Pulling The Wrong Tooth Is Dental Malpractice!

Dental Malpractice

You hear it all the time. Enamel of your teeth cannot be replaced. They make special toothpastes, mouthwashes, gels, strips, and other products which help to protect and preserve enamel. But as all the commercials say, you cannot re-build your enamel. Once it is gone, it is gone.

So what about your tooth? Same thing! When it is gone it is gone!

Natural teeth are very important and dentist are tried to minimally effect a tooth for treatment. This means drilling a cavity just enough to get rid of the decay and to preserve as much of the health tooth as possible.

So when a patient comes to in with mouth pain and the dentist decides to pull the tooth right away, that can be medical malpractice. A dentist needs to evaluate the tooth and the painful area with an x-ray and physical examination. This means looking visually and tapping, or palpating, each tooth in the affected area. The goal is to narrow down where the pain is coming from and what tooth or teeth are affected. Sometimes in the mouth there can be really serious radiating or referred pain. Thus, a thorough examination is required before tooth structure is removed—including the full tooth!

If a dentist fails to perform the proper examination before pulling the tooth, it can permanently damage a victim’s mouth. This is a very serious incident because there is no putting a pulled tooth back.

It also is dangerous because pulling a tooth can also result in other injuries such as dry socketing or nerve damage. The nerve damage can be so bad it can affect a victim’s entire side of the mouth, tongue, and lips.

Shouldn’t a dentist who pulls the wrong tooth, or improperly pulls a tooth that doesn’t cause pain, be liable for the damages? This is a TOOTH! A pulled tooth does not come back!