Dental Malpratice

If You Were Injured by a Dentist, Here is What You Need to Know

1. In New York State, the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit against a dentist, orthodontist, periodontist, or other oral healthcare professional is two and a half years (30 months) from the date of your injury. 

2. For dental malpractice to have occurred, the dentist must have failed to diagnose a dental condition, or failed to correctly treat a dental condition, thereby worsening the existing condition, or leading to a new injury. To prove a dental malpractice claim, a person must:

• Establish a dentist-patient relationship
• Show that the dental treatment provided was a departure from the accepted standards of medical care
• Show that the departure from the acceptable standards of medical care was a substantial factor in causing injury to the person or to worsening their existing condition

In order to show that you were treated with a sub-standard level of care, the medical details of your case must be reviewed by a dental expert. Our attorneys will hire a qualified dental expert to review the medical details of your case to determine whether or not malpractice did indeed occur. If dental malpractice did occur, we will help you file a lawsuit and get the monetary compensation you deserve for your physical injuries and emotional suffering.

3. Some common causes of medical malpractice are:

• Complications from a tooth extraction, root canal, crown or bridge work, or other dental procedure that was not properly done
• Not obtaining proper informed consent from the patient before a treatment, procedure or surgery
• Delaying treatment unnecessarily
• Failing to obtain a person’s medical history
  (this can result in unsafe drug interactions or illness-related complications that could have been avoided.)
• Errors involving anesthesia
• Failing to properly diagnose an oral condition, such as a lesion, infection, early-stage cancer, or gum disease
• Removing the wrong tooth