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Woman Compensated with $175,000 After Injury from Inexpert Dental Treatment

Case Overview
  • Our client attended her local dental treatment provider with an infection in the wisdom tooth area that required extraction.
  • After the operation she was not provided with adequate instructions because of which she fractured her tempo mandibular joint and retained roots of the previous tooth.
  • Our Accredited Specialists and Senior Associates, Jayne O’Sullivan settled $175,000 compensation for our client.

Our client attended her local dental treatment provider with an infection in the wisdom tooth area. The tooth required extraction; however, the woman was not provided with adequate postoperative instructions. Further, no referral was given for the woman to see a specialist prior to the procedure taking place. During the extraction of her wisdom tooth in the dentist’s rooms, she suffered a fractured tempo mandibular joint (TMJ) and retained roots of the extracted tooth. This led to the need for further dental treatment and has had a serious impact on this woman’s life.

 

The woman contacted Gerard Malouf & Partners to help her get justice. Our Senior Associates, Jayne O’Sullivan, immediately started working on our client’s case. An expert dental surgeon reviewed the case and strongly agreed that there had been a grave breach of a duty of care and that the fracture to the jaw was avoidable if appropriate treatment and a referral to a specialist had been attended. The matter of consent was also a breach of a duty of care and increased our expert’s support for the case.

 

Our client-first engaged Gerard Malouf and Partners in respect of a Workers Compensation claim. He had been unhappy with how his previous Solicitors had handled his Workers Compensation claim and was looking for a team who could handle his case with the care, diligence, and sensitivity to address complex matters. Our Solicitors went above and beyond to take his matter to Court and also refer his claim to our Superannuation department.

“Our client continues to experience pain at the jaw and has had to alter her diet to avoid discomfort. This ordeal also impacted our client’s mental health and social life.”


Jayne O'Sullivan
Our Approach

Jayne and her team also briefed a second dental surgeon and a craniomaxillofacial surgeon to assess the damage our client had sustained. Not only did these experts support that our client had been a victim of negligence, but she would now require extensive treatment to alleviate some of the issues she now had. Jayne organized for a psychiatric assessment to assess this aspect of the case, who supported that our client suffered chronic adjustment disorder with anxiety and a depressed mood.

All of the evidence supported that the dentist in question was negligent, breached their duty of care and caused harm to our client. Jayne and her team fought to ensure our client receives the recommended treatment to be able to live her normal lifestyle. The matter was settled for $175,000 in compensation. 

The Result

After an informal settlement conference, we were able to settled $175,000 compensation for our client.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that another in the same position would prudently exercise. The harm caused by negligence is considered to be due to carelessness, rather than a specific intent or determination to cause harm.

While negligence can include misconduct in a variety of circumstances, malpractice is reserved for professionals who fall grossly short of their obligations — and harm others in the process. As a result, malpractice is often called “professional negligence”. If a licensed professional (such as a doctor, lawyer, or accountant) fails to provide the accepted standard of care and subsequently causes harm to the plaintiff, this form of negligence may be known as malpractice.

Medical malpractice is specifically used in reference to medical workers who have committed acts of negligence.

Demonstrating that a doctor fell short of their duty of care can be a challenging process. While most doctors try their best to correctly diagnose conditions and provide timely medical treatment, they can’t always be right. In every state, protections are in place to shield practitioners from some litigation. These give practitioners peace of mind on the job and protect hospitals that are doing their best with limited resources. However, these laws also set the bar for receiving compensation incredibly high.

Overall, to win a favorable judgment, you must be able to prove Duty, Breach, and Damages.

If you have been injured or an existing condition has got worse following a medical procedure, or even just a visit to the doctor, then you may have been the victim of medical negligence and you may be eligible to make medical negligence claims against the professional who caused your injury.

If you can first show that you have suffered harm, and secondly, that a medical professional failed in their duty of care towards you then you may be entitled to compensation.

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About Us
Gerard Malouf & Partners have provided friendly, experienced legal advice to communities across Australia for over 35 years. Our Personal Injury Lawyers have taken on ten’s of thousands of cases and we are proud to have won billions of dollars for our clients.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.

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