I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS MALPRACTICE. IS IT TOO LATE?

[ludano17]

In November I went to my dentist's group practice for a scheduled root canal. Towards the end of the procedure the dentist put cotton inside the upper part of my cheek, as they always do, to keep the area exposed and lips away from the area he was working on. My mouth was numb, but a felt a terrible burning sensation and tried to tell them. They kept saying "don't talk the post is in there". the pain was tolerable because my mouth was very numb. When they took the cotton out my mouth felt like the skin was irritated, but I was numb, paid the bill and left. Late that night I knew there was some type of chemical on the cotton so proceded to just rinse with salt water. A few days later my whole face was swollen so I called the office and they told me to come in. When I went in the dentist took pictures, the assistant nurse was shaking her head and said "oh god!" and he prescribed an antibiotic. He also said "I'm taking pictures to show Dr. Blum but yes there could have been some chemical on the tray that we use to kill the nerve in the tooth". I let it go and a few weeks later I was ok.

I returned after the New Year (because of insurance reasons I waited til January) and he kept stressing how I must have been "allergic to the cotton". It just made me so upset, because it was like he was trying to tell me I was allergic to cotton, and I know by the looks of the skin bubbling off in my mouth I wasn't. I have had cotton in my mouth 1,000 times with no problems. Now it hit me that he was trying to avoit a law suit because it was obviously much worse than that. I definately should have gone to the emergency room, but with three small kids, and the fact that I don't think that way (about legal action) I just walked around in pain with a swollen face for two weeks. It just irritates me that he talks to me as if I am dumb. I know for a fact it was not a cotton problem.

My question is this, Is there anything legal I can do about this now that I am healed and never went to the emergency room? Also I know pictures were taken but they are in the dentists possession and for all I know he probably threw them away! Please give me a little advise if it's even worth it.
I would not consider this if it was not for the fact the dentist keeps stressing that "you're allergic to cotton!"

[boynton35]

You need to talk with a lawyer who specializes in malpractice. The problem is that you never saw another dentist who could have testified about the true cause of your injury, so that it will be difficult to prove your case. But difficult is not the same as "impossible." You might be able to demonstrate, with the help of allergy testing, that you are not really allergic to cotton. By the way, the fact that he prescribed an antibiotic is also pretty good evidence that it was not an allergy. Antibiotics have no effect on allergies, so he probably knew all along that it wasn't an allergy.

In any event, since you recovered in a few weeks, you will not get a lot of money out of suing the dentist, which you probably realize. What you want more than anything, I think, is some satisfaction for the way you were (mis)treated. For that, you may want to consider reporting the dentist to the state board of dental licensing. The boards have different names in different states, so I can't give you a direct reference. But if you click on the Web page below, it will give you links to each state's board.

http://www.dentalwatch.org/org/boards.html

I hope this helps. Good luck!!