QUESTION
Can I sue my dentist for an abscess caused by a root canal that is a recurring problem??
Asked on Aug 15th, 2012 on Personal Injury - New Jersey
More details to this question:
In the fall/winter of 2010 I visited my dentist for a check up and I was informed I needed a root canal. They sent in a request to the insurance company who then referred me to a endodontist to have the procedure done. I had the procedure done and everything was fine. In February of 2011, on a normal Sunday morning, I woke up with excruciating tooth pain on the right side of my mouth where the procedure was done. I immediately went to my dentist as an emergency appointment. The dentist took an x-ray and prescribed me Vicodin for the pain. They told me the pain is probably from the root canal that I had that was not cleaned properly. And they said I should go back to the dentist who did the root canal to have it re-done. Since it was a Sunday, I went home to sleep and I figured I would call on Monday morning to make the appt. On Monday morning I woke up with the right side of my face swollen. It was so swollen I could not open my right eye. This was on top of the unbearable pain I was already in. I called the dentist cried and explained the situation. He told me to go to the emergency room as soon as possible. I left the house right away and went to the E.R. I was admitted immediately and they placed an I-V in me to give me steroids to make the swelling go down, and they gave me antibiotics and more pain meds. They said I had an abscess. The next day, the swelling had gone down. I called my dentist and they said to call the endodontist and have the root canal re-done. So I called the endodontist and booked my appointment. When I saw him, it was now March, he found it hard to believe that the abscess was caused by the root canal. He re-did the root canal anyway. During this period I was covered under state insurance since I was younger than 21. When I turned 21 in September of 2011, my insurance was cut off. Every few months I would experience some tooth pain on the same side of my mouth, but it usually only lasted for a few days and went away by itself.
1 ANSWER
Catastrophic Injury Attorney serving Roseland, NJ
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John J. Ratkowitz
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Filling of the root canal should be completed within a half millimeter of the root tip or apex. Short fills of 2 millimeters or more, predispose to bacterial contamination of the underfilled root canal with resulting abscess or chronic inflammation necessitating retreatment, surgical endodontics or extraction. Dental malpractice cases are difficult to prosecute for a malpractice attorney because they are usually not financially viable. Medical malpractice cases are very costly and time-consuming. Therefore, in most circumstances a patient must have suffered a significant permanent injury as a result of the medical negligence for the case to be financially viable. Often, damage caused by dental malpractice can be remedied with additional care. Further, lasting damage is usually not significant enough to warrant the time and expense of a lawsuit. There are exceptions to this (for example trigeminal nerve injury cases). If you are interested in investigating and pursuing a case, you should contact a local medical malpractice attorney (one in your state). They take these cases on a contingency basis which means you only have to pay if you succeed. Additionally, initial consultations are usually free.
Answered on Aug 19th, 2012 at 1:27 AM