Dental Negligence Claims

Dental Negligence Lawyers Dublin

As in cases of medical negligence a dentist is under a duty to provide you with dental care that is of a certain standard. Any diagnostic, planning or treatment decisions must be within the generally approved practices applicable to the condition requiring care.  In response to the symptom a dentist must not take steps that are outside the normal range of possible treatments in your case and they must not take undue risk in responding to your condition.

Considering the standard of care expected in this field and the expense of dental services, it’s not unreasonable to put your faith in the expertise and hands of a trusted medical professional.

Types of dental injuries

Dental negligence covers any type of injury that has been directly caused, made worse or overlooked by your dental health professional. If this has happened to you then you may be entitled to compensation.

Dental negligence claims can be made for any accident or oversight that has caused you to suffer physical injury, harmed your wellbeing or caused financial loss.

Common examples of dental negligence include:

• Delay or misdiagnosis – including oral cancer misdiagnosis
• Nerve injury
• Incorrect tooth extraction
• Cosmetic dentistry problems
• Restorative dentistry errors
• Periodontal disease misdiagnosis
• Poor standard of hygiene leading to infection
• Mistakes in treatment leading to the loss or damage of multiple teeth

How to Prove Dental Negligence?

A dentist is a legally recognised Medical Practitioner in Ireland. In order to establish if there is a case in Dental Negligence, it will be necessary to obtain all of your relevant dental records. These will need to be examined in consultation with you for the purposes of ascertaining what exactly went wrong and whether or not such actions/events constitute Dental Negligence, within the existing legal framework.

In order to prove that a dentist is negligent, it is necessary to establish that no reasonably competent practitioner in the relevant field, at the relevant time, with the same qualifications and expertise, faced with the same circumstances, would have acted in the same way. It needs to be established that but for the error on the part of the dentist the injury would not have occurred. If this cannot be proven, there is no case in Dental Negligence.