Toothache teacher seeks no win no fee claim
A woman made a successful no win no fee claim when she suffered serve pains after visiting a negligent dentist.
The incident took place in 2004, when the woman aged 27 and from Manchester, went to see her dentist.
She had complained of severe toothache in one of the molars in her upper jaw and spoke of the pain she suffered for several weeks, without seeing signs of improvement.
After inspecting her mouth, the dentist told the woman that the pain was likely to be due to her wisdom teeth coming through and that it would probably go away in time.
Unfortunately the pain did not subside and the woman, who was a newly-qualified teacher, had to take several days off work, causing her to miss an important training day.
On returning to work her first few weeks of teaching were severely affected by the toothache, which affected her for nearly a month before she went back to her dentist.
Troublesome tooth left unattended
He again told the woman that her tooth pain was related to her wisdom teeth and that nothing could be done.
After the appointment she decided to make another, this time with a different dentist in her area, so that she could get a second opinion on her toothache which was worsening and becoming increasingly unbearable.
When she was examined by her new dentist, he immediately picked up on a crack in the tooth that was causing her pain. As he investigated further, he found that a shard from the tooth had penetrated her gum and had caused some quite serious damage to the area.
Because the condition had been left untreated for several weeks, the dentist was unable to save her tooth and it was removed. After a course of antibiotics to stop an abscess which had begun to form, as well as some further dental work on the surrounding area, the woman felt much better.
Negligent dentist to blame
However, she felt that her original dentist had not treated her dental problem properly and decided to make a medical negligence claim against him. She wanted to get compensation for the money she had spent on additional dental treatment, as well as the weeks of suffering that she had endured because of the slow treatment.
She began searching for a company that could help her with making a claim and contacted a legal firm, after reviewing their no win no fee services.
The woman explained the grounds for her potential medical negligence claim and asked if the company would be able to help her. After assessing her case, personal injury lawyers from the firm agreed to take it on under a no win no fee agreement.
The mistake that was made by the dentist was quickly admitted following involvement by an expert legal team and seven months on, the young teacher was awarded with £1,800 in dental negligence compensation .
The woman was very pleased with the result of the no win no fee claim and said that she would recommend the service to anyone.
Updated on 09/12/2009