Owain Reed, a 30-year-old web developer from Bristol, has received £16,000 in an out of court settlement after saying he suffered from years of agony.
His dentists’ failure to spot and treat decay and provide adequate root canal treatment will lead to the future loss of one tooth and repeat root canal treatments on a further two teeth, it is alleged.
Mr Reed also suffered episodes of pain and infection, due to unnecessary treatments, he claims.
Mr Reed visited two dentists based in Plymouth between 2011 and 2014 but says he received poor treatment from both.
“I was at university when I first went to see my dentist in January 2011,” Mr Reed said.
“I was experiencing toothache when eating so I made an appointment with the dentist. She said I needed root canal treatment, which she undertook in February. I thought that would be the end of it.”
However, Mr Reed says this wasn’t the case.
“I went back to the dentist for a check-up in 2013,” Mr Reed recalled.
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“This time I saw another dentist, who told me everything was fine. So again, I thought there was nothing to worry about.”
Then in June 2014 Mr Reed said he was suffering from toothache again, so he made another appointment with the second dentist who prescribed antibiotics.
Mr Reed said, “I remember thinking it was a little bit strange there was still something wrong with the tooth my original dentist had performed root canal treatment on, but you just trust what your dentist says.”
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Then Mr Reed’s dental health rapidly deteriorated and he suddenly started suffering from bouts of toothache, he said. They performed root canal treatment on another tooth in July 2014 but by December he claims he started suffering from particularly excruciating toothache again.
“I couldn’t eat properly,” Mr Reed said.
“I went back and was prescribed antibiotics, but they then performed root canal treatment on another tooth. The problems were never ending, but I just started to think I had bad teeth.”
The extent of Mr Reed’s problems only started to become clear when he saw a different dentist, he said.
“I moved to Bristol so saw a new dentist,” Mr Reed said.
“I was immediately told I needed another two fillings. The dentist also said my existing fillings were very poorly fitted. At this point I realised my never ending dental problems were simply down to bad treatment.”
He says analysis revealed his dentists had failed to diagnose and treat decay at one of his teeth and also failed to provide adequate root canal treatment at two of his teeth.
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Mr Reed had endured an avoidable root canal treatment, will avoidably lose one tooth and requires two repeated root canal treatments with a specialist, it is alleged.
“I still suffer from toothache now,” Mr Reed said.
“It’s exacerbated when I’m run down. The next thing is going to be having two more root canal treatments and my tooth extracted. I’ll need an implant to fill the gap, which putting the pain and hassle of having an implant aside is going to be expensive. And it’s all because my dentists weren’t doing their jobs properly. It’s ridiculous.”
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Georgina France of the Dental Law Partnership commented: “The distress and pain our client experienced was completely unnecessary. If the dentists had carried out adequate treatment in the first place, all his problems could have been avoided.”
The Dental Law Partnership took on Mr Reed’s case in 2016. The case was successfully settled in 2019 when the dentists paid £16,000 in an out of court settlement. The dentists did not admit liability.
