Dental Malpractice ? 3 Reasons You May Have A Claim Against Your Dentist

Everyone wants to trust their healthcare providers to treat them properly and not leave them worse off than when they arrived in the office. That includes their dentists. However, this is not always the case, and if your dentist injured you during treatment, then you may have a good reason to file a personal injury lawsuit against him or her. While every individual circumstance varies, if your experience compares to any of the following, then you need to contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. 

1. You Developed Nerve Damage in Your Face

You have a large nerve network in your face, and the main facial nerve is called the trigeminal nerve. Damage to this nerve can cause partial or complete loss of sensation in your face and scalp, pain, and difficulty eating and speaking. Since this nerve is located in your face, your dentist has to pay careful attention when performing your dental work to avoid injuring it. Unfortunately, dentists can and do cause injury to this nerve occasionally. 

The most common procedure that can lead to damage to this nerve is the dental implant installation. Some people experience pain or numbness for just a few days, weeks, or months after this nerve is injured, but some people experience permanent effects. It is important to see healthcare specialists other than your dentist if you experience this to receive an unbiased opinion about your injury and what your long-term prognosis is.

You then need to speak to a personal injury lawyer to receive compensation for your medical bills and pain and suffering you endured or will endure for the rest of your life as the result of your dentist's carelessness when working on your teeth.  

2. Your Dentist Did Not Inform You That You Had a Treatable Oral Problem

When you visit your dentist for your bi-annual check-ups, it is his or her job to not only address any complaints you may have about your teeth, but to also catch any problems you may not be aware of. There is no excuse for a dentist to miss an obvious oral problem, like bad gum disease, or a large oral lesion that looks suspicious.

When a dentist fails to inform you of an oral problem that he or she should have noticed, it is called failure to diagnose. Your dentist does not have to miss something as severe as an early-stage oral cancer to be at fault, though. Even if you begin seeing a new dentist and he or she catches cavities that your last dentist did not detect, many lawyers agree that this alone can be grounds for a dental malpractice lawsuit. 

3. You Were Affected by an Unclean Dental Office or Tools

Dental offices, personnel, and tools are held to the same cleanliness standards as any other healthcare provider. Your dentist should keep his or her office reasonably clean, disinfect his or her hands between patients, and, most importantly, use clean and sanitary tools on each and every patient. 

While dental extraction sites can become infected from time to time, do you suspect that your dentist may have caused an oral infection by using dirty tools? Even worse, did you catch a viral infection after a simple check-up? If you have suspicions that your dentist caused your infection or illness, then it may sound difficult to prove, but it may not be that difficult if your dentist has a pattern of patients developing infection more than usual after treatment in his or her office.  

A personal injury attorney knows how to help you prove that your dentist was at fault for your illness if he or she was. They can find other patients who developed infections or viruses after treatment or have the dental office inspected by the health department. Don't think that you have to just live with the fact that your dentist harmed you just because you don't have evidence just yet. 

If any of the above situations apply to you, then you should go to sites or contact a personal injury attorney to help get the compensation you deserve after your dentist injured you or caused you pain and suffering. Every healthcare provider has the duty to only help and not harm patients, and if you let your dentist get away with mistreating you, then he or she will only keep doing it to others.