The dentist pulled the wrong tooth...Do I have enough cause to sue?

Question:

I went to the dentist with a bad toothache. I explained what was happening to the nurse, because I knew that I had a hole in one of my teeth. They took xrays and he said nothing showed on the xrays?? He said that the pain may be from my sinus( never had sinus problems). I told him which tooth was hurting, but instead he pulled another tooth that had nothing wrong. Couple of days later i had excrutiating pain in my jaw, when tomy primary doctorm, who consulted a ent doctor, did a ct scan to rule out sinus. Nothing showed...weeks of pain, consulted another dentist...guess what?? Tooth with hole still in mouth...Dentist pulled...no more pain. I'm out a lot of money from 2 dentist, my primary doctor, ct scan, and prescriptions. What do I do??

Answers:
Well, I'm sorry to hear about the problem, but glad that you seem to be feeling better now. If you are going to get a court case going, then you need to have evidence that the wrong tooth was actually pulled. This can be difficult to do, especially if several teeth in the area had at least something wrong with them. Also, you need to consider the cost of replacing the tooth. A jury would most likely not give you much more than what it would cost to replace the tooth. The other costs, such as the CT scan and physician visits, were incurred trying to diagnose what could be construed as a separate problem. Keep in mind that just because it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be extracted. Dead teeth very often don't hurt. Also keep in mind that the recovery after having a tooth extracted is almost always painful. A dry socket after an extraction usually hurts more than the toothache that made the extraction necessary. Best of luck.

Sounds like you have just cause call a lawyer

IF you have health insurance, you are out very little for the primary care doc and the ct scan and if you have a prescription plan, you aren't out very much for those either----as for pulling the wrong tooth, you could get a lawyer and TRY to recoup some of your money, but the lawyer will cost you MORE then you will recoup for just a tooth... think of it this way---one less tooth that will ever cause you trouble later on. .. People make mistakes, even dentists... the first one SHOULDN'T have pulled the wrong tooth, however, so you could have a case for that... call a lawyer..

hopefuly theirs a lawyer out their, that can help you

I would so get a lawyer and sue, it would be like going to the doctor and having to have surgry on your left arm and you woke up to have your right are gone. You would so sue! Thats malpractice

Slapshot, the dentist has a point. I would get copies of all your most recent dental records, have a consultation or legal advice from someone that specializes in doctor malpractice and see if you have a case. You may also want to suggest you want implant or a bridge to replace the tooth that was extracted by mistake and that alone costs about $2000-3000.
Good luck.

Yes, I would get your records from the dentist that allegedly pulled the wrong tooth. In our office, we have a patient sign a form with the tooth number that is going to be extracted. If you signed a consent form, then there is no case unless the tooth written on the form was different from the one that was taken out. Basically, if they extracted a tooth that was not supposed to be pulled out, you have a lawsuit. If it was planned to remove that tooth in their records, then you probably don't have a case. But accidentally pulling the wrong tooth is definately a big mistake... like if a doctor cut off your right arm instead of your left... you would obviously be entitled to sue.

No he will only lie about it

The dentist pulled the wrong tooth...Do I have enough cause to sue?

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