gum, bone, tongue, or tooth/teeth.
• Nerve injuries caused by dental injections — Either permanent or temporary. Signs of nerve damage may include numbness or lack of feeling in the tongue, gums, cheeks, jaw, or face; tingling or pulling sensation; pain or burning feeling; and, in the worst case, loss of taste. If the affected nerve was mental, sensory paralysis may also occur. Severe damage can lead to issues such as inability to move the tongue properly, causing speech deficits.
• Loss of taste and/or sensation — Can be caused by anesthesia used for a procedure, structural damage to the tongue, or disease that has failed to be diagnosed.
• Permanent or temporary structural injuries to the tongue, jaw, chin, or lips — Can severely affect necessary future treatment and cause previous treatment to become ineffective. Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) disorders — Characterized by pain in the jaw joint and/or the muscles that control jaw movement.
• Wrongful death resulting from dental procedures or oral surgery — Sometimes, general anesthesia or treatment in an operating room may be necessary for more extensive cases. The risks of general anesthesia accompany these procedures.
• Negligently completed crowns and bridges — Improperly fitting teeth may cause structural damage to the gums and allow infection to occur and travel to the jaw, potentially causing infection of the bone.
• Failure to detect oral cancer, periodontal disease, or other diseases — Failure to detect cancer or diseases can become life-threatening if not treated promptly. Even if the treatment becomes delayed, more intense treatment may be necessary to eradicate the disease completely.
• Unnecessary extraction of multiple teeth and/or extraction of the wrong tooth — Can lead to significantly increased medical costs, and altered eating patterns could lead to nutritional disorders in the future.
• Lack of consent — Dentists and other medical providers have a duty to explain in detail the procedure along with associated risks. They must provide you with all information regarding the treatment to help you make the choice that is best for you.
• Molesting a patient while under sedation — Sedation alters mental consciousness and delays clear thinking. Unfortunately, instances such as these do occur and are severe grounds for punishment.

If you’ve suffered severe injuries as a dental patient, our personal injury lawyers can help you develop a strong claim against the negligent dentist and pursue fair and just compensation for damages.