Negligence Leading to Loss or Damage of Teeth

The loss of a tooth or teeth can have lasting implications regarding self-confidence and the ability to eat and drink. 

You rely on the expertise of your chosen dental professional so it can be a highly distressing and stressful time if you suffer damage to or lose a tooth or teeth as a result of mistakes made by your dentist. 

We can support you in making dental negligence claims for negligence leading to the loss or damage of a tooth or multiple teeth.

Removal of the Wrong Tooth During a Procedure

In some cases, a tooth or teeth are required to be removed as part of a procedure but the wrong tooth is removed. A tooth may also be removed where there could have been other treatments available to save the tooth rather than having the tooth removed. In these situations, you may be able to claim compensation due to dental negligence occurring. 

We will support you at all stages of your claim. We will regularly update you and provide you with honest advice about the likelihood that you will be able to make a claim and the prospects of success as your claim progresses. 

Starting a Dental Negligence Claim for Damage or Loss of Teeth

In order to be successful in making a claim, you will need to prove that you lost your tooth or teeth or they were damaged due to negligence. If they had suffered the same damage would have had to have been removed even if there had been no negligence then it is unlikely you would be able to make a successful claim. 

We will need to request copies of your dental notes and records. We will also usually need to obtain an opinion from an independent dental expert who has no connection to the practitioners or NHS Trust you are bringing the claim against. The independent expert will provide evidence confirming whether the treatment you received was negligent and will advise on the extent of any injuries or losses you have suffered as a result of any negligent treatment.

When initially getting in touch with us, it is important to have the details of your case to hand so that we can assess the chance that you will be able to make a successful compensation claim. Not one claim is the same but we have likely supported a client in the past with a claim that has similarities to your claim.

Time Constraints & Requirements

You only have up to 3 years from the later of

1. i)      the date that you suffered injury; or
2. ii)     the date that you would have been realistically expected to have known that you have

suffered injury due to something a medical practitioner or dental practitioner has done or has failed to do

otherwise, your claim would be out of time.

The court may waive this time restriction and allow a claim to go ahead outside of this 3-year time limit in certain circumstances.

If the claim involves a child under the age of 18 an adult family member or friend can act on their behalf until the child is 18. They have until their 21st birthday to start court proceedings or else their claim would be out of time.

Making a Compensation Claim With Thompson & Co

We will usually deal with your claim on a No-Win-No-Fee basis unless we identify a more suitable method of funding your claim that you wish to use. You will not have to enter into any credit agreements.

If your Claim is Unsuccessful

• you will not have to pay our costs
•     We will usually arrange an insurance policy so that you do not have to pay any disbursements (medical report fees, court fees etc) incurred on your behalf. You will not have to pay for the insurance policy if you are unsuccessful.

You will therefore not have to pay anything if you lose your claim.

If your claim is successful you will usually be able to recover part or all of our costs and disbursements from your opponent.

You will pay out of your compensation

• any shortfall in costs that we are unable to recover from your opponent
• and disbursements that we are unable to recover from your opponent
• Our success fee
•     The premium for the insurance

we will however cap the amount you have to pay out of your compensation at a maximum of 25% of the compensation recovered. You will therefore receive a minimum of 75% of any compensation recovered in your claim.

We charge a success fee to reflect the risk we take when we make our fees conditional upon the success of your claim. The success fee we charge allows us to indicate to clients that we will not charge them for our work if they are unsuccessful with their claim.