A dental practice in the Bromley area

3. Mr E complains:

• after his hygienist appointment on 19 October 2022, his wisdom tooth cracked and exposed a hole • the Practice gave him incorrect information on 14 November when it said it could not remove the wisdom tooth as it was too close to the nerve. When Mr E returned to the Practice on 19 November, it said it could remove the tooth • the Practice caused facial nerve damage while removing his tooth on 19 November.

4. Mr E says he continues to have severe facial pain and headaches which he thinks were caused by the tooth removal. He says his ability to live a normal life has been affected as he cannot socialise with friends or spend quality time with his family, and he needs to work from home because of the pain he is in.

5. Mr E would like an apology and financial compensation of between £3,000 and £9,000 to pay for his ongoing treatment.

6. On 19 October 2022, Mr E attended the Practice for a routine check-up and hygiene appointment. He says the hygienist was quite forceful and his teeth were left feeling sensitive and some of them felt loose. The next day Mr E’s wisdom tooth cracked and left a deep hole. Within a few hours, Mr E started to experience pain in his face, jaw and ears and developed a headache.

7. Mr E says he experienced daily headaches and after four weeks he had ruled out all other possible causes, so he emailed the Practice to tell it his tooth had cracked because of the hygienist. He asked for an emergency appointment.

8. On 14 November, Mr E attended the Practice for an urgent appointment. The Practice took X-rays and told Mr E the nerve was too close to the tooth, and he would need to be referred to hospital for the tooth to be removed. Mr E returned to the Practice on 19 November for scans of his teeth and during this appointment, the dentist decided they would be able to remove the tooth and did it that day.

9. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (the law) says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable to in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mr E to understand his circumstances and the outcomes he wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed, but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

10. Clinical negligence is the failure to give good and appropriate care that causes harm to the patient. Mr E could make a clinical negligence claim against the Practice. He wants financial compensation of between £3,000 and £9,000 because he is unsure how much his ongoing treatment is going to cost.

11. Mr E told us he would not be able to afford to take legal action and when he looked at ‘no win, no fee’ solicitors, the success fee claimed by the solicitors was high. Mr E feels this would leave him with limited money to pay for private treatment.

12. Mr E also raised concerns about how long it takes to make a claim (on average12 to 24 months). He feels this is not reasonable given the circumstances of his traumatic experience and the pain he is in every day.

13. We understand Mr E’s concerns about legal fees and the time it takes to make a claim. After careful consideration, we cannot say it is not reasonable for Mr E to take legal action, or at least explore whether this is possible. For this reason, we cannot investigate his complaint.

14. As Mr E would like financial compensation to cover the costs of ongoing treatment, it is important to note that a court would be able to look at his ongoing medical treatment and award special damages to cover these costs, if his claim was successful. This is not something we can do.

15. A successful claim would be able to achieve financial compensation and an apology. If Mr E is not able to take legal action, or it does not achieve all the outcomes he is looking for, he can return to us.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Mr E’s complaint about a dental practice in the Bromley area (the Practice). We are sorry to hear about the events that led Mr E to bring his complaint to us. We understand he has been through a difficult experience and is still managing his ongoing facial pain and headaches.

2. We have decided not to take further action on the complaint because Mr E could take legal action to resolve the issues. This statement explains how we have reached this decision.