Massachusetts, Hello, I am looking for some advice regarding possible dental malpractice. A few months ago, my wife went to a new dentist in a substantial amount of pain. They took an x-ray and claimed that the pain was due to her wisdom teeth needing to come out. They prescribed antibiotics and sent her home. The pain went away after the infection seemed to get better and we then scheduled the routine cleaning/first time appointment and to discuss the possibility of Wisdom teeth removal. They took another x-ray and besides the Wisdom teeth, did not notice anything else out of the ordinary. My wife had the two urgent wisdom teeth removed and they seemed to heal up fine. Three months later, she woke up in extreme pain around the same area that the wisdom teeth got pulled. The dentist that did the work was away on vacation and his admin suggested that we go elsewhere as an emergency. She sent us the three month old x-rays in preparation. We found another dentist in the area that was able to see her the next day. They took x-rays and immediately noticed that one of her rear teeth near the wisdom teeth area had a massive infection under it and the tooth was completely rotten. He compared both x-rays, the current one and the three month old one from the other dentist, and they looked virtually identical. The new dentist was not sure how the other dentist could have missed this as they looked very similar and he thinks that they pain may not have been from the Wisdom teeth at all. My wife ended up having to have an urgent 6000 implant and the tooth had to be completely removed. This may have been preventable if the other dentist had paid attention to the x-rays. It seems very obvious in both sets of x-rays that he really should have noticed this and because he did not, we ended up with a huge bill. This may have happened either way, but we could have possibly saved the tooth if he had caught it three months ago which is hard to believe that he did not. I am wondering if I have any legal ground to stand on.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!