Dental malpractice case?

[Stinnie1222]

What is the name of your state? New York

I'm not sure if my parents should contact a lawyer for malpractice. It all starts with my father having a toothache. My father does not have good teeth to begin with, most of them were rotting. My father went to a dentist to have the toothache problem fixed and also ,when he was ready, have his teeth all pulled and get dentures. The toothache was fixed by pulling his tooth. About a week later he went back to get the rest of his teeth pulled in order to start the process of getting dentures. They took all the xrays and so on and eventually pulled all of the top teeth out. This started a major problem... His gums became infected and were bulding up with puss. The dentist put a drain in to drain everything out, but that didn't work. Come to find out after weeks of being in tremendous pain... my father was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the dentist put the cancer there... but should he have seen something in the xray? I'm not a doctor or a dentist but I do know that if someone has an absess (Sorry if spelled incorrectly) the dentist does not pull your teeth you must first get rid of the infection. Well to make a long story short my father had to have a maxillectomy. He had his face cut from his eyebrow down to his upper lip.... his top pallet of his mouth removed along with a fist sized portion removed from behind his nose. He Just had the surgery done exactly a week ago today. He now need a prothesis in his mouth to cover the hole of what is missing. This has all happened over the course of about 4 months. These whole 4 months my father has been in pain taking 4 percesets every 3 hours... he has lost 35 lbs. because he hasn't been able to eat all that much due to the pain. My question after this whole story is should my parents persue a lawsuit against the dentist ? If it shows in the xrays that there was something there before the dentist pulled the teeth, would there be a malpractice lawsuit? Please any information would be great.

 

[ecmst12]

The tooth pulling did not cause the cancer. In fact it may have even made it easier for the cancer to be found (who knows). Whether the cancer could have been seen on the x-ray or not, pulling the teeth I don't think could have had any effect on the progression of the cancer and also he would have lost those teeth because of the cancer anyway, even if they hadn't been pulled before the cancer was found. I don't see any sign of malpractice here. But I am a layperson, stand by for other opinions.

 

[ellencee]

What is the name of your state? New York

I'm not sure if my parents should contact a lawyer for malpractice. It all starts with my father having a toothache. My father does not have good teeth to begin with, most of them were rotting. My father went to a dentist to have the toothache problem fixed and also ,when he was ready, have his teeth all pulled and get dentures. The toothache was fixed by pulling his tooth. About a week later he went back to get the rest of his teeth pulled in order to start the process of getting dentures. They took all the xrays and so on and eventually pulled all of the top teeth out. This started a major problem... His gums became infected and were bulding up with puss. The dentist put a drain in to drain everything out, but that didn't work. Come to find out after weeks of being in tremendous pain... my father was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the dentist put the cancer there... but should he have seen something in the xray? I'm not a doctor or a dentist but I do know that if someone has an absess (Sorry if spelled incorrectly) the dentist does not pull your teeth you must first get rid of the infection. Well to make a long story short my father had to have a maxillectomy. He had his face cut from his eyebrow down to his upper lip.... his top pallet of his mouth removed along with a fist sized portion removed from behind his nose. He Just had the surgery done exactly a week ago today. He now need a prothesis in his mouth to cover the hole of what is missing. This has all happened over the course of about 4 months. These whole 4 months my father has been in pain taking 4 percesets every 3 hours... he has lost 35 lbs. because he hasn't been able to eat all that much due to the pain. My question after this whole story is should my parents persue a lawsuit against the dentist ? If it shows in the xrays that there was something there before the dentist pulled the teeth, would there be a malpractice lawsuit? Please any information would be great.

I know you are hurting. It's what you are supposed to do.

The cancer's presence was made known when your father sought treatment for what he thought he needed, that being to have his teeth pulled and get dentures. Cancer prevented healing of the gums, which made the cancer known.

Your father's oncologist (cancer doctor) and hospital have resources for families of cancer victims. My advice is to ask for the information or look through the discharge instructions for a listing of places and times and learn what you can do to help your father, your family, and yourself.

Best wishes,
EC

 

[barry1817]

What is the name of your state? New York

I'm not sure if my parents should contact a lawyer for malpractice. It all starts with my father having a toothache. My father does not have good teeth to begin with, most of them were rotting. My father went to a dentist to have the toothache problem fixed and also ,when he was ready, have his teeth all pulled and get dentures. The toothache was fixed by pulling his tooth. About a week later he went back to get the rest of his teeth pulled in order to start the process of getting dentures. They took all the xrays and so on and eventually pulled all of the top teeth out. This started a major problem... His gums became infected and were bulding up with puss. The dentist put a drain in to drain everything out, but that didn't work. Come to find out after weeks of being in tremendous pain... my father was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the dentist put the cancer there... but should he have seen something in the xray? I'm not a doctor or a dentist but I do know that if someone has an absess (Sorry if spelled incorrectly) the dentist does not pull your teeth you must first get rid of the infection. Well to make a long story short my father had to have a maxillectomy. He had his face cut from his eyebrow down to his upper lip.... his top pallet of his mouth removed along with a fist sized portion removed from behind his nose. He Just had the surgery done exactly a week ago today. He now need a prothesis in his mouth to cover the hole of what is missing. This has all happened over the course of about 4 months. These whole 4 months my father has been in pain taking 4 percesets every 3 hours... he has lost 35 lbs. because he hasn't been able to eat all that much due to the pain. My question after this whole story is should my parents persue a lawsuit against the dentist ? If it shows in the xrays that there was something there before the dentist pulled the teeth, would there be a malpractice lawsuit? Please any information would be great.

YOur comment about not extracting a tooth with an infection is not totally correct. Dentists often will extract an infected tooth in order to get rid of the problem and to allow the infection to drain.

If the dentist had immediately informed the patient as to the problem, I don't think that it would have made a difference in that the damage by the cancer, at the time he was initially seen.

I think that the only difference is that the oncologist and dentist would have worked more as a team from the onset.

Sorry for your Dad.

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[Stinnie1222]

I thank you all for your feedback! This is just a really hard situation to talk about. I didn't get into every single detail. This whole thing is very complicated. The dentist seemed like he didn't know what he was doing. He had no idea that my father had cancer in his gums. It wasn't until my father went to his regular doctor until he found out that he had cancer in his mouth. My father only had his top teeth removed but the dentist still wanted to go ahead and remove his bottom teeth also. This dentist belongs to a sort of "chain" dentist group. I feel that he had no concern for my father's well-being and that all he saw were dollar signs. I know that the dentist didn't make my father have cancer. My dad was a smoker and had bad teeth that I'm sure was the cause for the cancer. I just feel the dentist should have realized that there was something wrong. My parents aren't looking to get rich. I just wish that he would get compensated if the dentist messed up. My father had the infected tooth pulled about 2 weeks before he had the other top teeth removed. I feel the dentist shouldn't have touched his other teeth. He had problems with his gums after they pulled the 1st tooth. My parents even filled out for credit to pay for the dentures and the dental place took all the money from the account before the procedures were even done. They took over $3,000.00 out of the acount when the work that they did only added up to be about $1,500.00. That is why I feel they only care about the money.

 

[ecmst12]

Incompetant or not, the dentist is not a magician, he doesn't have x-ray vision and he can't do biopsies with the power of his mind. Cancer is not usually something you can SEE, especially to the point of distinguishing it from a simple infection with the naked eye. And even if he HAD felt something was wrong and referred your father to an oral surgeon or other specialist sooner, it likely would not have changed the outcome. If the dentist's actions didn't cause your father any harm that he would not have experienced otherwise, even if they were negligent/incompetant, you don't have all the components needed for a malpractice case.

 

[barry1817]

I thank you all for your feedback! This is just a really hard situation to talk about. I didn't get into every single detail. This whole thing is very complicated. The dentist seemed like he didn't know what he was doing. He had no idea that my father had cancer in his gums. It wasn't until my father went to his regular doctor until he found out that he had cancer in his mouth. My father only had his top teeth removed but the dentist still wanted to go ahead and remove his bottom teeth also. This dentist belongs to a sort of "chain" dentist group. I feel that he had no concern for my father's well-being and that all he saw were dollar signs. I know that the dentist didn't make my father have cancer. My dad was a smoker and had bad teeth that I'm sure was the cause for the cancer. I just feel the dentist should have realized that there was something wrong. My parents aren't looking to get rich. I just wish that he would get compensated if the dentist messed up. My father had the infected tooth pulled about 2 weeks before he had the other top teeth removed. I feel the dentist shouldn't have touched his other teeth. He had problems with his gums after they pulled the 1st tooth. My parents even filled out for credit to pay for the dentures and the dental place took all the money from the account before the procedures were even done. They took over $3,000.00 out of the acount when the work that they did only added up to be about $1,500.00. That is why I feel they only care about the money.

I am concerned about taking funds that are in excess of what you said is the amount that is billed. That runs into fraud statutes, and you will find that they might have a time limit to refund that when apprised of the mistake.

What was your financial arrangement as to payments? Some offices want payment in full before starting, and others have pay as you go.

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