Patient receives a pay-out after dentist breaks his jaw

  Posted by: manpreet.boora      1st December 2017

A man has won £15,000 after botched dental surgery left him missing five teeth – and a broken jaw.
According to the Daily Mail, Clive Horsey, 58, was left in agony when the planned surgery to remove four teeth under general anaesthetic went wrong.
The dentist fractured his jaw trying to pull out a healthy, fifth tooth.
Mr Horsey from Radlett, Hertfordshire, has been left with permanent numbness and still struggles to eat certain foods after the shambolic procedure.
Mr Horsey arrived at Barnet Hospital, north London, for the procedure when doctors told him they would be taking the fifth tooth out, which concerned him.
He said: ‘My dentist said I needed to have my four teeth out.
‘I was apprehensive about the procedure but followed the dentist’s advice.
‘I presumed it would be a relatively routine procedure for the surgeon.
‘I’d been under the impression that I was just having four teeth out.
‘So I was slightly concerned to suddenly be told another tooth needed to be extracted, but trusted the surgeons knew what they were doing.’
He went through with the surgery, but when he woke up, he was told there had been ‘complications’ during the fifth tooth removal and his jaw had been fractured.
Mr Horsey added: ‘I woke up from surgery and was told I had a broken jaw.
‘I remember my heart just sank.
‘I didn’t know then what effect it was going to have on my life.’
After his x-rays were analysed, Mr Horsey discovered there had been no reason to have the fifth removed at all, and its ‘awkward’ position made the extraction procedure more complicated.
Since the fracture, Mr Horsey says he struggles to move his mouth properly and the numbness makes it difficult to eat certain foods.
He said: ‘I now suffer from numbness inside my left cheek, and my jaw constantly clicks.
‘I can’t open my mouth like I used to, which coupled with the clicking and numbness makes it difficult to eat certain foods.
‘It’s horrible, I am so angry.
‘If the surgeon hadn’t extracted this tooth he never would have fractured my jaw.
‘To think the tooth never even needed to be removed in the first place is soul destroying.
‘For months after the incident, I could barely open my mouth and was on a liquid diet.
‘I lost about two stone and I’ve been left with permanent numbness.’
Mr Horsey complained to the then Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust, now the Royal Free, but found them ‘unresponsive’.
The Dental Law Partnership took on his case in 2014, and it was successfully settled in September this year when the trust paid £15,000 in an out of court settlement.
The NHS Trust denied liability.
Daniel Kinnear of The Dental Law Partnership said: ‘The distress and injuries our client has experienced were completely unnecessary.
‘The surgeon should never have extracted this particular tooth, and had it been left alone Mr Horsey’s dental problems could have been avoided.’