Would we have a case against this dentist?
My mom has a lot of bad teeth and she knows that. She went to the dentist a while back, and they took some x-rays and told her to come back on Tuesday, May 4th to have 11 teeth extracted all at once. They said she has gum disease, and she did already have a tooth on the bottom front that had completely come out and a couple on the front were loose, as well. Then the dentist wanted my mom to come back on the 18th and have an impression made for a partial; and they said that the partial would take 3 weeks to get. So, beginning Tuesday May 4th, my mom took 7 days off from work for the healing of the extraction. She went there yesterday morning, and I went with her. They put her under the nitrous and extracted the following teeth: #1 and #2 (the last two top back teeth on the right side of the mouth), #15 and #16 (the last two top back teeth on the left side of the mouth), #18 (the second tooth from the back on the left bottom side), #21-26 (which are all of the 6 front bottom teeth that form a semi-circle around the front of the mouth) and #31 and #32 (they are the two back bottom teeth on the left side of the mouth).
My mom was awake and on the nitrous during this process. They sent her away telling her that she could drive herself back – she was not in a shape to drive back after having that many freaking teeth pulled. She left there with a bunch of pieces of gauze that the dentist had packed into all of the bleeding holes in her gums. Bleeding bad enough to soak the gauze within about 15 minutes. We made it home, she slept for a while after finally getting the bleeding somewhat under control at home by packing gauze into it. These very large clots began drying all in her mouth. She gagged on one, and it started her entire mouth pouring blood. She lost about 3 to 3.5 pints of blood from about 4pm or so that evening until about 9pm that night. It took the ER staff about two hours to get her bleeding under control using teabags and suction. Her blood pressure at the house when the firemen took before we left the house was 170/80. The same in the hospital for about half of a day.
Clearly, the dentist didn’t put any kind of stitches in those teeth. The ones bleeding the most were the back wisdom teeth that she couldn’t really get to in order to properly pack gauze. Plus, the teeth were pulled on the top and bottom back on both sides…making it impossible to keep gauze in one without it soaking immediately before she got gauze in the one above it. I called the dentist office. I said it was an emergency, they sent me to the dentists’ voicemail. I called again, they put me on hold because the "dentist was with a patient." Finally the dentist came on the phone, when it was bleeding badly and she played it off like it was "normal." I told her my mother had passed out for a couple of minutes due to blood loss and that I was going to drive her to the ER. The dentist replied, "How do you know it was from blood loss? Has she eaten or drank anything?" Mind you…a mouth pouring out blood with extracted teeth can’t eat or drink anything.
I drove mom to the ER. We spent 24 hours there, and I’m sure the bill will be thousands. Everyone was floored that the dentist didn’t give my mom any stitches. Mom is back home now…she has felt crappy all throughout her time that I was with her at the hospital. She feels exhausted, nauseous sometimes, has had high blood pressure (no previous issues with that), can only eat soft foods, etc. She just doesn’t feel good in general. They had to give her a lot of anti-nausea medicine in the hospital, fluids, etc. due to her blood loss.
I called the district manager and told her the situation, and that I expect them to pay these thousands of dollars worth of hospital bills all because they didn’t put stitches in my mom’s teeth to prevent the bleeding to begin with. If they refuse…will this be a decent grounds to sue them for malpractice? My mom said they made her sign a waiver about complications and such that could occur. However, this was a clear act of neglect when they didn’t put stitches in her gums after yanking out those 11 teeth in a pool of blood.
Plus, my mom said she heard the staff members say that it would take 6 weeks to get the partial, which the dentist had said would take 3. So that would mean my mom would have to wait (and also go to work) missing 11 teeth for 5 weeks. When one of the staff members made mention of the time difference, apparently another went, "Shhhhhhhh" as if to cover it up and my mom heard it.
After all of this drama…guess what. Today, when mom was almost out of the hospital, the patient coordinator called and asked how she was. They wanted her to come back tomorrow (the 6th) at 8:30 to examine her gums and "try to make her better." Apparently they wanted to review her gums (the gum disease supposedly that they said she had) with the periodontist. I’m expecting a call back from the district manager tomorrow after she has involved the Dental Direction (apparently the district manager’s boss). I’m more than ticked off about this…
CDA – She did not take any blood thinners or eat/drink anything that would thin the blood before or after the procedure. It was due to open wounds that were magically expected to heal in an environment packed with bacteria and saliva that will continually cause it to bleed. Every person that I’ve known, including my brother who had 4 wisdom teeth taken out at once time and also 1 tooth extracted at another time – received stitches for it. 11 is not an excuse. You work in the dental field and are apparently being biased.
Note also that all of the ER and hospital staff that knew of the incident details had one word to say about it – "WOW." That was in response to the fact that the dentist did not place a single stitch in her mouth, when they saw the wounds she had afterwards and the massive clots of blood. It was not an issue of the blood clotting. It was far too many bleeding extraction points at one time.
CDA is 100% right. You have no legal case at all. Your mother had a severe case of gum disease and tons of infection was present. In cases like this there will be much more post op bleeding than normal . This also allows for the infection to drain out. You even admitted that your mother wasn’t getting any gauze back in the areas of the wisdom back in the mouth. Without constant pressure over the sockets, clotting will not occur. I have been practicing dentistry for over 43 years and sutures are often not placed. And when they are they are to hold tissue in place if it was reflected away from the jaw bone. They are not placed to stop bleeding or prevent dry sockets. They do not often even meet as they gums cannot be pulled across a socket. And it is common for people to drive home after having nitrous oxide and multiple extractions.
May 12th, 2010 at 8:21 am
I suggest you find a lawyer that will take the case and charge ONLY is you win. Otherwise, the costs will be phenomenal. There may be one locally with experience suing dentists. Clearly this dentist is a bit uncaring and too casual for my liking. The paper Mom signed isn’t worth anything in my opinion. People always sue anyway and some win.
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May 12th, 2010 at 9:10 am
No, you have no case.
Stitches are not always placed, it is up to the dentist to decide if needed. I would say that more often they are NOT placed, no matter how many teeth are pulled. You cannot fault the doctor for not placing sutures, it is his/her decision how they choose to practice dentistry. It is not wrong. Yes, patients can drive after Nitrous, Yes, patients can drive after multiple extractions. Nothing wrong there either. You know your mom better than the dentist, if you did not think she was able to handle these things, you should have been with her. It sounds like your mother is in poor health from the start. The bleeding could be due to her own fault. If she took a lot of aspirin every day for tooth pain, that severely thins the blood and you will not clot quickly. There are a lot of things that thin the blood. Not clotting properly is also not the fault of the dentist. High blood pressure was not the dentist fault either. Her pressure was probably high due to your over dramatizing the situation. You have to wait that long for a partial to be made due to healing, the tissue continues to shrink and if you make the partial too soon it will be loose in no time and be ill fitting. Your mother had a lot of options in a case like this. Her work schedule is her business not the dentist, so her missing work is also not the fault of the dentist. She also had the option for a second opinion if she did not like the "treatment plan" that was in place. She had to have known the time factors before any tooth was ever pulled. You have to be responsible for your own decisions at some point, don’t you? No, you have no case what so ever. The dentist did absolutely nothing wrong, with this information you have given here.
PS…….Periodontal Disease can cause a lot of other unhealthy situations for people. If she had advanced perio, to the point of multiple extractions, your mother was NOT a healthy person besides just her teeth. read up on it. Periodontal disease left to fester, can lead to heart disease and a host of other issues.
PSS Did your brother have advanced periodontal disease ???? I am not being bias, I have a large amount of dental knowledge and tons of experience in this exact field. I sensed you were in desperate need of this knowledge, so I schooled you , or tried. I did not say that your mother was on blood thinners. There are many things that thin the blood. I am not talking about the day before the appointment, but her apirin taking, or vitamin E taking a long time before. But again, you cannot grasp this, all you see are dollar signs, rediculous. Again NO CASE. All the dental professionals here will tell you this. Be an adult and be responsible for your mistakes, like not taking care of health or teeth. Also, full mouth extractions are done all the time. It is common. Your mother was not healthy, causing her to end up in the ER. Someone from her family, should have overseen the treatment on her behalf if she herself did not realize she was not healthy enough to handle multiple extractions. Sutures are rarely placed and would not close what you are referring to as a wound. Educate yourself, please, this ignorance is exhausting. I will not return to this blog. ugh
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Actively, 30 yrs. in the dental field (clinical)
May 12th, 2010 at 9:44 am
CDA is 100% right. You have no legal case at all. Your mother had a severe case of gum disease and tons of infection was present. In cases like this there will be much more post op bleeding than normal . This also allows for the infection to drain out. You even admitted that your mother wasn’t getting any gauze back in the areas of the wisdom back in the mouth. Without constant pressure over the sockets, clotting will not occur. I have been practicing dentistry for over 43 years and sutures are often not placed. And when they are they are to hold tissue in place if it was reflected away from the jaw bone. They are not placed to stop bleeding or prevent dry sockets. They do not often even meet as they gums cannot be pulled across a socket. And it is common for people to drive home after having nitrous oxide and multiple extractions.
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A dentist
May 12th, 2010 at 10:32 am
You have no case! Your mother needs to ‘Own the Problem’ Like Grandpa Walleye said, "You can’t pull the gums across the socket". What are they going to stitch? She left the dental office with clots formed. There is always blood on the saliva. Top and bottom teeth are always pulled in the same appointment without stitches. She’s not the first person to have multiple teeth pulled – lots of people in this world have had more. Some people have all 16 uppers taken out. ER staff don’t know dentistry – that’s why they have dentists! Your mother just needed to keep the gauze over the extraction sites. She didn’t. It’s her fault! She had blood clots in her mouth because she didn’t hold the gauze in the right spot. Stop looking for someone else to blame!
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