Can A Dentist Be Sued For Medical Malpractice; Click Here To Find Out!

So I have been asked a few times about whether a dentist can be sued for medical malpractice. The answer is an astounding YES! In fact, it is estimated that one out of every seven medical malpractice cases are actually AGAINST dental professionals. Then the next question is well, what can they be sued for?

I understand that we might not always equate a dentist to what we normally think of as a common medical malpractice defendant. When we hear medical malpractice, we think about doctors—more specifically surgeons—who perform some kind of active procedure on a patient, such as an operation. We don’t typically see a dentist being sued, and even less think about malpractice.

So what kinds of actions could create medical malpractice liability? Generally, any kind of negligence of poor quality dental care performed by either the dentist or the dentist’s professional staff would constitute medical malpractice. Some obvious red flags are if injuries result in tooth loss, scarring, nerve damage, infections, fractured or broken jaws, or any other kind clear injuries to the mouth or other teeth.

More specifically, mistakes such as a failure to properly detect an oral disease, improper use of dental or surgical tools (including the use of anesthesia), failure to develop and follow a treatment plan, failing to respond to a complication, putting in defective or improper dental work (such as crowns, fillings, etc), and any kind of personal injury to the mouth, surrounding bone or tissue (i.e. broken jaw), or even any harm to the patient’s body caused during a dental visit.

The same, common medical malpractice causes I wrote about earlier last week still apply too. Misdiagnoses, improper medication and dosage, and even foreign object cases (where amalgam fillings made of mercury are left in a patient’s mouth).

Most importantly, the same rules still apply to dental medical malpractice as a regular lawsuit. This means that the statute of limitations to bring a claim is still only two and a half years! This means you really need to speak with a trained professional as soon as you think you or a loved one might be aggrieved.