How Much Compensation For Dental Negligence?
When you decide to make a dental negligence claim, you would be awarded a compensation amount if the claim is successful. While payouts are not fixed but vary depending on your case, we can use the dental negligence claim calculator to give you a good idea of what your settlement payout would likely be.
Dental Malpractice Explained
Dental Malpractice refers to when a dentist or a dental professional fails to meet a set standard of care in his practice while treating or providing care to a patient resulting in avoidable harm, pain, injury, nerve damage or other form of complication.
When this happens, the patient can make dental negligence claims to claim a deserved dentist compensation payout.
Dental negligence can happen in various forms, it may be a negligent extraction of the wrong tooth, misdiagnosis of oral cancer or other dental/oral diseases, avoidable nerve injury during a surgical procedure, poorly performed root canal therapy, etc.
Dentists like every other healthcare provider owe a duty of care to their patients and so when you visit your dentist, you expect that the treatment you will receive should be safe and effective but if the reverse is the case and you suffer unnecessarily, you may have enough grounds to make a dental negligence compensation claim.
Claiming compensation for negligence by your dentist requires that you reach out to your dental negligence claims solicitors who would guide you on the negligence process and help you claim compensation.
Examples of Dental Negligence
Some examples of dental negligence could include:
- Extraction of wrong tooth
- Misdiagnosis of oral cancer- this could either be wrong diagnosis, late diagnosis or completely missed diagnosis
- Delayed treatment
- Jaw injury during a tooth extraction
- Avoidable nerve damage during a procedure
- Poorly performed dental implant
- Negligent Cosmetic Dentistry
- Poorly filled tooth
- Negligence In Restorative Dentistry
- Negligent Periodontal and Gum Disease Care
Making A Claim For Dental Negligence
To make a claim for dental negligence, you have to be able to prove the following;
- Show that your dentist owed you a duty of care
- Show that your dentist failed in his duty of care and this resulted in the injury, harm or complication you sustained
- Show that you have incurred damages as a result of the injuries caused by the dental negligence
Several documents such as the underlisted can help strengthen your claim;
- Detailed statements of all events that transpired
- Your dental records including tests and x-rays
- Relevant witness statements
- Proof of financial losses incurred
- Photographs or images of your injury
We will also require a report from an independent dental expert about the severity of damage suffered and likely prognosis after a thorough dental examination.
How Much Compensation Should I Expect For Dental Negligence?
Of course, when you make dentist negligence claims, you would want to know how much compensation you would likely get as compensation.
You should know that there are two main factors that play a huge role in determining your settlement amount. These are;
- General damages
- Special damages
General damages for specific dental injuries are found in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) and help legal professionals to value claims.
Here is a list of some dental injuries you may suffer as a result of dental negligence and the compensation figures for such injuries.
| Type of Injury | Range of compensation | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Jaw fracture | £30,490 to £45,540 | Multiple, very serious fractures which require a prolonged course of treatment and lead to permanent consequences which could include paraesthesia, severe pain and restriction on eating. It could also risk arthritis. |
| Jaw fracture | £17,960 to £30,490 | Serious fractures leading to permanent problems with eating, opening of the mouth, or cases where paraesthesia affects an area of the jaw. |
| Jaw fracture | £6,460 to £8,730 | Simple fractures that require immobilisation, but where there is a complete recovery. |
| Tooth damage | Up to £38,130 | Tooth pain with significant deterioration of teeth over a number of years. |
| Tooth damage | £8,730 to £11,410 | Severe damage or loss to several of the front teeth. |
| Tooth damage | £4,350 to £7,630 | Serious damage or loss of the two front teeth. |
Special Damages on the other hand are determined on a case by case basis. What applies to one dental negligence claim may not apply to another case.
The following sub-factors fall under special damages;
- Amount of pain and suffering
- Future prognosis
- Costs of further treatment
- Travel expenses for treatment
- Financial losses incurred as well as estimated future losses
- Loss of earnings if you had to give up work as a result of the injury
- Costs of needed dental appliances such as dentures or dental implants
- Costs of therapy, etc.
Since the amount applicable to these will vary according to the peculiarity of the case, we will use our dental negligence claim calculator to give you a realistic idea of what your dentist negligence claims are worth.
According to NHS Resolution’s reports:
The settlement amount paid for dental compensations in 2019/20 totaled;
- £48,405,458 in general medicine cases
- £114,410,794 in general surgery cases
- £285,229,639 in other cases
All you need to do is to reach out to our negligence solicitors for a no obligation chat to discuss your dental claims.
Time Limit For Dental Claims
As it applies to medical negligence claims, there is a limitation period within which you must make your dental compensation claims. This period according to the Limitation Act of 1980 is three years from when the negligent treatment occurred or when you became aware of it.
The only exception to this Act is when it involves Children who could be allowed until they are 21 to make claims or better still a litigation friend (parents, guardians or loved ones) can make claims on their behalf. Also, if the injury sustained is so significant leaving the patient physically or mentally incapable of making claims, he could be allowed more time to get further treatment and become better before making claims. However, the family members can begin the claims process.
Our dental negligence solicitors are on ground to provide more explanation on how this can be done.
No Win No Fee Dental Claims
Our medical negligence solicitors are experts when it comes to clinical negligence and different dental claims. We undertake our dental claims on a no win no fee basis.
What this means is that you do not have to pay any upfront legal fee to us before we can undertake your claims. It also means that you will not incur any financial debt even if the case is not successful.
At the end of a successful claim, we will take out 25% of your total compensation amount while the rest belongs to you. This is what we term as “success fee.”
Contact us via our helplines to speak with one of our expert dental negligence solicitors about your claims today.