Girl who had wrong tooth extracted after admin blunder awarded huge payout

10 comments

1. I’d hardly consider 20k a ‘huge’ payout to be honest

2. What is with this ‘reject all and pay’ under cookie selection?

3. But at least she got what she deserved in the end, and that’s the tooth.

4. > Courtney Monksfield, now 20, was left with a gaping hole in her gums after one dentist removed a perfectly healthy tooth under anesthetic in 2017, when she was just 13 years old

   I don’t like being reminded of the passage of time and the realisation that 2017 was 7 years ago.

5. As a dentist I absolutely HATE orthodontic extractions. This story is my biggest nightmare. The teeth to be extracted are always perfectly healthy teeth (as you need to have excellent dental health to meet the orthodontic criteria in the first place), almost always premolars (of which there are two in each quadrant that are almost exactly alike), and you are relying on the prescribing orthodontist to be absolutely certain they have marked the right tooth for XLA.

   Orthodontists in my area are extra cautious to make sure the tooth notation is provided (e.g. 14), as well as a written clarification (e.g. upper right first premolar), and a tooth chart to confirm. Despite that I always am paranoid and write it out again on the massive white board in my surgery, triple check it and have my nurse hold the referral in front of me before I apply forceps.

6. 20k sounds about right to be honest. I had an accident around that age where I lost a tooth.

   Between a crown and various treatments I now need braces because I need an implant on that site and before that can happen I need surgery to correct my jaws. This may not have been necessary had I kept my original tooth.

7. I not saying she didn’t deserve compensation but can understand why it went on so long.

   Teeth are no longer on the never event list, they were at one point but got taken off.

8. Except she didn’t have a “general anaesthetic” in a dental practice because that’s not been a thing for years

9. Whaaaat! My dentist pulled the wrong one out and then said “it was to make it easier for it to fall out by itself”. I’d take 20k for that.

10. My sister had the wrong tooth extracted, it set off a massive abscess. My sister couldn’t open her mouth. She kept going back to the dentist asking for help but they refused, in the end they told her if she came in again they would call the police. A&E told her to go to her dentist for help. In the end when her face was starting to go black the hospital finally decided to help. She had to go for specialist dental surgery halfway across the country. My mum asked the surgeon after if he saw things like that often and he said yes- in remote villages in India where he did charity work. I think she got about £7k but that was 20 years ago.