Over £48,000 obtained for nerve damage following surgery

Loveness Chihoyi, Trainee Legal Executive in Ashtons Medical Negligence team, has obtained over £48,000 for a woman who suffered with nerve damage following surgery on her wisdom teeth.

Mrs P was first referred to hospital by her dentist after he advised her to have her right lower wisdom tooth removed after it had been causing her pain for a few years.

After an x-ray, Mrs P was told that all four of her wisdom teeth were impacted, and therefore she should have all four removed. She explained that she only wanted the tooth she was experiencing pain with to be removed.

Her consultant informed her that in the future her left wisdom tooth would cause her as much pain and that it was a routine surgery of which they do 100 times a month. As a result, Mrs P agreed to have both lower teeth removed under general anaesthetic.

After the operation, Mrs P experienced numbness to the left side of her face and paralysis to the left side of her tongue and lip. It was only on her seventh post-operative appointment that she was referred to King’s College Hospital for a second opinion.

She was then diagnosed with permanent nerve damage. To this day, Mrs P continues to have numbness on the left side of her chin and lip, inside of her mouth and teeth. She also now suffers from severe pins and needles and pain on the left side of her tongue.

Loveness Chihoyi comments “This was a particularly unfortunate case as not only has Mrs P been left with permanent nerve damage, but she also knows that it could’ve been avoided had she only had the one tooth that was causing her pain removed. It is crucial in situations like these that medical professionals do not pressure patients into signing consent forms, but instead provide patients with the correct information about any risks or benefits of a procedure so that they can make an informed choice about their healthcare.”