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Can You Sue a Dentist for Nerve Damage? Can You Sue a Dentist for Nerve Damage? If you have gone through a dental procedure that involved extractions, implants, or root canals and are suffering lasting numbness, paralysis, loss of sensation,loss of taste or diminished function, you may be able to sue for dental malpractice.
A dental malpractice attorney can examine the facts of your case to determine if there are grounds to sue the doctor or the dental practice. Here are some indications that you have a case: You underwent a routine extraction, implant procedure or RCT and have pain and numbness that you never had before.
Lingual nerve — Trauma to the lingual nerve, which runs across the tongue, is a common dental nerve injury. It causes loss of sensation or altered sensation, numb tongue, pain, and loss of taste. Damage to the tongue and lower jaw or teeth is often temporary, but damage lasting longer than six months is usually permanent.
Your injury significantly impairs your oral function, affecting feeling, taste, or your ability to eat, drink or speak. The condition arose and remained only after your procedure. A dentist or other dental care professionals can violate the standard of care they owe to patients in a variety of ways.
Yes, you can sue for medical malpractice if you suffer from nerve damage after dental work. After filing a lawsuit, you must prove medical negligence for nerve damage. This could have been caused by the professional not carrying out any procedure correctly.
If you're suffering nerve damage as a result of a surgery, you may indeed qualify to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
In fact, nerve damage that is the result from a negligently performed surgery is a common type of medical malpractice lawsuit. Patients who have experienced nerve damage can suffer from many different types of symptoms, including: Chronic pain.
If you've experienced nerve damage after your plastic surgery, you may have a medical malpractice claim against your surgeon, your surgeon's staff, or the hospital or clinic where your procedure was performed.
As a specialist in peripheral nerve surgery, Dr. Seruya wants his patients to know that after a period of 12-18 months nerve damage can become permanent.
A nerve injury affects the way your body works and can impact every aspect of your daily life. If you've suffered nerve injury in an accident or from medical negligence, you may be able to make a nerve damage compensation claim.
The signs of nerve damageNumbness or tingling in the hands and feet.Feeling like you're wearing a tight glove or sock.Muscle weakness, especially in your arms or legs.Regularly dropping objects that you're holding.Sharp pains in your hands, arms, legs, or feet.A buzzing sensation that feels like a mild electrical shock.
Non-economic losses can comprise a significant percentage of medical negligence compensation. The current maximum payout is $605,000, according to the Civil Liability (Non-economic Loss) Amendment Order 2016.
Damage to your lingual nerve can occur as a result of negligence during a dental procedure when the nerve in your tongue is damaged, resulting in loss of feeling or taste. To pursue a lawsuit, you'll need to prove the injury resulted from the operation and that the effects are long-term or permanent.
Yes. As parts of the trigeminal nerve are close to the areas affected when a tooth is extracted, damage can sometimes be caused when this type of procedure is carried out. From the extraction of normal adult teeth to the extraction of a wisdom tooth, there is the possibility of nerve damage from tooth removal.
6 Steps To Hire A Medical Malpractice AttorneyCheck the statute of limitations.Initiate your medical malpractice claim.Find a qualified medical malpractice attorney.Determine how much the attorney will charge.Prepare questions for the consultation, and get answers.More items...•
Surgery can cost $20,000-$90,000 or more, depending on the facility and the type of surgery. For example, Drugstore.com charges about $10-$12 for a one-month supply of a generic tricyclic antidepressant such as nortriptyline[1] or amitripyline, which have been shown to relieve nerve pain in some patients.
Typically, when a dentist causes nerve damage during a procedure, one of the two major nerves is normally affected: Lingual nerve: This nerve runs along the tongue, and damage usually causes loss or altered sensation, numb tongue, pain, and loss of taste.
Dental procedures, especially those that involve extractions, implants, root canals, or other procedures where the dentist is digging below the gum line, expose many nerves in the mouth to potential harm. Symptoms of nerve damage include numbness, paralysis, loss of sensation, loss of taste, and diminished function that last long after the local anesthetic wears off.
Minor damage can result in these symptoms for a few months, but symptoms lasting more than six months often become permanent.
Dentists and other dental professionals owe you the same standard of care as any other doctor, surgeon, or medical professional. When they are negligent or reckless in their care, a dentist must be held responsible for the harm caused. Dental malpractice can happen in a number of different ways, resulting in nerve damage for the patient. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
A dental malpractice attorney can examine the facts of your case to determine if there are grounds to sue the doctor or the dental practice. Here are some indications that you have a case: 1 You underwent a routine extraction, implant procedure or RCT and have pain and numbness that you never had before. 2 The symptoms of injury are considered long-term or permanent. 3 Your injury significantly impairs your oral function, affecting feeling, taste, or your ability to eat, drink or speak. 4 The condition arose and remained only after your procedure.
If you have suffered a dental nerve injury, there is most likely damage to one or all of these nerves: Lingual nerve — Trauma to the lingual nerve, which runs across the tongue, is a common dental nerve injury. It causes loss of sensation or altered sensation, numb tongue, pain, and loss of taste.
Inferior alveolar nerve — The inferior alveolar nerve runs in a bony canal below the bottom teeth and controls sensation in the lower teeth, gums, chin, and lower lip. If your dental procedure involves your lower jaw, it is possible this nerve is involved.
A dentist or other dental care professionals can violate the standard of care they owe to patients in a variety of ways. This can occur prior to the procedure if they don’t check on allergies or other medical history, during the operation or administration of anesthesia, or afterward if proper post-operation care is not addressed.
You underwent a routine extraction, implant procedure or RCT and have pain and numbness that you never had before. The symptoms of injury are considered long-term or permanent. Your injury significantly impairs your oral function, affecting feeling, taste, or your ability to eat, drink or speak.
When it comes to dental work, the two nerves most likely to suffer injury are the lingual nerve and the inferior alveolar nerve. The lingual nerve runs across the tongue. Damaging this nerve may result in diminished taste sensation, numb tongue, oral pain, and altered oral sensations.
This nerve controls sensations in the lower lip, chin, gums, and lower teeth. Injuries to the inferior alveolar nerve are most common in implant procedures, root canals, and extractions of the lower teeth. Any damage to this nerve may result in problems with chewing and swallowing foods and beverages, speaking, or may affect taste sensations.
A dental malpractice lawsuit can lead to compensation for a victim’s medical expenses for corrective or restorative dental work, pain and suffering, and lost income if an injury caused the victim to miss work. It’s also possible to secure additional compensation for long-term damage caused by dental malpractice, or punitive damages if a dentist or oral surgeon was grossly negligent in his or her care.
Pursuing a dental malpractice claim hinges on the same premise of a medical malpractice claim; the claimant must prove that the defendant in the claim violated the standard of care for the situation in question. A few indications that you may have grounds for a dental malpractice case include:
An obvious link between your damages and the dental procedure in question. The claimant must offer proof that his or her injury occurred from the given situation and not some other cause. The plaintiff must also prove that the claimed symptoms appeared after the procedure and not before.
The lingual nerve runs across the tongue. Damaging this nerve may result in diminished taste sensation, numb tongue, oral pain, and altered oral sensations. The inferior alveolar nerve runs through the bony canal in the jaw below the bottom teeth. This nerve controls sensations in the lower lip, chin, gums, and lower teeth.
Many injury claims can be settled for their full value through negotiation, mediation or arbitration, without... READ MORE
Yes, you can sue your dentist. Nerve damage is sometimes unavoidable, but if your dentist fell short of the expected standard of care, you might be able to claim compensation. A medical malpractice lawyer can examine the situation and tell you whether you have a case.
Dentistry procedures are supposed to alleviate a person’s dental pain, not make it worse. However, sometimes, a dentist’s negligence can cause or aggravate a patients’ condition and result in nerve damage.
If a dentist doesn’t diagnose periodontal disease or drills too deeply during an implant, this could cause nerve damage and other irreversible harm. But, in other cases, dental pain after a procedure might not be related to dental malpractice.
Proving a fault—or liability—in a dental malpractice case can sometimes be an uphill battle. In a medical or dental malpractice case, the burden of proof is on the injured plaintiff to prove that the dentist behaved unreasonably under the circumstances.
There are two different types of nerves in a person’s mouth: lingual and inferior alveolar. If a person suffers damage to their lingual nerves during a dental procedure, this could cause permanent damage to the lower mouth, such as feeling in the lips, tongue, and gums.
Once an experienced St. Louis dental malpractice attorney in your case determines that you are eligible to file a legal claim against your dentist, then the claims-filing process can begin. This process starts when the injured patient’s attorney submits a demand package on his or her behalf.
Filing a lawsuit in a dental malpractice case formally begins the litigation process. An attorney typically files a lawsuit when the injured patient’s attorney and the dentist’s insurance company cannot agree on a settlement amount.