When patients think about medical procedures that have poor outcomes, they often think about surgical ones that happen in a hospital. The truth is that things can just as quickly go wrong in your dentist’s chair as well.
A 2015 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report showed that 15% of the 16,397 cases that came before judges in the U.S. in 2005 were medical malpractice ones. An estimated 5% of those involved dentists.
Patients file malpractice lawsuits against their dentists for some of the same reasons they do when suing their medical doctors.
They often do so because they fail to diagnose their condition or delay in doing so correctly. For example, suppose a dentist performs an oral exam and notices and treats one problem, yet misses another. In that case, the patient may end up suing their provider for the untreated concern that emerges down the road.
Patients may also sue their dentists for failing to provide them with adequate information about treatment options available to them and the risks associated with each.
Dentists are much like doctors in that their patients often sue them for poorly performing a procedure or if a treatment doesn’t produce specific results. It’s not uncommon for dental patients to claim that their dentist poorly performed an implant, crown, restoration or veneer procedure. If a root canal or some other situation results in nerve damage, then a patient may seek to hold their dentist liable for such negligence.
Patients may also hold dental product manufacturers accountable for their production of defective oral devices and or materials.
The onus falls on you as the injured party to produce evidence to prove liability in your Augusta case. You may find it beneficial to have an experienced medical malpractice attorney advocating for you if you’re hurting and simply want to recover compensation for some of the losses you suffered here in Georgia.