Dental Negligence Claims
Dental negligence claims
If you've suffered an injury as a result of dental negligence, we can help. While the standard of dental care in Scotland is high, sometimes things can go wrong. As a result, patients can experience an injury or an outcome they didn't anticipate. We understand the impact such an injury can have had on your daily life, your confidence and your finances. Our solicitors will help you to claim compensation and move forward with your life.
L&M MediLaw is led by Elizabeth Rose an accredited, specialist medical negligence solicitor with years of experience in helping people who have experienced negligent care from medical professionals.
To discuss your dental negligence case with someone you can trust, call us today on 0141 471 3078 or complete our online contact form.
Dental care in Scotland
Oral health is very important whether as a child or an adult. Brushing your teeth at least twice a day and using interdental brushing is advised to keep your teeth and gums clean and healthy. Regular check-ups are recommended to ensure problems are treated early or before they arise.
Visiting the dentist can make some people anxious and a fear of the dentist is a very common phobia. However, putting off visits may make dental issues worse. Most dentists will work with their patients in overcoming their anxieties and advances have been made in this area to help make patients feel more at ease. For those whose phobia is very severe there are NHS sedation clinics.
Thankfully, dental care from dentists, orthodontists and dental hygienists, on the whole, is of a very high standard in Scotland. Nevertheless, sometimes things don’t go to plan and you may sustain an injury or outcome that you didn’t anticipate. If possible, in the first instance, attempts should be made to ask the dental professional ‘what went wrong’ and ask for an explanation of the treatment and its outcome. If you’re not satisfied with the dentist’s response or explanation, you may feel you need legal advice.
How can L&M MediLaw medical negligence solicitors help?
In these circumstances L&M MediLaw will listen to you and provide tailored advice. We will start with the three Ws – ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘why’.
- Who do you believe was responsible for your injury? Was it an individual or a team of people. Was it within a dental practice or was it dental treatment in a hospital (private hospital or NHS hospital)?
- What happened? What was the nature of the procedure? What was your injury? Did you sustain facial nerve damage, facial paralysis, a drug reaction? Did you feel you had to undergo additional and painful procedures unnecessarily?
- Why do you feel there has been potentially negligent treatment? Were pre-treatment health questionnaires ignored? Did you feel a diagnosis should have been reached sooner? Was there a failure to identify an oral infection? Was there a failure to obtain informed consent to a procedure? Was there a failure to refer you onto a more advanced practitioner such as a specialist, dental hospital or maxillofacial department?
Making a claim for dental negligence in Scotland - the L&M MediLaw Process
If L&M Medilaw assess your case as having reasonable prospects, we’ll open up a case and recover your dental records. Dental records don’t automatically follow you practice-to-practice like a GP surgery, so it’s helpful for you to confirm all dental practices that you have attended in recent years along with the name of your dentist.
We’ll then review these records and obtain a full factual statement from you with the view to obtaining a suitable, independent dental expert to comment on the actions of the dentist involved and the injury those actions may have caused. If this report is supportive, we’ll intimate a claim on the indemnifiers (the organisation responsible for meeting any claim) of the particular dentist.
Most dentists are required to arrange their own indemnity (similar to insurance). Consequently, if there’s more than one dentist involved, it’s fairly common to be dealing with multiple indemnifiers. After the indemnifiers conduct their own investigations into the actions of the dentist, it may be possible to enter into settlement negotiations.
Otherwise, we would provide advice on raising a court action and what that would involve. No matter what path your legal journey takes, you will be fully supported every step of the way.
Contact our dental negligence solicitors in Glasgow today
Everyone should receive the best dental care possible. When that doesn’t happen L&M MediLaw supports you with compassionate, professional legal services for dental negligence claims. We have offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh city centre and serve clients all across Scotland.
To discuss your circumstances with a lawyer you can trust, call us today on 0141 471 3078 or complete our online enquiry form and we will get back to you right away.